#tim: thank god if I get killed I can finally rest

[lustwithoutlore]

Stephanie, clearly upset: I just spent $30 at the grocery store and all I got was eggs, mayonnaise, fruit, and pop.

Tim: Oh so prices have gone down, that’s good.

Stephanie: …. I really hate you sometimes, Tim. Really hate you.

Tim: Isn’t $30 for all that cheap?

Stephanie, calling Jason: I need an immediate extraction I’m about to kill Tim.

Jason: … And you need the extraction, why?

[long-live-astronerd-ghost-king]

DPXDC prompt. Dead on main. Singer! Phantom x Red Hood!Jason

Laws are easily changed if businessmen smell money.

Paulina and Sam suggest Danny to try to become a singer in order to change society's opinion about ghosts a little. In the end, the otherworldly sound of his voice can at least be used for the benefit of Realms.

And it seems like the Everlasting Trio is really liked by the public. At first they just release a few songs (Exams kill, Battle with myself, What an Autopsy Won't Show, Among the stars). But a mysterious atmosphere mixed with understandable teenage problems begins to take over teens playlists. Their fans want more and more.

So, when under the pressure of the public and profit-hungry bigwigs all bans on the presence of ecto creatures in the United States are lifted, the Trio goes on their first Tour.

~~~~~

Jason stumbles upon Phantom's songs completely by accident. It was painful to hear them for the first time but at the same time it was as if he could breathe again because he had found someone similar. Someone who understands, and who doesn't judge him for coming back wrong. Jason listens to his voice on repeat and the rage seems to recede and subside. There is sadness of loss and fear in the songs but most of them end bringing some hope and this thought gives Red Hood more strength not to break down for another day. and then another, and another..And one day, the green eyes in the mirror do not scare Jason but shows him that he belonging to something more. Todd can't explain it more precisely, but it was as if the waters of Lazarus inside him had calmed down and he was no longer enemies with them. He even jokes with Tim that he is finally rest in peace and ready to live a full undead life when his brother (God, his lil brother whom he wanted to hurt recently because of his own stupidity), asks him about his strange behavior.

~~~~~

Jason forgets how to breathe again. His favorite band, and most importantly his favorite vocalist, is coming to Gotham with a concert. For many years now, none of the nonresidents have dared to take such a risk, but it seems like Phantom has absolutely no instinct for self-preservation. Well, as a true fan, Red Hood will do his best so that none of the gothamites spoil the Trio's impression of their first concert here. Danny is beside himself with excitement. Their concert in the hometown of the Red Hood was approved. Of course, there is no chance that he would be able to meet such a busy vigilante but Phantom continues to dream. If he'll fly a little over the city instead of sleeping after rehearsals, maybe he'll get an autograph from at least one member of the bat clan.

~~~~~ Phantom: Thank you very much Mr. Nightwing sir. Just sign it for.. Nightwing: For a Phantom, right? Huh, I recognized you, my brother has poster in his room. Nice hairstyle by the way. Danny*urgently*: Which one of them?

Nightwing: Jeez, and I thought it was just a stage image. Ghosts are kinda creepy. Terribly persistent, to be precise. And yeah, Jason, he absolutely not against you as a vigilante. You can safely ask Phantom to sign your helmet, I promise. Man was so happy when find out you're listening to his songs, you have no idea.

Jason *holds out a hand*. Nightwing: What? Jason: If you dared to meet Phantom before me, then where is my autograph? Nightwing: Em..oops? I gave him mine if it helps.

Jason: *sounds of an angry lazarus demon*.

[robintherobiner]

Thoughts, explanations, and all that shit i had while writing my latest oneshot

Stand up comedians do NOT make good kidnappers - Robin_The_Robiner - Batman - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own]

SO first up the name. Where did it come from? God knows. I started this fic like ages ago, wrote Steph's first section, and then promptly forgot about it for three months only to come back and scribble the rest out. I dont remember how i came up with the name, but i still think its hilarious so,,

Who is Cassowary? This universes Robin, duh! Since Damian was the first, i thought he'd go for a more intimidating bird. These birds have really sharp claws, and leave wounds similar to those of a blade. Huh. Who do we know who is really good with a sword? Exactly 😎

Writing Steph was hard because I don't know her very well, so I may have projected onto her a little bit (hence the excessive death jokes 😅). I hope it came across that Steph is a detective, like Bruce, but that she's doesn't lazer-focus on that stuff like him. Thats why she focuses on describing Junior at first, not the room she's in or the fact she's chained up. She knows these things, but she only brings them up when relevant. What good is wallowing over being chained up when you could be making fun of your kidnapper, huh?

I'm a bit worried that i didn't make it obvious enough that there is time between Steph's and Bruce's sections. Thats why when we finish Steph's third bit, she's shitting on Junior for dressing like the Joker, but then in the final bit, she's aware that it's Tim. The parts aren't happening at the same time, or right after the other. I hope that was obvious, but im not sure.

BRUCE'S BIT!!! I saw a post once saying that Bruce separates his personas very hard, and i really liked that. When he's talking about Batman, it's only referred to as Batman. When he's having more emotional thoughts, it's Bruce. And, of course, when he's dealing with Crystal (who i don't know very well so probably wasn't well written MY BAD YALL), he's Brucie. The guilt is in all of them, though. Fun stuff!

A big part of Stephanie and Bruce's relationship in canon is, from what i can tell, tense because of the way he treated her when he first met her. BUT in this fic, it's a bit lessened because Steph chalks his shittyness to the fact that he recently lost a son. Also, i think in canon a big part of why Bruce refused to get close to Steph was because of how she reminded him of Jason, which obviously isn't a problem in this universe. Bruce and Steph are still tense, but this time she has the eldest kid on her side pretty easily, cuz Damian feels guilt over Tim LOL

The death!! It's not overly explained, but I do have Tim's death all planned out and shit. It's a mix of the Joker Junior scene from Batman Beyond : Return of The Joker, and then also a little bit of canon. Instead of Bruce being out of Gotham, like in the film, it's that they have an argument. Similar to Jason and Garzonas situation, in how Bruce is angry at the thought of his partner killing, but more so using the Boomerang arc from canon (Tim wanting to kill his Dad's murderer)

Junior's mental state is wild. I'm not writing him with any particular mental illness, mostly because I'm not at all knowledgeable enough to portray something correctly. Instead I'm basing him off of Joker Junior's intro scene, and also me during some of my darkest moments! It's not Pit Rage (i don't lie how much the fandom pushes that onto Jason, similar to the Tim-Doesn't-Sleep idea in which it wasn't canon but then it got popular and was made so, i think) and instead just a extremely traumatised 17 year old!

The teaparty scene was put in there because I wanted Tim to have a hobby that he could share with his mom (because god knows everyone hates Janet because they mess up her character and only look at fanon) and that also can be used to show his mental state. Hence, collecting figurines, and playing with them! Yippee! Thanks to my pal Leo over on discord for suggesting this hobby!! (it was originally stuffed animals but I thought Batburger toys would work better)

Damian and Duke both were the first kids, instead of Dick and Barbara. Instead of Batgirl, we have Batkid, and then instead of Oracle, we have Signal. Damian is Shrike, because that is the most common hero name I see for him and I couldn't think of another. I may go back and change it to Nightwing, because I like the meaning of the name, but it would come from Superboy (Jon) instead of Superman in this universe, so maybe it comes later on? Not sure. need to think on that!!

Drake Manor was, in canon, only bought after Jack woke up from the coma. But, i decided to take the fandom route in which the Drakes always lived there, simply because timeline wise it works better for me. Also in canon, Jack doesn't need the wheelchair by the end, but for my fic, he's not out of the coma long enough for that. I also added a fun basement which defo doesn't exist in canon, so just turn a blind eye to that!

If you saw the original post, you'd know that Bruce was supposed to find Steph through a series of taunting clues. I changed my mind though, because I'm not good at clues, mysteries, or cases. So, a gift with the address is sort of dissapointing, but who cares?

Steph's feelings about Tim are sort of iffy. A really popular headcanon is that Jason was Tim's robin, and thats not true. I'm pretty sure Tim just,, didn't care about Jason? Idk exactly how he felt, but whatever. Steph doesn't hate Tim, in this fic, she just sort of hates how he was as Cassowary. Bruce is full of guilt and won't say a bad word about him, but has plenty of criticism for Steph, which leads to a sort of resentment. He was Cassowary though, so there is also some adoration in her heart. Basically, she switches how she feels about him depending on the situation.

Jack and Robin. In this universe, Jack doesn't know Tim is a superhero. Tim does still take a break, but it's to spend time with his dad after he awakens, not because he's threatened. Dana also (unfortunately) isn't around in this fic, so Jack has more time to spend with Tim. It's sort of a win-lose situation though. More time with Tim so they get closer, but without Dana to calm him, Jack's little bouts of fury are stronger (remember how he fucking ripped out a TV??) so their relationship is more strained, which is why Tim does go back to being Cassowary, just for a bit, before his dad dies.

Hints are sprinkled in Steph's bits that tell on Tim's identity. Not many, because I'm really bad at hints and subtlety, but there are a few. Mentions of shock burns (the electrocution duh), Zesti instead of tea (which is Tim's canon favourite drink, not coffee!!), and his wish that Steph stops being a hero.

Tims motivations are a reverse of Jasons canon ones. Jason forgives Bruce for not saving him, but is mad he wasn't avenged. Tim forgives Bruce for not avenging him, but is mad he wasn't saved. Aint that fun? Thats why instead of beating her up, Tim kidnaps Steph for three days to resemble the three weeks he was held captive before he died. Yippee, allegories! (i think that word isn't right, but i can't think of the right one??!! english is HARD)

WOW i had a lot of thoughts and explanations and shit for that oneshot, huh? 🤭

[kenphobia]

FOR EVERYTHING!

"Thank you, I really mean it."

summary. tim decided to throw you a birthday party! what could go wrong? (drabble / 1.1k wc / read end notes)

contents. slight tma spoilers for season 3, implied character death, romantic undertones, time-skip at the end, flerting with an a italicized e.

"C'mon!! Just a tiny bit of smile for me, please?"

"I am not going to do that, Tim."

The camera rolled and played, prettily set up just across you. Your roommate, Tim, sat beside you with a pleading smile and his hands clasped together.

It was your birthday today, and though you were planning to not reveal that fact to Tim, he found out when your older sibling came to your dorm for a quick visit. And after another shitty day with your college professor on your ass, Tim decided to pull out a little cupcake, some decorations and party hats, and he decided it was a birthday party.

He even baked the cupcake himself! Though, it doesn't look exactly .. edible but it looked like one enough.

"Are you really going to say no to a gorgeous face like this?" He fluttered his eyelashes, pouting and moved his face closer to you. A sudden warmth creeped up your face as you pushed his face away.

"Personal space, Personal—!"

"Aah, I'm sorry!"

You laughed, a giddy feeling emerged and bubbled in your chest. "Fine, see? I smiled, can we get this whole thing over now?" You flicked your hand towards the table. There were multiple paper plates scattered around, sitting and waiting on the table as if someone was gonna come to use them.

Tim shooked his hand and wagged his finger at you. "Nu-uh, don't think you can suddenly get away with a fake laugh?" He glared at you in a playful manner, a mischievous glint suddenly streaked through his dark eyes and he smiled widely. "I know something that can bring out actual laughter."

You furrowed your brows, glancing back and forth at his face and to his fingers, he wiggled them in preparation and as a warning for what was going to happen. You rose from your seat, stepping back as Tim got closer and closer.

As you were about to make a full-on sprint, Tim tackled you to the ground and attacked the sides of your stomach. He worked his fingers and tickled you, pulling a wheezing laugh right after another.

"T-Tim! I swear to— Haha, Fucking god, I'm going to—" You sucked in a breath, trying your hardest to pull your friend's hands off your sides. Unfortunately, Tim does more exercise than you so his grip tighten the more you resisted him.

"Kill me? I can't even lift my finger, mate!" Tim howled out a loud laughter. The plastic tie that was keeping his hair in place snapped and all of his brown curls fell his on his face, You immediately took the chance and squeezed his sides like an orange.

A shriek escaped his lips as Tim fumbled down to the floor, coughing up tears and strings of curse as you poke his side, squeezing the little baby fats on his stomach.

"Who's got the high ground now, Obi-wan!?" You crackled, barely dodging Tim's frailing arms. He even smacked your face but he was too busy trying to release himself out of your grip.

Tim huffed, resisting the urge to laugh at your petty revenge and your stupid little references, the every same ones he could only get and love the most. His face was flushed, a dizzying wave washed over as he lets an airy laugh out for once. "I give up, I give up! Let me— Aha! —go now please!"

"Apologize! Apologize, you tall bamboo!"

"I'm sorry, okay!? Let me go, please!"

Finally, you slipped your fingers off and allowed your body fall flat on the space next to Tim. You heaved, sucking the cool air as you tangled your fingers in his. All you felt was exhaustion and a jittery happiness that wouldn't let your heart steady for a rest.

You looked at him who seemed to be going through the same thing as you. He grinned, turning his head to face you. "Looks like little Mx. Smartass here has some bite to them, after all." He booped your nose.

You blew him a raspberry, returning the grin as you press your forehead against his. Tim moved your hand to his chest, you can feel his heartbeat pounding om his ribs as if his heart wanted to put itself right in your hands.

"Shut up, Tim." You merely said, moving your hand to his hair and ran your fingers through it. It was damp, slicked with sweat but you can smell that intoxicating smell of mint coming from his clothes and dark locks.

"But I did make you laugh, didn't I?" Tim looked at you with a goofy little glint in his eyes.

"You said you'd make me smile, not pin me down and torture me." You rolled your eyes playfully.

"Same thing." He shrugged as he moved closer to you, you can feel his laughter vibrating from his chest. You found yourself nearly dozing off to the rhythmic pattern of his heartbeat. "... Happy birthday though, (Name)."

Three words were only hanging off the tip of your tongue, ready to be blurted out and confessed, but the pits of your stomach resisted and you buried your face deep into his shoulder.

"Thanks, Tim. For everything."

"Anything for my best friend."

✦

The lights flickered ever-so-slightly as you feel the fog grow more and more heavy. You were sitting down, a camera left discarded and nearly tipping itself off the table. A cupcake sat in the middle of it all, a single candle sticking out of its strawberry pink frosting.

It's too perfect to be called yours. Too clean to be from him.

The cold clung your skin, biting and scratching at you. And though you couldn't breathe, you only felt a slight uncomfortable feeling. Did you care? no, but would you care? You aren't sure if such thing is still possible.

The fog had grown heavily, enveloping you in its arms like chains tying you down to your seat. The chair creaked as you leaned backwards, sucking in a breath that tastes more metallic and lonely than ever.

A high-pitched buzzing pierced through the still silence, it kept coming and coming closer to you. You feel a hand rest on your shoulder, it was light but firm. You can feel the person's callouses through your thick coat.

"What are you doing here?" You asked the stranger.

The stranger kept quiet, the buzzing only continued and got louder. Your chest felt heavier.

"I could ask the same, (Name). Why are you still here? He's gone, isn't he? That stoker boy." The stranger returned the question.

You don't respond, only furrowing your brows as your blank expression turned into a scrowl. You'd grip your coat but your fingers were too numb to even move.

"Tell me, (Name). What do you feel?"

"I feel..." You look down at your hands, moving it with the best as you could. Your toes had already stopped moving long ago, your legs has lost its purpose once you sat down on that chair.

The knots on your face, your brows and your frown, had simply faded and lost any sort of life in them as you watched the fog grasped the tiny candle in its hold and put out the flame, the very thing that had kept you grounded for so long, Your Tim.

"I feel absolutely nothing."

author's note. hurt-comfort? naur bestie, comfort-hurt >:)) but seriously, this is my first fic and i think the only character i really have a good grasp on is either tim or sasha.

but that's because both of them barely had much screentime (sasha mostly) and i can fit them into any mold i see them fit <33 might write a little headcanon thing for the entire scooby doo gang or whatever the tma fandom calls them. idk if this is will get a lot of notes like my wh fics, but at this point, i just like doing fanwork.

but yeah!!! any support is appreciated btw <33

[camels-pen]

got inspired by a fic i read the other day, but didn't quite hit the right spots for me so. time to write out a new wip idea

The concept of that fic really grabbed me - Jason and Tim having a bodyswap the same day Jason wakes up in his coffin, at a point after Tim had already visited Bruce and Alfred with his insistence that Batman needed a Robin - but for what I was thinking, by the time Jason convinces Bruce and Alfred of who he is, Tim's already started to dig himself out of the coffin. And when the three of them show up at the cemetery, the grave's empty.

Tim would be catatonic and go through much of the same stuff canon Jason went through before being found and dunked in the Pit. He'd end up enduring the whole League of Assassins shtick that canon Jason went through while at the same time Jason is dealing with Tim's regular person life. Both of them struggled a bit trying to imitate the other, but they managed- Tim with not much issue considering no one in the LoA was close to Jason, and Jason trying to manage Janet Drake's clearly growing concern every time he slips up.

Like, imagine Tim, desperately trying to imitate what he knows of Jason from watching Robin on the streets and seeing Jay in a few galas here and there. And one day, Talia tries to tell him he'd been quickly replaced to get him to finally listen and Kill Somebody/accept he was staying with the League until they deemed him fit to leave.

And Tim looks at a picture of himself, hanging around the front yard of Wayne Manor with Bruce, Alfred, and Dick. Another picture showing himself in an ill-fitting Robin uniform on a rooftop and seemingly getting lectured by Batman, who looms in front of him.

And he says "I'm not buyin' it."

Somehow convinces Talia that he's not convinced that the Tim in the photo (who is probably Jason and thank god, Tim was really worried about what happened to Jason's mind- or rather, his own body; he didn't actually consider Jason coming back to life until now) and she arranges a short trip for him to Gotham to see for himself.

Tim really struggles the next two days to keep up the Jason act, but he's pretty sure Talia and the others were just chalking it up to nerves at seeing his family again and the "newest addition".

When he finally gets to Gotham, he doesn't bother being stealthy. He doesn't have the skills- no matter how much Ra's and Talia's goons have been trying to beat it into him- and even if he did, he doubted he'd be able to sneak away from his own teachers that were stalking him from the shadows.

So he does his best to be casual. Walks straight towards Wayne Manor, and when he can actually start to hear his assassin stalkers the tiniest bit as he approaches the gate- a sign they're getting really restless- he decides now or never and bolts the rest of the way.

He thinks, if he had come sooner to Gotham, he would've tried fitting through the gaps in the bars- as if he was still 13 and small enough to fit- but as it is, Tim's spent 6 months in this body and he's not going to make that mistake.

Instead he slams a hand on the buzzer and says as fast as he can, "it's Tim! Tim Drake! There's assassins, open the gate!"

He has a heartstopping moment when nothing happens- when there's no answer and the ninjas are getting closer and closer and- And then it opens and Tim doesn't stop with his relief, he runs.

The door is opened not by Mr. Pennyworth, but by Bruce himself, a belt clipped around his waist, but entirely in sleepwear. He has something in his other hand and as he yells, "duck!" Tim can only think it's some kind of bomb and dives for the ground.

He was sort of right. It was a smoke bomb. He heard and smelled it hissing away behind him, and saw the cloud of smoke in his peripheral vision.

Bruce wasted no time running past him and barking, "Follow Alfred to the cave!" Tim took a moment to just breathe, feeling much more safe with Batman fighting to protect him. When Bruce looked back at him through a spot in the smoke, he yelled, "Go!"

Tim scrambled to obey, trying to run and stand and awkwardly doing both to get in the home. Mr. Pennyworth was just inside the foyer, out of sight of the windows, now that Tim noticed, and holding a shotgun.

He was also wearing a fluffy blue bathrobe and fuzzy pink bunny slippers.

Tim blinked. "Uhhh,"

"Come along, Master Tim. We must be quick."

He didn't protest and followed him down to the Cave, where Jason in Tim's body sat waiting at the Batcomputer.

Man, I'm not completely sure on the timing, but imagine Tim finally getting back into his body and it's- he's taller than he used to be, bulkier too. And there are reflexes and muscle memory stuff he doesn't remember at all, but now just has.

He- he was Robin. Or, his body at least, and he felt like it. But he never was Robin. Not really. He never got a proper outing, never even received Bruce's official approval for it.

It was strange. And not totally a good strange.

He thought about the body he had. He didn't have a lot of love for it- puberty would do that to anyone- but it was his. And that saying about not knowing what you have until you lose it? Yeah.

Tim felt like crying.

[laminy]

prompt: “someone joins a community theatre group.”

for @mccorky, thank you for the prompt.

“Can I be honest about something?”

Rami and Gwil both look at Joe. “You’ve never asked for permission before,” Gwil says, and Rami smiles.

“Okay, fair.” Joe glances around, and looks up at the stage, where the curtains are still drawn. “I don’t know which one he’s playing.”

"Which one what?” Rami asks.

“I know he’s Rosencrantz and/or Guildenstern,” Joe says. “But I don’t know which one.”

Gwil quickly opens his mouth to answer, but he stops himself. “Uh, well…hmm. Rami?”

Rami glances towards the stage, and then shrugs. “I don’t… Hamlet isn’t my strong suit.”

“Like, is he Gary Oldman or Tim Roth?” Joe asks.

“Who are they?” Gwil asks.

“And who plays who?” Rami asks.

“Okay, I don’t know that either,” Joe says. “But better question— does it actually matter? I think all their scenes are together.”

“Of course it matters,” Gwil says. “We should know.”

“Okay, so who’s who?” Joe asks.

“I don’t know,” Gwil says. The lights start to dim, and the audience quiets down, getting ready for the curtains to open. “But we’ll find out,” he finishes quickly, settling back down in his seat.

The curtains open and the play begins, and they have to wait until Act II, Scene II for Ben to come on stage. Rami, Joe, and Gwil all immediately grin and sit up straight, keeping their eyes on him.

“He looks good,” Rami whispers, and Gwil nods eagerly. Though it shouldn’t really be a surprise that Ben looks so handsome in a doublet. He’s a pretty handsome guy.

King Claudius and Queen Gertrude thank Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but they still leave the stage without them knowing which one is which. They show up a few more times, and Rami, Joe, and Gwil can’t keep their eyes off Ben, so happy that after years of him talking about Shakespeare, about the idea of maybe doing a play, he finally signed up for the Perth Drama Club.

And, of course, they’re still trying to figure out who the heck exactly Ben is playing.

It takes until Act IV, Scene III, when the other guy says “ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord,” and Ben walks on stage with Hamlet.

“Oh,” Joe says, nodding slowly. “Okay.”

“There we go,” Gwil murmurs.

When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are killed off-stage, they’re about to give up and leave in protest (not really, but even the drama club’s abridged version of Hamlet is too long). But they stick it out, and eagerly jump to their feet when the cast comes back out to bow.

“Whoo!” Joe hollers, and Rami and Gwil clap loudly.

The audience makes their way outside, and Rami takes out his mobile to check in with the babysitter, and Joe takes out his to see if Ben was playing Gary Oldman or Tim Roth.

Gwil quickly runs to the car and grabs some flowers he’d left in there, and the three of them wait outside for Ben.

“Well?” Rami asks.

“Tim Roth,” Joe says.

“I still don’t know who that is,” Gwil says.

“Neither do I,” Rami says, “I’m humouring him.”

After a few minutes, Ben comes out, changed out of his doublet into an old t-shirt, still sweaty from the costume and the stage lights, and he waves happily at them as he hurries over.

“You were so good!” Joe exclaims.

“You were brilliant,” Rami says, pulling Ben in for a quick hug. “It was so fun.”

“Thank you,” Ben says. “I can’t believe I’ve done it!” He wipes his forehead, and lets out a heavy breath. “God, I really can’t believe I’ve done it.”

“These are you for, love,” Gwil says, handing over his bouquet of flowers.

“Thank you,” Ben says, and he holds them up to his nose, taking a deep breath. “Those are lovely.”

“Do you have to go party with them now?” Rami asks. “The rest of the cast?”

“We decided against it,” Ben says, “since literally everyone said they needed a shower and— god, Hamlet is really long, isn’t it?”

“I wasn’t gonna say anything,” Joe says quietly.

“So, no,” Ben says. “We’re going home to relax tonight. We’re doing dinner on Sunday instead. How long’ve you got the sitter for?”

“We’ve got to pick them up now,” Rami says, and Joe groans loudly. “Stop it,” Rami says, smiling, playfully swatting Joe on the arm. “And then probably put them to bed.”

“It is late,” Ben says.

“But you were brilliant,” Rami says. “I want to celebrate it too, alright?”

“Tomorrow,” Ben says. “Promise.”

“You’re so cool,” Joe says, slinging his arm around Ben. “Did you know you were Guildenstern?”

Ben narrows his eyes at him. “Yes…”

“Just checking,” Joe says.

“Come on, love,” Gwil says. “We have to get you cleaned up.”

“Thank you both for coming,” Ben says. “It means a lot.”

“It was our pleasure,” Rami says.

“Of course we came,” Joe says. “Where else would we be?”

“Still,” Ben says. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Joe says. “Have a good night.”

“Say hi to the kids for us,” Ben says. He waves and grabs onto Gwil’s hand, tugging him in. “What did you think?” he asks. “Not bad?”

“I loved it, and I’m proud of you,” Gwil says.

“Yeah?”

Gwil nods eagerly. “Of course.”

“I know,” Ben says. “I still like to hear it.”

“Well, let’s go home, I can tell you some more.”

[recapcrew]

Week 32 Transcript

Video

Intro

Extra extra, read all about it! Welcome to the Empire’s Recap, and today we will be going over the chaos and drama of our (somewhat) respected rulers!

This week the boys are back in town with news of progress to their empires!

Jimmy

This week Tiny Tim is still stuck in his Tiny Tim ways.

The Sheriff is offended that the Hermits up and left Empires and uses his disappointment to confront Sausage about his black market sales.

Jimmy gives Sausage two options; jail time or build a vacation home in Tumble Town. Obviously, Sausage chooses to build a vacation home as he believes the only part of jail time he could handle is the handcuffs.

Thus, Sausage sparks an obsession in Jimmy with vacation homes taking over Tumble Town where all the Empire's rulers can kick back their feet and take a rest in his empire.

Before this obsession goes too far, Jimmy does have progress in other areas of town, and he can prove it with his new water wheel and highly decorated area around Oli’s new tent. Tumble Town is definitely better for it.

After the new buildings are shown to all of Tumble Town, Jimmy advertises the remaining vacation homes that are still up for rent. This brings hope of a kind, generous ruler taking up the opportunity to put money into the Tumble Town economy. However, Joel shows up.

Usually, the god brings trouble but this time Joel genuinely wants to be roomies with Jimmy. The Sheriff seems content with this arrangement and leaves the idea with Joel - we’ll see the results of this soon, but hopefully nothing unable to be sewn back together.

Joel

Our 11ft tall god has returned, and he's back with a bang! Not literally, though, thank god.

In order to build his latest addition to the megapalace, he needs materials, so he sets off on the usual grind, with some... "borrowing" from the now abandoned Hermitopia along the way.

He also checks in on Hermes, who has returned upon a hot air balloon, along with an interesting question.

[JOEL, READING SIGN] Also, can you tell me where babies come from, I hear I’ve got siblings!

[JOEL] Ooo, that’s awkward, isn’t it. Hermes, you’re a bit young still to know where babies come from. It involves Jimmy and… dancing. You’ll understand in the future when you’re older. I’ll explain it in more detail, you don’t have to worry about that now, ok? Alright.

[JOEL, TO CAMERA] Good, because I will do a terrible job at explaining that – ANYWAY!

[NARRATOR] Joel adds the first part of the central section of the megapalace donut, adding towers and other decorative bits. Even with this expansion, there’s still plenty of room to build up, and down.

[JOEL] If you are wanting to build in the sky, the main advice that I have – ouch – is don’t! Don’t build in the sky! It’s dumb! And stupid! You have to build so much more, it’s stupid, its annoying, its hard. Don’t do it! Hope that helps.

[NARRATOR] Finally, he heads off to an untouched mesa to find some gold ore, challenging himself to acquire an entire stack of it each episode. No problem for the gold-ly builder.

Katherine

Princess Katherine is back and as colorful as ever! Finally her castle is being decorated, and we begin by first taking a tour of the rooms.

[KATHERINE] Next we have this room with—

[KATHERINE, TRAILING OFF] …broken windows, what happened! What?

[KATHERINE, GASPING] I don’t even have windows back here!

[NARRATOR] Once that issue is fixed, she heads to her shulkers, as she has some looting to do.

Now that those are all clear, she heads over to- Who let a sheep in the nether. Never fear sheep, for you shall be rescued and named Glimmer!

Finally she can get her looting on, digging underneath the glass that preserves Hermitopia. It seems as though she's a bit late to the party, however there are a few sheep heads. Why would you kill such precious animals?

Her haul is semi-successful, getting some quartz and glass, and so she begins to finally decorate the castle!

Lizzie

This reporter is in with news from… Animalia? It’s more likely than you think!

New villagers have come from far away with knowledge that no animalians know. Magical tombs used to make powerful weapons and tools for their fellow critter friends.

[LIZZIE] Truthfully, I kidnapped some baby villagers, turned them into librarians, and sprinkled them with my magical empires dust.

[NARRATOR] …Well some people can still dream! These villagers are going to inhabit the magical district, the new Animalia district with a crimson color theme.

After trying to get crimson wood in the Nether, Lizzie decided it’s best to grow it in the overworld, not realizing quite how messy it could look.

[LIZZIE] Joel help!

[JOEL] Hello.

[LIZZIE] Ah! It’s an emergency! I need a hoe!

[BIRDS CHIRPING NOISE}

[JOEL] You need a hoe? Okay, here’s a hoe.

[LIZZIE] Oh, thank you!

[NARRATOR] After some divine help, everything is back to normal and Lizzie can finally build her district.

After sprucing it up, she decides to light up the district with some questionable methods. Lights hanging in the air, and homes furnished, Lizzie then claims one of the homes as hers and gives us a tour of her three bookshops, soon to be filled with stories of the viewer.

An impromptu Oli and Sausage visit later, Lizzie makes all of Critter City parkour-able, leading to the first interspecies meeting in Critter City. Maybe more meetings like this could happen now that the districts are connected…

Outro

And with that, join us next week for more chaos and shenanigans! Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing, and thanks to everyone helping with the project, check them all out below!

[a-reader-and-a-writer]

Perfect (Jason Todd Drabble)

Fandom: DC, Batman, Jason Todd, Red Hood, gn!reader

Word Count: 848

TW: Fluff, Insecurities, Reassurance, Nerves, Language, Pants Taken Off (No Funny Business)

Notes: Thank you to @lenaswritingandstuff for requesting “I swear it was an accident.” and “I’ve never felt this way before and I’m terrified to be honest.” with Jason Todd! 💖

“Jay, I’m so sorry! I swear it was an accident!” you say as you quickly lead him into the bathroom.

Your boyfriend tries to smile reassuringly at you, but it is marred by a slight wince of discomfort.  The second the two of you enter the bathroom and close the door, you are on your knees in front of him, fumbling with his belt. Jason tries to help but you swat his hands away. Finally, you get the buckle undone and you quickly slide off his slacks. He lets out a soft sigh of relief as you wince at his bright red thighs.

“Does it hurt too bad?” you ask as you stand and carry his pants over to the sink.

“Nah, trust me, I’ve survived worse than a bowl of hot soup in my lap,” Jason chuckles. You hand him a washcloth soaked in cold water and he carefully dabs at his legs.

“Again, I’m so sorry. Everyone was asking me questions all at the same time and I just got a little overwhelmed. I never even saw Alfred walking towards the table when I tried to stand up.” You start scrubbing at the stain on Jason’s pants. “God, I’m usually so much better than this! I mean, it’s not like this is the first time I’ve met a boyfriend’s family, but I’ve never felt this much pressure to make a good impression. And look how that turned out.” You throw the rag you are holding into the sink.

Jason smiles softly. “You have nothing to be scared of when it comes to my family. Just because Bruce owns most of the city, Dick is a decorated cop, Tim is a certified genius, and Damian knows three different ways to kill someone with a paper clip, it doesn’t make this any different from meeting anyone else’s family.”

“Yes, it is different. Not because of all that stuff, I’m not intimidated by their achievements or skills, or the fact they are the city’s premier team of vigilantes. I’m terrified because they’re your family.” You walk over to where he is sitting on the counter, legs spread wide, and you slide between them as your hands rest on his broad chest. “Jay, I’ve never felt this way before and I’m terrified to be honest. Terrified I’m going to do something and screw this up. Terrified you’ll come to your senses and realize you can do better than me. Terrified your family won’t like me and you’ll break up with me. And I just-”

“Baby,” Jason reaches out and cups your face in his hand. “First of all, if my family doesn’t like you, that’s not necessarily a negative in my book. I really don’t care what they think, I just know you’ve been wanting to meet them. Second of all, there is no one better than you. Ever. And third of all….. I’m just as terrified as you are. Maybe more.”

Your face scrunches in confusion. “You’re not scared of anything. Why would you be scared of this?”

“Apparently the same reasons you are,” he chuckles. “You are so smart, and kind, and perfect, I still can’t begin to figure out what you see in me. And I can’t help but worry that every new thing you learn about me might be the thing that finally scares you away.”

“So…” you say slowly. “I’m scared you’re going to leave because you’re too good for me. And you’re scared I’m going to leave because I’m too good for you…. Why don’t we just agree we are both perfect for each other and never leave?”

Jay smiles and rests his forehead on yours. “Now, that my brilliant girlfriend, is why I love you.” He places a finger under your chin and draws you in for a long, lingering kiss which you wholeheartedly return.

But your tender moment is quickly interrupted by a loud pounding on the door. “You two lovebirds better not be doing anything X-rated in there. Alfred just served up the main course.”

Jason sighs as he breaks off the kiss. “Fuck off, Dick. We’ll be out in a minute.”

You hear Dick snickering softly as he walks away. Giving Jason one more small peck on the cheek, you say, “I guess we should head back out.” You grab Jason’s pants off the counter and wince. “I think I got most of the stain off, but they’re still soaking wet. Do you want to run upstairs and grab another pair?”

“Nah, I’m done trying to impress them for one night.” He pulls on his tie so it now hangs loose and crooked. And as he jumps off the counter and heads towards the bathroom door in nothing but his underwear and dress shirt, he winks at you. “Besides, Bruce is the one who made Dick and me run around the city in those stupid Robin shorts for so long. I don’t think he has much of an argument on what is considered appropriate attire.” And with that, Jason throws open the door and walks proudly toward the dining room.

Tag List: @loverhymeswith, @edwardbaldwin, @sunshineflowerchild789, @blue-aconite, @happinessricardotapia

[ayamari-no-goshi]

To Join the Whispers (12)

AO3 

There’s artwork now!!

Jason’s ghost form by @elle-mrly: Line sketch and Colored version

Scenes from chapter 11 from @impyssadobsessions: 1 and 2

Fandoms: Danny Phantom (DP) / DC universe

Summary:  THIS   IS A CROSSOVER. A contact for the Batfamily passed along a rumor that  the League of  Assassins were investigating a small city called Amity  Park.The old man and Tim managed to find evidence of unusual  paranormal  activity in the town. While they weren’t entirely certain it  wasn’t  just infested with metas, the locals believed the entities that   haunted, for lack of a ��better word, the town were actual ghosts. If  there was one thing Ra’s al Ghul didn’t need to get his grubby hands on,  it was ghosts.That’s probably why Jason was doing this. He had the  unfortunate luck to experience both death and resurrection in a way he’d  never recommend to anyone else.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, and questionable mental health

Parings: none

Notes: originally uploaded to AO3. Cross-posted to tumblr. Jason Todd-centric

Jason’s head was pounding as he came to, and his arms felt like someone tied lead weights to them. Groaning slightly, he sat up and glanced around. He was back in the hotel room and on one of the beds. He didn’t remember going to bed. Was he just that tired? Or had he passed out? Judging by the fact his red vest was on the same chair as his mask, it was probably the latter. Great.

But what happened before that? His last memory was making sure Danny was safe… Shit! Was the kid okay?

Bolting upright, he ended up hissing in pain as his arm throbbed. A quick glance told him someone must have given him first aid as the place where the Fentons grazed him was bandaged. That must have been worse than he thought it was if it was still bothering him like that.

“I don’t think Batman wants you to get up yet.” Glancing over, he found Danny in his human form sitting on the other bed. His smile seemed forced, and he wouldn’t look up. “The others filled me in. Thanks for, uh, helping me and not hurting my parents.”

He nodded. “Are you okay? Whatever Plasmius hit you with…”

“It’s fine,” Danny cut him off as he rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s done the same thing before. Guess he just put more power behind it this time. But see,” he transformed into Phantom, “I’m all good. I have a few bruises, sure, but that’s a lot better than I normally get from fights.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Jason swung his legs over the edge of the bed to more comfortably face the teen. Everything hurt.

Danny shrunk back a little as he returned to his human form. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not fine.” He pushed his bangs back before bringing both of his hands to rest on his legs. “That shock triggered a freeze response, a traumatic response, in you. You were completely unresponsive. What if the G.I.W., or God forbid, your parents managed to do something similar?”

“But it wasn’t them. It was Vlad, and as fruit loop-y as he is, he’s not going to kill me.”

“Danny,” Jason sighed before continuing, “look… you know I got murdered as a teen. I thought with all the training I had I’d be able to get out of any situation, and even if I couldn’t, Batman would swoop in at the last second. I was a hero, and heroes always win.” He gripped his hands as he continued. “When you fight the same people again and again with the same result, you can start to forget how dangerous they really are.”

“I’ll fully admit I let myself fall into a trap, that I didn’t realize I got manipulated until it was too late. And in those final moments, I knew no one was coming. I knew I was going to die alone.” He glanced at Danny as he let himself have a small pause to make sure he kept his emotions under control. The kid’s eyes had widened, and his complexion paled. “So many of us get wrapped up in the chance to play hero that we forget the dangers. Even if we have a mentor, sometimes we still end up as cannon fodder for a crusade that was never ours.”

That was one of the reasons he couldn’t get rid of some of the resentment he had towards Bruce. Even after losing a Robin, he still took on and trained more kids for the role. No matter how talented, kids shouldn’t be on the front line. They shouldn’t be fighting criminals and risking their lives. And for some fucking reason, he couldn’t get Bruce to either acknowledge or understand it. But those were thoughts for later.

As an uneasy silence began to fall between them, there was a knock before the door opened to reveal Bruce, still in costume. They momentarily stared at each other before the others, led by Dick, brushed passed him and into the room. Although Damian elected to stay near the door, the others came over to poke and prod at him. No one seemed to be wearing the Deflectors as he wasn’t getting shocked, but it still didn’t mean he liked it.

Cussing, he ended up standing in an attempt to better fed them off. What was their deal anyways? He was fine, or at least he was pretty sure he was fine. Did something in his appearance change from whatever Vlad did to him? He better not have more white hair.

All thoughts and everyone else’s actions screeched to a halt when his arm accidentally went through Cass’ chest. He stared in dawning horror that he could feel the sensation of her heart beating and the motions of the lungs and surrounding muscle as she breathed. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. What was he supposed to do? He needed to remove it, but what if he accidentally damaged her heart or lungs? What if he got stuck? What would that do?

“Panicking will make it worse.” Danny’s voice was soft and sullen as he came over and gently touched his arm. Just like when the kid made them both invisible at Vlad’s mansion, he could feel Danny’s energy wash over the intangible limb. Seconds later, he had them safely separated. Cass tentatively checked the area for a moment before giving a reassuring smile. It didn’t make him feel better.

Bruce cleared his throat, getting everyone’s attention. He wanted to talk so that meant everyone needed to pick a spot and stop fussing. Danny frowned in confusion at the sudden change, so Jason gestured for him to have a seat.

Once that was settled, he decided to sit on the floor using the bed he woke up on as a back rest. Well, that was what he planned on doing. It was like it wasn’t even there as he fell backwards. He blinked a few times in confusion as he realized he was staring at the underside of the bed. He had fallen through it. What even was his life at this point? “I can’t wait ‘til this shit stops.”

“Are you okay?” Duke questioned as feminine laughter could be heard throughout the room. Sounded like Stephanie. Bruce must have set up communications.

“Oh yeah, I just love counting the ungodly number of dust bunnies under beds.” After pulling himself out from under the bed, he once again tried to lean against it. This time it worked. “Guess that’s how I got under there yesterday.” He glanced at Dick. “That means you’re off the hook, this time.”

“That’s happened to me more times than I can count,” Danny admitted while trying to suppress a smile. “It was really bad in the month following my accident, and me panicking every time didn’t help. I don’t have a clue how I managed hide all my slip ups from my parents or my classmates.”

“Anyways, what was that about?” Jason asked he eyed his siblings as he rubbed his chest. That weird, concentrated feeling of the Pit was still there. “Is something glowing again?”

“I knew you were dense, Todd, but this level of unawares is almost impressive.” Damian gave an arrogant smirk, impressed with his own insult.

Bruce frowned at the brat before focusing his attention on Jason. “What do you remember from last night?”

“Let’s see, Plasmius decided to play puppeteer in ballroom.” He glanced at Danny. “Did Glowstick tell you guys what he said?”

“Yeah,” Babs affirmed with an irritated huff. “We’re already working on how to upgrade our systems so that doesn’t happen again. We have one of the most, if not most, secure computers in the world, and a ghost can bypass everything just by possessing it. It’s frustrating.”

“It also paints the data Vlad had on various heroes and criminals in a new light,” Tim added as he typed on his wrist computer. “We thought he’d gathered that on his own. So, now we’re trying to see if there are any independent systems where he might have stored more information as well as prepping for any potential fallout.”

Jason nodded before giving a quick summary of the events after getting out of the ballroom and up to when he set Danny on the bed. When he mentioned the pod, he couldn’t repress a shiver. That thing was going to haunt his dreams for a while. “I don’t think there’s anything else. Am I missing something?”

“Did Plasmius tell you what he was trying to do to you?” Bruce pressed.

Jason could tell something the old man was hiding something, and it made him uneasy. “He was unhappy about my lack of ghostliness and thought I might have an incomplete or inactive core. He wanted to fix that.” He could still feel echoes of the burning pain across his skin from being submerged in Pit water again.

Danny seemed to wince on his behalf. “Well, on the bright side, Vlad didn’t try duplicating his own accident on you. That involved cola contamination, a blast to the face with a proto-portal, and ecto-acne.”

“What the fuck, Glowstick?” he asked after a moment of stunned silence.

The kid shrugged. “Ectoplasm can do a lot of weird things to normal people and objects. I already told you my parents managed to bring food to life with it on accident when they modified the microwave and oven. I think they finally learned not to use it on turkeys and chicken after the multiple times they’ve tried taking over the house, but my dad did somehow befriended the franken-wiennies. They’re now part of the home security.”

“You know, just when I think I can’t be surprised anymore…” Dick murmured while he ran his hands over his face. Tim nodded in agreement.

“I probably shouldn’t ask, but what did they do with the undead food? You didn’t eat them, did you?” It looked like Stephanie scooted closer to the screen as she waited for the answer.

“My parents did. Jazz and I ordered take out.”

Everyone, including Bruce, showed or vocalized some sort of disgust. But if Maddie and Jack really would eat stuff like that, then maybe they really did have some form of ectoplasmic contamination. Funny, he never would have thought food would be the potential cause.

“Back to the matter at hand,” Bruce eyes wept around the room before focusing on Jason, “you’re not aware of anything abnormal?”

“Did you forget I got stuck in a table? That’s pretty abnormal, if you ask me.”

Stephanie openly snickered. “Did he really? Oracle, you’ve got to show me the video of that!”

“Spoiler.”

“Alright, alright.” Some of Steph’s excitement vanished at Bruce’s admonishment. “I can watch it later.”

“B, I really don’t think he knows,” Tim stretched his arms as he spoke. “It’s probably best to show him the footage.”

Now on edge, Jason took the laptop Dick handed him while their siblings and Danny crowded around him. The screen was split between the four feeds from when they were fighting Plasmius. Babs must have hit play on her end as the recordings started. Everything seemed normal. So why…?

When Plasmius shocked Danny, that’s where things changed. The visual feed from his equipment went out while the other three momentarily glitched. When the three feeds corrected, he noticed he looked different. The red parts of his costume appeared blue, and his boots and knee pads looked off. At first, he thought it was part of the glitch, but no one else looked different.

He glanced down at his shirt. His symbol was definitely red, and he distinctly remembered when he looked at his vest earlier, it was also still red. A growing sense of dread filled the pit of his stomach as Babs changed it to just Cass’ feed when they were escaping.

In the dark, it almost appeared as if he was glowing faintly. It had to be from him carrying Danny, but as the feed was switched to Dick’s, he realized it was slightly different than the kid’s. He also noted the injury on his arm and how it wasn’t bleeding. Instead, it was oozing an unnatural green substance.

The feed once again changed to when Tim watched him put Danny on the bed. When he pulled down his hood, white hair with a black streak was now visible, and when the mask was removed, glowing green eyes could be briefly seen before the feed glitched again. When the distortion cleared, his unconscious form could be seen looking as normal as always.

No… No. No. NO! Fuck no! It couldn’t be. It was supposed to be temporary! Things were supposed to go back to normal.

This was Plasmius’ fault. He knew. He saw. That’s why he said he got something he wanted. That fucker did this to him.

The Pit churned uneasily in response to his inner turmoil. With a jolt, he realized why it felt more concentrated than before. That… that was his core. What did that mean? Did it replace his heart? No, he could still feel that pounding in his chest. That was one good thing, he guessed.

But what was this going to mean for him? Having unstable abilities made anyone a liability, but there was also Bruce to contend with. Things still weren’t great between them, and there was a very real possibility he could get blamed for crimes he had nothing to do with. While he knew he brought that lack of trust on himself, he was trying to stay on the lighter side of gray, but Bruce’s paranoia could get the better of him at times. Then there was the temptation it’d bring. He might have to leave Gotham for a long time, maybe even permanently.

Then there was the planning. They’d have to figure out what to do if someone else found out and gained control of him to hurt the others. Should he hide it from Roy and Kori? It’d probably be safer, but at the same time, if he didn’t and it was used against him to hurt them…

His world was falling apart. Wait, no, he was actually starting to fall through the floor. There was a flutter of confusion as someone grabbed the computer off him before at least two people hoisted him up by the arms. Breaking out of their grips, he found his siblings staring at him with concern or pity or amusement. He didn’t know at this point. He just needed to leave.

“I’m… I’m going to go smoke.” Not caring he was technically still in uniform, he brushed past Bruce, who didn’t try to stop him. He grabbed the jacket he knew had his cigarettes and headed towards the roof.

…

“Did the old man send you?” Jason questioned as he lit another cigarette. He’d already gone through five of them as he sat and tried to quiet his chaotic mind.

“No, I decided to come on my own.” Danny sounded like he was sitting on top of stairwell. “I think the others aren’t sure what to do.”

“That’d be a first.” Technically, that was a lie, but they were all pros at improvising until something worked in their favor.

Unlike their previous rooftop conversation, the silence wasn’t comforting. Maybe it was because, while he never openly voiced it, the kid was hoping for a similar outcome, even if it wasn’t what Jason wanted. It wasn’t like anyone else really understood his reality, save for Plasmius. Just thinking about that bastard made the Pit whisper, stirring thoughts of punishment and revenge. No, he wasn’t going down that road. Not right now anyways.

Eventually, he couldn’t deal with it anymore and put out his cigarette. “This isn’t going to go away, is it?”

“No, it won’t.” There was a hesitant pause before Danny quietly added. “And I know from experience trying to go back to normal turns out badly.”

“Of fucking course.” He stared up at the sky and sighed. “Just when things were finally getting better, karma or whatever decides to punch me in the gut. Wait…What?” Did Danny say what he thought he said? “You tried…?”

The teen didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he slid off the roof of the stairwell and sat next to him. “Yeah. I was brought up being told that ghosts are malicious and evil. That they’d do anything to hurt the living.” His gaze was distant. “My parents used to joke that if something ever happened to me or Jazz and we came back as ghosts, that they’d make sure to destroy us before we had a chance to hurt anyone. I think they thought it was comforting.”

“That’s pretty messed up.”

“I guess. It was just part of life growing up, but then the accident happened.” Danny momentarily gripped his jeans, probably due to the memory. “I was terrified. Suddenly, I had all these powers and no way to control them. I didn’t even know if I was still alive or just pretending to be. And according to my parents, I was supposed to be evil. I think some part of me took responsibility for the others ghosts just to prove I wasn’t evil.”

The kid leaned back and stared upwards. “Sam and Tucker were there when it happened. If… if it wasn’t for them, I might have gone crazy. There were times I even debated letting my parents know so they could fix me. Even though I’m pretty sure now they would have accepted me, the ‘what ifs’ stopped me. Hearing your parents talk about dissecting you isn’t exactly comforting. Besides, it’s just been easier to keep them in the dark.”

“My friends tried to do their best to get me to think positively about the situation. I mean, who doesn’t dream about being a superhero when they’re little at least once? But they didn’t understand how hard it was. Between trying to hide my powers and the sleepless nights trying to stop the ghosts coming from the Portal, I was struggling. I just wanted everything to go back to normal, and only worry about normal teenage things and work my butt off in school so I could get into NASA and become an astronaut…” He sighed before continuing. “My parents once invented something that could separate ectoplasm from almost anything. I tried that, but it didn’t go well. It split me into two incomplete bodies.”

When he grimaced at the mental image, Danny backtracked. “Oh! No, no, no! According to Sam and Tucker, we looked okay, but it wasn’t exactly a perfect split between human and ghost, and our personalities were all screwed up. My memories from that are really fuzzy so I can’t really explain it better, but I’m pretty sure the mostly human me rode a vacuum cleaner at one point. I should ask Tucker about that. If anyone has video of it, it’s him.”

“You know… I think something like that once happened to Big Blue…” Jason was pretty sure he’d previously read through files referencing a red and blue Superman. “But Bats and the others have dealt with alternative universes, so I’m not completely sure if that happened to ours or a different one.”

“Big blue?”

“Oh, Superman. You wouldn’t think it, but him and Bats are friends.”

Danny’s mouth dropped open as his eyes widened in shock. After a moment, he seemed to realize he was staring. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. Batman is a member of the Justice League, and you and the others have probably met a bunch of other heroes. I’ve always wanted to meet Martian Manhunter. I mean, he’s from Mars! How cool is that?”

Despite himself, Jason chuckled as Danny launched into an explanation of what fascinated him about space. It was nice to see some of the wariness he carried behind his eyes and smile momentarily melt away. He really had been forced into a situation he shouldn’t have been. Maybe he could hint to Bruce to introduce the kid to J’onn. Their abilities had some similarities after all.

Oh, that applied to him now too. Fuck. He was going to have to figure out how this whole thing worked. And knowing Bruce, he was going to do everything in his power to keep him in the manor until he wasn’t a danger to himself or the others due to an accidental slip up, especially with what happened earlier.

“Huh? Sorry, I got distracted.” He hadn’t realized he got lost in his thoughts until Danny waved a hand in front of his face.

“It’s cool. Things are probably really weird for you right now.” A troubled expression crossed his face. “I was talking about how things were at first and how I wanted to have things go back to normal… For a while, I tried to ignore everything. That backfired.”

“What do you mean?”

“For us, our human side gives extra energy to our cores, and if it’s not used, you might find yourself unintentionally sinking through furniture or having an invisible arm for hours. It sucks.” Danny raised his hand and formed a small crystal in it.

“That’s ice, right? Saw you use it against Plasmius.”

“Yep, but I can make more than ice.” He mischievously grinned as a snowball formed in his hand. “Catch!”

Jason barely had enough time to prevent it from hitting his face, but that didn’t stop some of the snow from getting in his hair or on his clothes. “At least I know who to bring with me the next time some decides I need to join a snowball fight.”

“Nice, right?” Danny’s smile faded again. “This is probably the power that gives me the most trouble. If I don’t use or practice with it a couple times a week, I risk freezing myself solid.”

“Are you telling me your powers could kill you?” This kid was going to turn more of his hair white. That was an extremely important bit of information to know.

“Maybe?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, I don’t really know if I can properly die or not. It’s not really something I’ve wanted to test. But, from talking to Frostbite and some of the other ghosts who have been around a while, it’s really only an issue for stronger ghosts with elemental cores. You don’t currently have one, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Don’t currently have one…” Jason repeated as he ran his hands over his face. “Glowstick, I can barely wrap my mind around having a normal one or whatever. I don’t need to think about it changing or whatever down the line right now.”

“You know, if you’re going to continue calling me that, I need to give you a nickname too, at least one better than Skunkhead.” Danny tapped his foot for a moment. “Hmm… maybe Antares or Naos.”

“What are you calling me?” He wasn’t familiar with either word, but neither sounded like an insult. He was going to have to remember to look those up later.

“Don’t worry about.” Danny stood and stretched his back. A few pops could be heard. Once he was done, he turned and grinned. “How about we go flying? It’ll help take your mind off things, and there’s nothing quite like it. What do you say?”

====

Notes:

Fun Danny did ride a vacuum around his room in Splitting Images. No clue why I remember that.

So, Superman Red and Superman Blue are a thing - same person split into 2. First appeared in a 'what if' type story in 1963 (Superman #162). The most famous version is from 1998 where it's a one shot. The 90s were a weird time in comics. Also don't know if this is still canon either. DC did say that all stories are relevant again, but might only exist as alternative memories...? Trying to figure this out gives me a headache, and I know it's just going to change again in a year or two.

Antares and Naos are the names of stars. Antares is a red star in Scorpio, and the name means 'opponent to Ares(Mars)'. Naos is a blue star that's part of the constellation Puppis which is one of three constellations that represent the ship Argo that was used by Jason and the Argonauts.

[robinofgothamcity]

♡ starting prompt: “Everything changed for me when I met her... My Beloved.”

♡ pairing: yandere! damian wayne (Robin) & fem reader

♡ lyric inspiration: “imagine me and you? I do. I think about day and night, it’s only right, to think about the girl you love and hold her tight. so happy together.” 

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes / in this AU everyone in the batfamily is a yandere and probably has a darling so yeah.

Gotham Academy, for the wealthy and elite one might say. you were one of the lucky ones who got accepted through their scholarship programs and busted your ass off to keep your grades up all years. 

you had very few friends considering most Academy students hardly interacted those who they deemed poor. one friend you did have though was the Wayne heir himself. Damian was one of the first to introduce himself to you when you first arrived to Gotham Academy and really remained your friend throughout the years. 

the fresh morning air blew in the wind, making you pull your jacket closer to you as you tried to find warmth in it. the jackets they provided for your uniform were extremely thin and hardly held in any kind of heat. 

“hey! I think the Wayne kid is looking for you!” you heard your friend, Reagan tell you, “he’s waiting for you at the central garden!” you gave him a smile, thanking him for letting you know before running to where Damian usually was in the morning. 

your mornings with Damian, when he would attend school, would start with him bringing you your favorite coffee and switching homework assignments. 

unlike Damian, you were usually better in courses that had to do with humanities, such as history and english courses and you lacked the smarts that Damian had with science and math courses so the two of you would swap homework first thing in the morning. 

“good morning Wayne,” you said, sitting down on the bench. he handed you his coffee, blowing it to make sure it wasn’t too hot, “good morning, beloved. how did you sleep?” he asked, making sure your eye bags weren’t too harsh. 

you shrugged, “I’m okay. just stressed because of midterms and all of that. how did you sleep?” you asked, taking a sip of coffee. “great considering we fell asleep on Facetime together,” he mentioned, “I did the ap calc homework that you can finally copy!” he added on. 

Damian handed you the calc homework as he watched you scribble down the answers. he noticed that you had painted your nails a new color and touched the polish with his finger, “baby blue? that’s new,” he murmured. you nodded happily, “I love this color on me. I even brought color with me in case it chipped throughout the day!” you exclaimed. 

you showed him the bottle and he grabbed it, “put it on me,” you were taken back by the request. you didn’t take Damian was the kind of guy to dabble in wearing polish but nevertheless complied and put the polish on it before grabbing his hand and blowing on it to make it dry quicker, “I didn’t know you wore nail polish!” you mentioned. 

Damian thought for a moment. 

“I don’t but that way people will know we’re matching,” he murmured as the warning bell rang off. 

you and Damian walked slowly to your first period class. the summer going into your Senior year, Damian made it a duty of his to make sure that the two of you shared the same classes. so without you knowing, he had Tim hack into the Gotham Academy school system and pull Damian onto the rosters where you were enrolled in. 

you found the similarities to be funny, however; some of the teachers wondered how the hell they put the two of you in every class together. some didn’t care considering you were able to keep Damian from saying smart shit to someone in class and others were just weirded out by the coincidence. 

“god, I hate this class. you know Matt who sits in front of the class? I have to swear some gross comment about how great my legs look in the uniform by him at least twice every day.” 

Damian’s eye twitched at what you had said, “does it bother you?” he asked, his fist clenched. you nodded annoyingly, “more than anything in the world. I can’t go one day without hearing the comments,” you groaned. 

the two of you got to class but as you walked in, you had saw that Matt wasn’t in class and sighed in relief. Damian had told you he was running off to the bathroom before class started and just to write down whatever he missed while he was gone. 

you sat down, immediately writing what was already on the board but as the class started, Damian still hadn’t shown up. you were beginning to think that maybe the coffee had upset his stomach but about half way through the class, Damian came and plopped down at his desk. 

“where were you? Jackson nearly had a fit because you were late!” you muttered to him. he shrugged, taking out his pen and notebook before leaning over to copy what you had on yours.

it took about another twenty minutes when another teacher ran into the class frantically, “Matthew Harrison was just found in the garden, unconscious and is barely hanging onto his life!” the teacher told your teacher, making all of you gasp in surprise, “call an ambulance!” 

you stared to Damian wide eyed, “my God, that’s insane! we were just there. I wonder who did it,” you told Damian, chewing your lip nervously, “I hope whoever did it doesn’t come for any of us.”

Damian could tell you were scared from the news and he quickly grabbed your hand, “I think you’re safe, beloved. you shouldn’t worry about it,” he assured you. you nodded, going back to writing down the notes, “hey, he finally got what he deserved for harassing you, right?” Damian mentioned. 

you laughed shaking your head, “I guess but I mean, I hope he doesn’t die or anything,” that was the last thing you said before the both of you got to working on the work the teacher assigned for the class while she was gone.

Damian could tell you were shaken by the news but at the end of the day, he did what he had to do. someone was harassing his beloved and he’d be damned if they got away with it. it took every ounce of self restriction to stop himself from actually killing the idiot but the beating he actually gave him did more than enough to satisfy him for the time being.

two broken legs, a broken nose, and making him go blind in one eye was more than enough. the great thing about Gotham Academy was that because of how old the building was, cameras weren’t installed anywhere outside and any cameras that were inside were just in the upgraded part of the school which happened to be the front of the school and the gym. 

the end of the day came as Damian had offered to take you home. you denied the request, telling him you wanted to walk to get some fresh air before you trapped yourself in your room for the rest of the night. 

Damian was hesitant on letting you but at the end of the day, you weren’t his...yet. he knew his feelings for you weren’t exactly normal. far from it, actually. 

when his feelings for you boiled over to damn near obsession, he confided in the one person he trusted the most and that was Dick. he practically confessed how he needed to be near or around you every day or else he would go insane. even if it was just seeing you from afar made his day a 100x better. 

Dick laughed at his brothers confession because he knew it was about time it happened to him. he had gone through the same feelings when he met his now wife and so did Bruce, Tim, Duke, and Jason. 

when Damian was finally confident enough to tell everyone else, they finally let him in on the family secret. these feelings were nothing to be afraid of. he should embrace them and hell, make his feelings get even ‘worse’. it was his job as your protector to feel that way and act on his instincts for you. 

Damian got home, seeing his father and brother watching the news. they were covering what happened at school and a part of him laughed seeing the coverage. 

“did you see what happened?” Dick asked his brother. Damian nodded, kicking off his shoes and laying on the other couch, “of course I did because I was the one who did it,” he said nonchalantly. 

Bruce and Dick stared at him, wide eyed and shocked, “the scum was messing with my beloved. he was making disgusting comments about her and degrading her in a way she and I didn’t like. the piece of shit deserved more than what he got,” he stated, not even bothering to look at them to see their reaction.

“so it’s best we don’t investigate this, I assume?” Bruce asked, “you would assume right,” Damian replied. 

Dick got off the couch and went on one knee to look at his brother, “Damian, you know the implications that comes with how you left him. you know that, right?” he stated. Damian stared at Dick with no fear in his eyes, “everything changed for me when I met her... my beloved. I would kill for her if I had too.” 

Bruce sat in his seat, proudly smirking at what his son said. Dick nodded, walking back to the couch as Damian stood up to go to his bedroom, “it’s only a matter of what before I make her mine so expect her to be around soon enough,” he told them.

+

a few weeks had passed since the incident with your classmate. since then, you had gotten clingier to Damian, not wanting to be at the end of the beating. Daimian had no issue in it, he was practically basking in the touches and side hugs you were giving him. 

you and Damian had decided to head back to his place after school to get some studying done. Friday nights were usually reserved to studying at your place but Damian had offered to make you dinner at his place and study before watching a few movies. 

you had never been over the Wayne manor before and frankly, you were kind of scared to run into his father. THE Bruce Wayne would most likely be in attendance and meeting the most powerful man in Gotham would probably scare anyone. 

Damian unlocked the gate, quickly taking your backpack as you snuggled into his jacket. you were immediately welcomed by his butler, Alfred who offered to put both of you bags in the hallway so no one would step over them. you thanked him profusely, making Damian mutter to you that that’s why he was here. to serve you. 

“so, what would you like to eat, beloved? I can make you anything you desire,” he boasted. you looked at the cookbook that was laid next to you and flipped through the first few pages, “this sounds nice,” you pointed to the plant based steak with veggies.

Damian quickly got to work, making the veggies first as he offered for you taste them every now and again. you would usually relay a kiss on his cheek as he finally got to cooking the steak. you couldn’t help but wonder how he got to be such a great cook, however; as he was finishing plating the food, you saw his father as well as you assumed were his brothers. 

“uh Damian?” you mentioned, pointing to the three men who walked in. Damian sighed knowing that of course his brothers were going to come and annoy him, “who’s your friend?” Dick asked, putting his chin on his hand. 

“this is ( your name ), my beloved,” he told them proudly. you were a bit taken back by the nickname he so easily used on you, “ahh, we’ve heard so much about you,” Tim continued, “she’s so pretty....she’s not like other girls,” Dick mocked. 

your face felt a burning sensation as Bruce told his sons to be quiet, “nice to meet you ( your name ),” Bruce introduced, “welcome to the family,” you barely caught what he said as Damian excused the two of you to go up to his bedroom. 

“your family is...nice,” you tried to say without sounding nervous. Damian rolled his eyes, “they’re bunch of idiots. that’s what they are,” he muttered, not bothering to look back at them. 

once you got to his room, your mouth dropped a bit. you had never seen such a luxurious bedroom before. satin sheets, the coldest pillows, his bedroom could probably house a family if he really wanted too and the fact that this was his bedroom, you were taken back. 

“wow, so this is how the rich and famous live?” you joked, sitting down on his bed. he shook his head, “all this means nothing to me...as long as you’re with me, I’d be the happiest person alive,” you stared at Damian, wondering if what he said was really true. 

the two of you ate, mostly in silence as you tried to take what Damian had said. there had been rumors floating around Gotham Academy that Damian might’ve liked you. you tried to dispel the rumors, claiming that someone like you was no where near Damian’s type but now that you were hearing the words he was telling you, you were more keen on acting on his feelings. 

after finishing dinner, he offered for you to join him on his bed to watch a movie. you had never actually gotten to hang out with Damian outside of school. since you were always so busy doing schoolwork and Damian always had things to take care of, as he put it, you two never relaxed together. 

the aura in the room was cozy as he offered you a very expensive looking blanket to cover you up from the chilly air coming from his window. the movie the two of you picked was some random rom-com, it felt kind of stupid to be watching this kind of movie with Damian but at some point, you stopped paying attention to the movie and looked up to him. 

“did you really mean what you said earlier?” you whispered to him. he gave you a confused look, “of course I did. would I ever lie to you?” he said back, kind of offended that you would even accuse him of lying. 

you sat back up on the bed and turned to fix yourself as you finally gave him a kiss. Damian’s eyes widened, not expecting you to do that to him. regardless, he immediately pulled you on top of him and deepened the kiss by pushing you up against him. 

Damian slid his hands in the back pocket of your skirt, finding it a bit confusing why the uniforms even had pockets on the skirts. he gripped your ass a bit, making you moan in surprise as Damian tried his hardest to contain himself but failing as he slipped his tongue into yours. 

the two of you remained kissing for what felt like hours. you knew your lips were bound get bruised from the amount of tugging Damian was doing but by the time you pulled away, you could see the faintest of blushes appearing on Damian’s brown skin. 

“wow, didn’t know you felt like that for me,” you muttered shyly. Damian chuckled, giving you a quick peck, “I have feelings you wouldn’t even begin to understand but one day....one day you will,” he replied. 

you didn’t pay no mind to his reply as he had brought you down for another kiss. what you didn’t catch was the smirk playing on his face. he knew that once graduation came, there would already be a ring on that left ring finger and soon enough, you’d be baring his heirs. 

the Wayne’s got what they wanted. it didn’t matter what they had to do to get it but what the Wayne’s wanted, they got. 

[whaleofatjme1920]

could you please do a scenario or fic on brian totally crushing on a shy runt of their group? like i feel like he’s be a little bit of an ass just teasing them whenever they’re all just laying around the temp house to get a reaction out of the poor girl possibly ending in nsfw. whichever length you vibe more with and is easier~ dont push yourself <3

Water Bottles and Intolerable Heat

[Hoodie/Brian Thomas X GN!Reader]

[Warnings: like, none?]

[AN: no NSFW, but it's plenty flirty. 988 words to be exact.]

Brian isn’t sure why he likes you, only that he does. He sees you and his heart begins to flutter alongside the butterflies in his stomach. You make him happy, and he’s not quite sure why.

It goes against everything he’s ever believed as a proxy - to not date those in his ranks or his fold. You’re technically a runt, replacing Kate who had been considered a middle child up until this point, and that’s not enough to keep him away. In fact, you draw him in ever stronger.

Perhaps it’s your shy nature. You fold at the smallest of grins. Can’t even make eye contact with him for more than a few minutes before you’re a heated mess, giggling and smiling like a school kid.

He likes toying with you when those moments happen. He knows it’ll make heat rise to your cheeks.

“Hold the gun like this,” he says, stepping beside you.

You glance upwards for a moment and immediately feel engulfed in his tall form. “Like this?” You readjust your hands.

Brian chuckles and shakes his head, honeyed laughter bubbling up from his throat. “No, like this,” he hums, his gloved hands reaching upwards to cup yours.

You almost drop the pistol you’re working with when he touches you, your eyes averting strongly when he smiles down at you. His touch is so warm and gentle as he repositions your hands, molding it so it feels like you’re a natural. “Oh, thank you,” you say as he finally removes his hands.

“Shoot.”

You pull the trigger.

Bull’s eye!

Brian teases you whenever he gets the chance. For instance, it’s hot as all hell in the temp hour, midsummer, and the air conditioning is out. Tim refuses to get it fixed today so all the windows are open and everyone is essentially hoping for the best with the passing breeze.

“Gods this is miserable,” Kate mumbles as she fans herself with a magazine.

“D-Ditto,” Toby mutters back, sprawled out on the couch like a cat, his legs resting on Kate’s lap.

“We’ll get it fixed tomorrow,” Tim says with a small groan as he rummages through the fridge for something cold before finally settling on some iced water. Anyone want a bottle-”

A chorus of ‘yes’ reverberated throughout the room, making Tim chuckle under his breath.

“Toby,” he calls out before tossing a bottle to Toby’s waiting hand. “This one’s for Kate,” he continues, hurling over another bottle to Toby’s once again waiting hand.

Toby palms the icy bottle like liquid gold before handing it over to Kate, the both of them relaxing in the cool touch from the plastic bottles.

“Hood?”

“I’ll come get it,” Brian says as he stretches from his seat, his midriff peeking out from his shirt. He passes by you, his fingers lightly tracing the arm of your chair. “You want me to get you one too?” He asks with a small purr.

Heat rises to your cheeks at an instant. “That would be nice, thank you,” you manage to answer.

Toby glances over at you from where he lays on the couch before looking at Kate, who flashes him a knowing grin.

Brian smiles and then heads over to the fridge where he’s tossed two bottled waters from Tim. “And you’re sure we can’t call some guy out this evening?” He inquires as he begins his way back to you.

“The state of this house is atrocious, we clean first, then call some guy up,” Tim deadpans as he closes the fridge before twisting off the cap of his water bottle. He takes a long, languid sip before taking a seat in the living room.

Brian rolls his eyes with a soft giggle before finding himself at your side. “For you, darlin’,” he hums.

You take the bottle as your heart races in your chest. Did he really call you that? “Thank you,” you squeak as you finally take the bottle.

“No problem,” Brian grins. He looks over his shoulder to see Tim’s taken his original spot, a knowing smirk on his lips. Whatever. “Gonna join you over here,” he notes as he briefly heads back to the kitchen, picking one of the chairs up like it weighs nothing and setting it down beside you.

“How nice of you to join her,” Kate teasingly says, her eyes sparkling for a moment with mischief.

“Tim took my spot,” Brian replies as he sits down, lightly slouching in the chair and twisting off the cap of his water bottle.

“Y-You also j-j-just like b-being near t-them,” Toby quips, briefly moving his head up to look over at the two of you.

Brian’s lips pull upwards at the corners as his teammates add in their commentary as he rests his elbows on the arm of your chair. ‘Can you believe them? How right they are?’ He starts in what’s lovingly referred to as ‘headtalk’.

Your eyes glance over. ‘Hm?’

‘That I want to be next to you,’ he says dreamily, head tilting towards you. His hazel eyes longingly look over at you, a smirk shining on his lips. ‘You’re just so irresistible,’ he continues, watching as you grow warmer and warmer. ‘Probably raised the temperature-’

“Oh my gods, you’re gonna kill them,” Tim loudly laughs, throwing a pillow over at Brian who deflects it.

“Yeah, ease up, Casanova,” Kate giggles.

Toby points over at Kate and Tim, nonverbally saying that he agrees with them.

Brian fully looks at you. You look like you’re walking in a dream, head floating and body about to levitate. “Gonna kill them for saying the truth?” He knowingly directs towards you.

You puff your cheeks out for a moment, quickly unscrewing the cap of your water bottle, breaking its seal and gulping the cold liquid down. “Had to cool down because you’re too hot,” you mumble bashfully under your breath.

Brian’s eyes widen, a blush blooming on his cheeks.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into The Unknown, Part 1

... I have no self-control do not perceive me

Marinette stared at the pile of bright red, yellow, and green clothes on the ground. It was all she’d done in the five-ish minutes since she’d portaled onto the scene. Just… stared.

It wasn’t like there was much else to do, anyways. Red Robin was currently beating the absolute fuck out of the person that had the audacity to disintegrate his brother right in front of him. It wasn’t like she could even fix it because the witch had been out cold before she had been able to pull Red Robin off to get a hit in so she could use her lucky charm.

So, she stared.

It was weird. She could almost feel a person inside the clothes but… maybe that was the residue or the ashes or whatever gets left behind when you zap a person out of existence? She didn’t really want to check, to be honest. Gross.

Eventually, though, she hesitantly leaned down and brushed her hand over it, trying to find the energy and get rid of it because it was really uncomfortable --.

… oh hell no that pile of clothes did not just fucking giggle at her.

She narrowed her eyes and carefully lifted up the bottom of the shirt, only to yelp and fall back. She scrabbled on the gross Gotham alley ground until her back hit Red Robin’s arm and he was forced to pause or risk hitting a meta (which would not have been good for his health).

“What?” He hissed.

She swallowed thickly. “That’s a child.”

“... what?” Red asked, all the anger bleeding from his tone in his confusion.

“We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby,” she whispered… then, it sunk in more. “We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby.”

He straightened on top of the thing that was really more bloody pulp than person at this point. “What do you mean ‘we let Batman’s kid turn into a baby’?”

But she didn’t really get a chance to answer because the baby chose that exact moment to be sick of being suffocated under all the armor and pushed it off.

Red Robin gulped. Because, yep, that was Robin as a baby. Batman was going to kill them.

Except he wasn’t going to kill them. Because Batman doesn't kill. No, Batman would find something even worse and that would suck.

The baby -- Robin? Should she still call him that mentally? -- giggled at their pain. Like an asshole.

They were so fucked.

~

He’d let B’s favorite kid get turned into a baby. Was there a way to get unadopted? Because if there was it was totally going to happen. Or maybe his dad would just cut him off because he was 19 now and could just get kicked out.

No. Nope! Not going to happen. No. He could fix this.

“Okay. Okay okay okay. We need a plan,” he heard himself saying.

Ladybug scoffed. “We? I was barely even here, this is on you.”

“Leave me alone to deal with this and I swear to god I will tell B that you did it.”

She paled. “You wouldn’t. No way.”

“Yes way. So, help me think of something.”

The baby giggled and started crawling over and both of them averted their eyes because, unfortunately, the child did not get baby clothes to go with his random transformation. Baby Damian didn't seem to care as he reached them and started climbing on Ladybug since she was closest. At least it wasn’t him. He did not want to see his adoptive brother’s… ew.

Ladybug made a gagging sound and then quickly summoned a lucky charm. She kept her face turned away as much as her neck would physically allow as she fumbled her way through swaddling the child in a polka-dotted blanket.

And then her shoulders slumped a little. “Great. Great. This is… great,” she muttered, picking up the bundle o’ baby.

He let himself look down now that it was safe.

“Alright, we need to go to another dimension where time moves faster,” Ladybug said after a few seconds. “And then we wait for him to age… fifteen-ish years. Best way to not make Batman notice.”

“... what about us? We also age.”

“Huh…? Oh. Right. You’re human.” She pulled off the glasses she was wearing and blinked a few times before handing it over. “Congrats on your upgrade. The tiny horse god is named Kaalki. She likes cake.”

“The tiny --?” He let out the world’s manliest screech as his eyes landed on the floating bug horse hybrid thing holy shit no no no no no the sci fi movies didn’t prepare him for this shit.

Kaalki looked a little offended but then her eyes landed on the baby and she gasped. “Aw, baby humans are always so cute.”

“Great, Kaalki, you take it,” said Ladybug.

Kaalki did try, to her credit. It just so happened that the approximately one-year-old baby was a lot bigger than the… whatever she was. Tim was refusing to believe that this was a god. Too many implications. He already had something to have a breakdown over, he didn’t need another thing right now, thank you very much.

Tim rested his head in his hands but he had more things to worry about than the blood that he was accidentally streaking through his hair.

“Okay. Okay. We can go to another dimension and try and raise him. Maybe we can make it have a ratio of one month here for every year there so any differences could be blamed on that.”

“Ya!” Said baby Damian. He probably didn’t actually know what was going on but he sure seemed excited so that was cool.

Ladybug sighed and nodded. “Great. You get food and money and clothes and I’ll take this lady to the cops… and I guess I’ll watch the kid until you get back because your dad cannot know.”

They shook on it.

~

This may be the dumbest idea that she’d ever had, and that was saying something. She didn’t know if she could trust Red Robin on this one, they hardly ever worked together. What if he just left her alone with this kid and let her try and figure this out on her own?

No. He wouldn’t do that. He was the last person known to be with Robin. Robin going missing would be bad for him, too. And, besides, she was pretty sure that he was a duty-driven person based on what she’d heard, she just had to hope that he saw this as his duty, too.

She turned the baby in her arms to get more comfortable as she waited for him to (hopefully) come back.

Part of her wanted to try and find someone from this world to reverse this but she didn’t know any outside of her, Adrien, Alix, and (now) Red Robin. Not on a personal level. Not enough that she knew for sure that they wouldn’t blab to Batman about it.

So, no, this is what she was doing.

But she had things to do. So, she pulled out her yoyo-phone-hybrid-thingy and wedged it against her ear.

“Chaton,” she said the moment he picked up. “You’re alone, right?”

“Uh… yeah?”

“Great. I, Ladybug, relinquish the Miracle Box and name Chat Noir the new guardian.”

“WHAT --?!” He didn’t get to finish as a box dropped on his lap and knocked the wind out of him.

“Just for, like, a year and a half. Sorry. Bye!”

“DON’T JUST ‘BYE’ ME WHAT THE --?!”

She hung up and closed the yoyo, hooking it back to her belt and ignoring it when it started buzzing again.

She looked down at Robin, who was squinting up at her. She returned the squint. Why was this baby so quiet? She didn’t get it. Surely, he should have been crying at this point.

“Do you still… remember things?” She asked, hoping against all hope that maybe he had retained his memories at the very least.

Robin smiled at her, but it was the blank-eyed baby smile that meant he wasn’t really understanding her. She bit down a curse.

Great. So, she’d not only gotten a baby but she’d gotten a fucking weird one. Great.

~

Tim left a note for his family saying that he, Damian, and Ladybug were bored and were going dimension hopping. His family would probably be suspicious but, hey, at least it wouldn’t be his problem for a good fifteen years on his end.

And, yeah, he knew this was probably one of his dumber plans but… it wasn’t the dumbest. And he was always one to commit when it came down to it. One time he had faked being shot and dealt with crutches for an entire year just to convince Vicki Vale that he wasn’t Red Robin. He had no fears that he couldn’t see this through.

Ladybug, though? A total mystery. She did nearly everything on a whim as far as he knew. She hopped from city to city fighting crime for absolutely no reason outside of boredom and made up all of her plans on the fly. No, he was a bit concerned about her ability to keep doing it.

So, he went as quickly as he possibly could. There was no rhyme or reason to what he was grabbing. He was just… putting stuff in there. There was money and three watches to help them move between dimensions, yes, but there was also a fanta orange and a copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and exactly seven pairs of socks.

… yeah, he had the necessities. Probably.

He nearly got out the door before he realized he was still in his crime-fighting gear and he quickly shucked it all off and tossed it into the tub so the blood wouldn’t track any more than it already had. He did not need to avoid Batman’s wrath only to end up on the receiving end of Alfred’s.

He pulled on the first hoodie and jeans he could grab and looked around to make sure he hadn’t left anything of importance.

Okay. Now he was ready to go.

~

Marinette was awkwardly bouncing the baby when Red Robin finally showed up.

… not that she would have recognized him if she hadn’t felt Kaalki hovering in his pocket. In her eyes, he was just a random white guy wearing shades in the middle of the night.

She glanced up at him and gave him an awkward smile.

“Ready?”

He smiled back and held out two watches. Neither fit baby Robin so she prepared herself to choke out a literal baby holy fuck what even was her life.

“Which dimension should we go to?”

“Preferably one without miraculi,” Marinette said. “I don’t want to know what happens if there’s two of the same god in a dimension.”

He nodded slowly. “Probably best if Batman doesn’t exist, either, he’d probably notice my existence.”

“... so… no heroes at all?”

“Looks like we’re going cold turkey,” Red Robin said in a tone that was probably supposed to be joking but just came out flat.

She pushed herself to her feet and waited as he scrolled through the millions of dimensions.

Finally, he came upon one and she added the coordinates to her and Robin’s watches.

She readied Robin’s watch against his neck and tried to ignore the kid’s sudden squirminess.

“3… 2… 1…”

They were gone in a whirl of blue light.

~~~~~

Next

@nathleigh @peachmuses

[toastedside]

In Health

Batmom!Reader x Batfamily

Warning: Angst, Angry Tim Drake

Note: I knoooooow it's been a while since I wrote this series and I actually have finished it a while ago. Just figure I want to share the rest. Enjoy!

Masterlist, Previous Chapter

You bit the inside of your cheeks, your eyes travelled constantly to the watch on your wrist. The iced coffee you ordered fifteen minutes ago already half gone. Metropolis was bright and sunny that day, the weather was warm and nice. A welcomed contrast to gloomy Gotham with its perpetual cloud.

The coffee shop Lois had told you about was buzzed with hungry patrons, considering it was almost lunchtime anyway. It was a breath of relief that nobody would recognize you on the first glance, something you had learned fairly quickly since Bruce had publicly claimed you years ago. If you went somewhere with shirts and jeans and nothing shiny, nobody would recognize you that you are Y/N Wayne.

You glanced into your watch again for the millionth time that day. Was the request to meet up too much for them? Were you too harsh on them back in the days? It’s unusual for–

“Hey, oh my god, we’re so sorry. Our meeting last longer than we expected.”

Lois suddenly came into frame. Behind her was a slightly disheveled Clark, eyeing her behind his glasses hesitantly. Something sank at the bottom of you stomach by the sight alone, perhaps you were indeed way too harsh on him.

“It’s alright, I didn’t wait that long anyway,” you mustered a white lie as you gestured them to take a seat across yours. “How’s Jon doing? I miss him coming over on the weekend.”

“He is fine. Clark and I bought him a video game console on his birthday and all he’s been doing was glued his eyes on the TV,” Lois rolled her eyes fondly at the topic of her own son, something you've been doing for years since you are a mother too. “How are the kids?”

“I figure Jon had been talking about his video games with Damian. He asked me if he could buy one just yesterday,” you laughed. “The kids are fine, per usual. Dick and Jason had been a little busy with their job, so they usually only come over on the weekend. Damian tried to woo me into adopt another pet again last week, Cass been practicing ballet a lot lately, and Tim... well... it’s been a little tough for him to fill Bruce’s shoes in the company but he’s doing well so far.”

There was a little shift in the air after you finished. Lois subtly adjusted her seat, silently sent a look towards her husband who looked a little too nervous to be comfortable. It would be funny to see Superman himself squirmed on his seat if the reason behind it didn’t left a bitter aftertaste.

“Lunch?” you swiftly opened the menu book to dissipate the growing tension and gently shoved it into Clark’s lap. “It’s on me.”

The lunch was surprisingly normal and calm, the thought of the dreading event was swept away underneath the nonexistent rug. Lois had been talking about the newest article she was writing about and Clark was obviously waltzed around carefully to not touching the superhero business, and you played your best to ignore it.

“Lois, Clark,” you started as everyone finally finished their lunch and the empty plates were taken away. “I am here to apologize for what I have done... three months ago. And what I might have said.”

There was silence hung in the air as Lois and Clark shared a look together. It was Lois who immediately reached for your hand and gently squeezed it. “Hon, you have nothing to apologize for. We understand, you were–”

“It was still rude and uncalled for, and my circumstance was a mere explanation. Especially to you, Clark,” you rolled your shoulders slightly to face Clark better, eyes fell into the balled fist on his lap. “You were only trying to explain, but I shut you out. I know you lost your best friend too that night and I am so sorry I didn’t try to reach you out sooner.”

“Y/N, it’s–”

“No, no, it’s not.” you breathed shakily. You had prepared your best for this inevitable conversation, but still unaware how painful it could be. “Bruce wouldn’t want me to act that way.”

Silence now had fallen completely and the air had shifted drastically. The only thing that grounded you from withering away and succumb into your own thought was Lois’s thumb gently stroking your wrist. Clark was stunned silent on his seat, the gears on his mind worked twice harder than it usually did in past three months. Nothing had prepared him for this conversation.

“Y/N, I forgive you. I already had long ago. I understand completely, and I would probably act worse if I were in your shoes,” Clark breathed out. All the tension in his shoulders that hinder him in the last forty-five minutes had dissipated into the thin air.

“Thank you,” you lifted your eyes to meet his. Sometimes you forgot how unnaturally blue his eyes were, cold and calculating, even though the corner of his eyes and the smile lines soften it out. It almost reminded you with Bruce. “Can you... can you tell me what happened that night? You were there with him, didn’t you?”

Lois and Clark shared another look, something told you that both knew what you didn’t. “Are you sure you want to hear this now?”

“I need my closure, Clark. And I’d love to know which son of a bitch that take my husband away.”

Clark told you everything in vivid details, the hairs on your shoulders stood in dread by the explanation alone. He talked about the League mission, the warehouse, and the explosion that had killed Bruce and suspected blown his body into unrecognizable tiny bits. By the time he was finished, you were close to tears, and was pleasantly surprised you didn’t weep your heart outs right away in a public place.

“One question,” you wiped the stubborn tears that started to well on your eyes. You mustered a silent thank you as Clark offered his handkerchief. “Was Red Robin there? Was Red Robin called for backup?”

“I can’t remember. What about him?”

You took a sharp breath, the image of Tim weeping on your lap and repeating his apology played inside your mind like a broken movie. “He obsessively investigating his death, saying it was his fault it happened in the first place.”

Lois tighten her grip on your hand and squeezed harder. It wasn’t a secret that your son was bad at letting go and coping with loss, but it had been a huge toll to knew he blamed himself for it. Clark sent you an apologetic look, and you were surprised that you didn’t dread the look.

“It wasn’t his fault. It was supposed to be an easy investigation, an in-and-out mission. Nobody could come prepared for the explosion,” Clark reassured you, although it was addressed more to Tim instead of you. “The machines...”

A sudden rang from Clark’s phone interrupted his words. He watched it rang briefly before let out a dreading, long sigh. “I’m so sorry, but I really need to take this.”

You smiled reassuringly. “Go on.”

Turns out, Lois and Clark had been called for another meeting and had to cut their meeting short. Lois had hugged you tight and drop a promise to come over by weekend for dinner. Clark left a lingering touch on your wrist, his eyes widen as if he had come into a realization he hadn’t before, but he left before he able to muster any single words.

The ride back to Gotham was long and tedious. The traffic had made the trip an hour and half longer than it was necessary, but the sunset at the horizon was a sight for sore eyes. The chance to catch a beautiful sunset was close to zero in Gotham, so you preserved the moment as much as you could. A little part of your soul wished Bruce could witness such sight with you.

You arrived right before dinnertime, the manor was surprisingly quiet, spared for some noises Alfred made in the kitchen as he prepared for dinner. One thing about Wayne household was silent wasn’t a good thing, and one should be suspicious if it happened.

“Where are the others? It’s eerily quiet.” your head popped up in the kitchen. “Alfred, it smells delicious. Are you making Shepherd’s pie again?”

“Miss Y/N, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t surprise me like that anymore,” Alfred deadpanned. “Yes, I am. How was your meeting?”

“It went well. I... I finally get the explanation I deserved,” you sat across the kitchen island, your bag fell into the floor as you did. “Thank you for convincing me into reaching out to him.”

Alfred pressed his lips together into a pleased smile. “You have found your closure, I assumed?”

“I don’t know about that, Alfred,” you admitted. “But it was great to finally know what happened and not left in the dark. Maybe it was a good step for me.”

“I believe so, Miss Y/N.”

“Are those teas for the kids?” you shifted the topic away into a tray full of teacups and biscuits. “Where are they?”

“All of them are cramped together in Batcave, I believe. Master Damian had asked me to brought them some teas.”

“Let me take it to them. You can continue bake your Shepherd’s Pie again.”

Alfred was hesitant, but he nodded away and shoved the tray into your embrace. It had been long overdue for you to step back into the Batcave anyway, figured this would be a great time for you to go back.

You forgot how much you hated the perpetual coldness the Batcave seemed to persistently have, no matter how many efforts everyone had put years ago into make this place warmer and comfortable. The sound of your children bickering with each other filled the cave and it made you smile, for all of its worth, you had always admired your children’s tendency to find things to argue about.

It was until the sound of fist slammed against the table that stopped you in your track and wiped away your smile.

“Stop it, Timbers, stop this fucking bullshit!” Jason’s voice roared, followed with the ear-ripping screeches of bats that had been awoken from their slumber by his roaring voice alone.

“I am telling you the truth!” Tim said heatedly, which was alarming. You quickly hid yourself in the shadows between the costume displays, finding yourself a better spot to watched your children without being known. “Why can’t you believe me?”

“Look at me in the eye and tell me that was not a fucking bullshit!”

“Tim, bud, come on. You need to stop. This isn’t healthy,” Dick’s concerned voice chimed in between the heated stares Jason and Tim exchanged. Your heart sank from that words alone, Tim must had investigating again. “You have us. We can get through this together. But not like this.”

“TT. Drake, you have started to creep me out,” Damian’s equally concerned voice, albeit masked with his usual scowl and sarcasm, piped in. “Also, you look like you hadn’t sleep since you were born.”

“Thanks for the flattery. But listen–”

“Stop it. Stop. Shut your mouth!” Jason yelled again. His finger intimidatingly pointed towards Tim, his eyes filled with rage and frustration. “Have you heard yourself talking?”

“Won’t you all give me a fucking minute to explain myself?” Tim stood from his chair; his fist crumpled together into a ball clenched on his side. It was such an eerie sight to see him so worked up like this. “Cass?”

You saw Cass silently shook her head. She sent Tim an apologetic smile as Tim groaned in frustration.

“Why none of you would just listen to me?”

“Tim, there is no way in hell Bruce is still alive!”

The roar that came from Dick was eerie, but it was his words that split your world into half. You didn’t realize the tray had slipped from your grasp until it clashed with cold floor, your gasp was masked with the loud clang of the tray hitting the floor and the sound of teacups shattered into pieces. All eyes followed towards the sound, and all were surprised to spot their mother was there.

You saw from the corner of your eyes that Dick walked towards you. His shoulders were tensed, his eyebrows furrowed together in frustration and anger. But your eyes fell on Tim whose eyes widen in horror upon realizing that your unknown presence was lurking all these times. You could mentally see the guilt that slowly seeped through his initial shock, the blue in his eyes waver slightly with the swirling guilt. You walked towards Tim, and from the look on his face alone, you wondered if you looked as if you were about to swallow him whole.

“Mom...” Tim croaked.

“Mom, it’s alright. It was nothing.”

“Ma, let’s go upstairs. It’s dinnertime, you never like it when we–”

“Tim.” The firmness on your voice effectively silence your two oldest sons out. Your hands gently placed on Tim’s shoulders as you shut your eyes and counted from one to ten. “Tell me everything.”

“W-what?”

“Tell me everything you know. Tell. Me. Everything.”

“Mom, I don’t think you should see it.”

“He was my husband, Tim. I deserve to know.”

Tim pressed his lips together, his eyes travelled up slowly before he let out a sigh. “Just tell me to stop when it gets too much.”

[gothamcitytrash]

The Bet

Steph - …

Jason - …

Steph - Truth or Dare?

Jason - oh fuckin finally something to do , erm … dare

Steph - I dare you to be nice to everyone for 24 hours

Jason - Easy

Steph- No snarky comments

Jason - less easy but still doable

Steph - or backhanded compliments

Jason - oh

Steph - no insults either

Jason - wait a sec…

Steph- AND you can’t leave the manor or force people to leave

Jason - ah fuck , nah i got this

Steph - and if you fail , you can’t eat Alfred’s cooking for a month and you have to say i’m better than you BUT if you prevail , i have to say that YOURE better than me … Deal?

Jason - you’re on blondie

——— Jason wonders off to get something to eat and sees Tim practising anime moves in the mirror ———

Jason - … nope , too tempting

—— Jason passes Dick’s room to see him dancing to ABBA in a Wonder Woman halloween costume ——

Jason - i’m fucked

——— Jason makes it to the kitchen and makes himself lunch , Bruce comes to sit down next to him . Jason sees that Bruce is making the ‘Parentface‘ while scrolling on his phone with his index finger

Jason - oh i’m gonna die

Bruce confused - ?!?

——— Jason walks to the door and opens it to see Steph standing there ———

Steph - Whatcha Doin?

Jason - Nothing , i er … i was just getting some fresh air

Steph - sure , i’ll let you quit if you say i’m better than you

Jason backing off - i walked from Ra’s Compound to Gotham City , i can do this and youll never hear that outta my fucking mouth

Steph shouting - YOU DIDNT SAY I WASNT BETTER THAN YOU

——— Jason panicking and sees Duke walking into his room ———

Jason - DUKE

Duke jumping out of his skin - PLEASE DONT HURT ME IM JUST A BOY

Jason - oh thank god , i’m not gonna hurt ya but you gotta help me

Duke befuddled - oh…kay

Jason - i made a bet with Steoh that i could be nice to everyone for the rest of the day

Duke - why? , why would you do that , you can’t go 10 mins without an insult

Jason - i’ve lasted 3 hours so far , and i have 2 hours left but Damian , Babs , Cass and harper are gonna and home soon

Duke - so?

Jason - SO , they’re getting back from the KISS concert

Duke - oh

Jason - yeah fucking oh

Duke - Damian went to a KISS concert?

Jason - he lost a bet to Steph too

Duke - gosh… she’s a menace

— Damian , Babs , Cass and Harper come home —

Jason - … their here

Duke - you have to go downstairs

Jason - i’m scared

Duke - it’s okay , it’s just saying “ you’re better than me steph “

Steph from the vents - thank you duke

Duke terrified - AHHH WHAT THE FRICK

Jason pointing up - she’s in the fuckin vent dude

—— Jason wonders off to the library but hears ——

Cass - Jay!

Jason pretending to be invisible - …

Cass - Jay , the concert was so cool

Harper - yeah it’s was fuckin fun

Babs - even Damian was head banging

Damian - it was a fun activity , the outfits and face paint were a bit much

Jason physically recoils - ….

Harper - makeup

Damian - what did you just say Row

Harper - make-up , it’s makeup

Damian - you’re lying

Babs - she isn’t , technically it’s Bruce’s eyeshadow for patrol

Damian - i’m going to kill you Row

——— Damian stumbles over in his platforms ———

Jason - I CANT FUCKIN DO THIS MAN!!!

Everyone - huh?

Jason turning around slowly - i can’t be nice c not even for 7 stupid fuckin hours… STEPH YOU FUCKIN WIN ALRIGHT , JUST LET ME OUT OF THIS CURSE

Steph dropping down from the ceiling - if you want this to stop , you know what to say

Jason - ah fuck … Steph?

Steph with a shit eating grin on her face - yes?

Jason - you’re better than me

Steph - That was very nice Jason

Jason - so i don’t have to be nice anymore

Steph - pretty much

Jason - oh thank god

———————Jason takes a deep breath——————

Jason - Dick , that wonder woman costume is extremely unflattering and makes you look flatter than Stephs hair in the morning and you can’t sing at all

Dick and Steph - Hey!?!

Jason - Bruce ; you are the crypt keeper and the fact you can stand up without crumbling into a pile of dust is beyond me

Bruce - Watch it

Jason - Tim , pretend and try as you might , you’ll never be Goku and it’s ridiculous that you keep trying , you are a subpar power ranger at best

Tim - harsh but needed

Jason - and now you four , you all look like bruce’s first draft of his batsuit , and Damian , even in platforms you are only 4ft tall AT BEST

Damian - Watch your Tongue Todd

Jason at Harper- this is the first time you’ve ever been able to convince somebody of something because you fuckin suck at lying and it’s embarrassing to watch

Harper - Damn

Jason - Babs… Red hair doesn’t suit you

Babs - Say that again and see what happens jackass

Jason - and finally … Cass

Cass - :)

Jason - yeah i got nothing … phew i didn’t think i could go on much longer

Everyone - Hungry ?

Everyone replying - Yes?

Alfred - Dinners Ready!

Jason - fuck yeah

Steph - whoa whoa , where do you think you’re going?

Jason- to eat?

Steph - did you last until midnight with out being a dick?

Jason - oh no! , no! , no please don’t do this

Steph - Goodbye Jason

Jason falling to his knees like Darth Vader - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[stxleslyds]

You always seem down on the idea of the Batfam. I mean, it is hard to take seriously when writers make Bruce hostile or downright abusive towards his kids, or when Batfam members never interact. But do you think the concept itself is good, and it's just been the victim of bad writing? Or do you think the Batfam is a bad idea that can never work?

Hi there Anon! Thank you for the ask!

Hmm, this is a difficult question. Maybe I can answer this better if I do it in parts because the concept of “Batfamily” is used in different ways currently. A way to separate them can be, DC’s Batfamily, Fandom’s Batfamily and Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon.

DC’s Batfamily:

My rejection of this version of Batfamily comes from all angles, it is not a good concept within comics lore anymore, it’s badly written and used to hide and move on from truly horrendous actions done by Bruce towards the rest of the family, and DC uses the concept of “Batfamily” that fandom has become so attached to, so they can profit off of it without writing anything of real essence with it.

Why did I say that the Batfamily isn’t a good concept anymore? Well, because the Batfamily that I first came across in comics included, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Barbara, Tim and Cassandra. It was rather small and their books interconnected and had pretty solid relationships with one another. Dick and Tim got along and spent time together, Barbara mentored Cass so she could become Batgirl and so on and so forth. The family was smaller and more connected. But they still had problems and bad habits then. So, I liked them as a group of people that worked together and the name they received was “Batfamily” as a way for DC to profit from it.

Right now, the Batfamily is huge, I don’t know if you have seen those splash pages with all the members of it for Rebirth and Infinite Frontier, but those promotional pages were crazy big, characters like Harley and Clownhunter are now considered part of the “Batfamily” and all that. Then there is the kind of characters like Cass, Steph and Kate who are all connected to Batman but that haven’t been appearing in books for very long, so putting them on that page really feels like DC is trying to prove that their “Batfamily” actually has women on it, but it’s just for show.

And then there is Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian, the most recognizable faces of the Batfamily aside from Bruce and Alfred (but Alfred is dead now so he doesn’t really count), all of them have had issues with Bruce or are indifferent to the existence of one another. Yes, Tom Taylor has included Tim in Dick’s book but here is the thing, it feels like he put him there just to make fans shut up about the lack of content with both of them acting as they used to do. But its false and lazy, Taylor just brought Tim to the book but we don’t get to see Tim and Dick interact in ways that can explain why they drifted off, it kinda seems like all those years where Dick and Tim were pulled apart never happened to DC and that makes me think “cash grab”. I would have loved to see them interact again if it meant that we would have some solid story for them to develop their relationship once more.

At the end of Rebirth, Damian was pissed off at Bruce and they had a fight and Damian left the manor completely. Bruce beat up Jason, then gave him a hug but still told him that he was banned from Gotham and all that abuse and manipulation was swept under the rug when DC came out with Urban Legends: Cheer, all they did with that story is lie and made-up stories about Jason wanting Bruce to go on a killing spree so Gotham can finally be the home to his beloved family (lies, lies, lies).

On top of all that we have the neglect, abuse and manipulation that Bruce had going on with Dick, ever since Bruce manipulated Dick into joining Spyral his actions haven’t faced any consequences (the family still believes that Dick was the one who lied about dying). And as recently as the end of Rebirth, Dick suffered from a head injury that left him amnesiac and Bruce absolutely didn’t care enough to look after him when he was so vulnerable and alone. DC had the audacity of having Bruce say that he was looking after Dick while Dick went from one villain manipulating and hurting him to another, and if we look at Batman’s run, we can see that he spent some of that time in a weird pit or playing catch the pussy with Selina in a tropical island.

So, taking all those things into account, I honestly believe that the Batfamily is a concept that absolutely does not belong in comics. If it were to be taken seriously then DC should come up with (organic, not forced) stories that make these characters connect once again, but they have to be careful, just because they can connect it doesn’t mean that everyone gets along and they have group chats and eat dinner together of Fridays, that would be a blatant lie and just too out there for their kind of dynamic, so, they should take things slow, start re-building what once was an make it better (if they want to make it work and feel like less of a cash grab).

I heard that there is a book with Cass and Steph being mentored as Batgirls by Barbara coming out in December, that to me is a good thing, what was done in Robin #5 was awful, Jason didn’t have or want to be there, Tim, what the hell was Tim doing there? The only ones that have gotten along with Damian and have had a solid relationship with him were Dick and Steph. Dick had a very nice moment with Damian in that issue, but Steph didn’t, they preferred to have Jason wanting to hug Damian instead (what the actual hell was that?).

Fandom’s Batfamily:

Fandom is a place where people can take any concept from anywhere and transform it into whatever they please. This fandom is just like any other in that matter, but I have noticed that sometimes the Batfamily Fandom tends to blur the lines between what’s fanon and canon. Their lore is so deep and established among people that they sometimes (willingly or not) make new readers or other people believe that how things and perceived in fandom is how things actually are in comics, and that is a huge problem.

Things like “Dick sent Jason to Arkham when the Joker was just a cell away”, “Jason has pit madness and when he gets mad his eyes turn glowy green”, “Dick was a horrendous brother to Jason before Jason died”, “Jason would be good friends with Tim and Cass”, “Jason is the only one that sees the world differently from Bruce and the other robins because he is the only one that comes from a life with no luxury” and so on and on and on…

All of those things are sometimes treated as the absolute truth by fandom and no matter how many times people have debunked and explained that those things aren’t part of comics’ canon because they are simply not true, fandom stills treats those things as the basis of their Batfamily lore.

That lore would be actually fascinating if people didn’t lose sight so easily of the fact that at the end of the day none of that lore can be applied to comics’ canon.

When you enter this fandom things can be extremely confusing and the way some of the characters are characterized are completely different to their canon characterizations, I knew that the Dick fandom was writing about was not real, but I had no idea that Tim being a coffee addict that hasn’t slept in five months and is an absolute genius in everything and anything that he does was completely out of character for him, I just thought that was true to his character in comics too. Something like that happened to me when I took a peek at Jason’s side of fandom, by that time I had read Red Hood/Arsenal, UtRH and New 52 RHatO (yeah in that order, Red Hood/Arsenal wasn’t finished yet though), with the already conflicting characterizations of those books, the first look that I had at fandom’s Jason confused me even more. After considering all those I decided that the Jason that I wanted to see and actually looked appealing to me was UtRH Jason.

Not all people in fandom read comics and that is ABSOLUTELY VALID, I have zero problems with people not liking the comic characterizations of the “Batfamily” characters, but that in itself also creates a rift between fans themselves.

Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon:

This is obviously the intersection of the other two points and this is the biggest problem that I have with the Batfamily concept. The fandom lore has been leaking into comic’s canon for a while now but right now we are kinda drowning in it. Decisions that have been made recently in DC like, Jason giving up his guns, the group chats in Nightwing issues, the family dinners that were hinted at in Cheer #6, and Bruce having had at the ready a Red Hood suit for Jason with a Batman logo in its chest, have been proof enough that DC is planning on skipping any kind of solid writing for these characters to actually get along. We are never going to see these people sit down and talk about their differences and respect each other’s work ethics.

We are never going to get stories of actual essence that prove that these characters understand and care for each other, we are just going to be told that “all is good” and now everyone loves one another and they will build from there.

That is a problem for me.

-

And it also takes away duality from Gotham’s vigilantes, I know I say this too much but it’s the truth, putting all these characters under the ruling of Batman makes them all bland. Jason shouldn’t be part of any sort of group that involves Bruce! My god, I don’t want to see them interact anymore! Bruce has been absolute trash to Jason ever since he came back from the dead and I am tired of DC trying to make them be on good terms!

Jason and Bruce not getting along can co-exist with the fact that Jason isn’t a villain to Batman’s legendary hero. Jason is his own character, with his own morals and he doesn’t need a bat symbol on his chest or book logo to be relevant. Same with Dick, Tim and Barbara, let them be characters that can stand on their own because they have already done that!

Barbara as Oracle worked WITH Batman if she wanted, she had her own logo and had passed on the mantle of Batgirl because he had grown out of it.

Dick is Nightwing and has become an even better hero than Batman could even aspire to become, he has contacts with everyone in the DC universe, has led countless teams, he doesn’t NEED a batman logo on his book or to be constantly dragged back to him just to make the Bat more compelling.

Jason, my sweet Jason, he had his own logo! It was gorgeous and then Lobdell had the audacity to stamp a Batman logo in the middle of the book name and in Jason’s chest! Have we gone absolutely mad? Why did they do that? Lobdell’s constant back and forth with Jason and his feelings for Bruce, he respects him and he doesn’t, he kills and he doesn’t… each issue felt like a new take on the character! It was crazy!

And that has happened with everyone in the “family”. I will end this by saying that Bruce/Batman being at the centre of this “Batfamily” dynamic is the most laughable thing in the DC Universe. Batman isn’t family to any of the people that they constantly surround him with, he is a piece of shit.

Anyway Anon, I hope this answer doesn’t ruin your day and that you understand that even though I really don’t like the “Batfamily” concept, you and everyone else are allowed and encouraged to think differently!

Hope you have a marvellous day Anon!

[liquid-luck-00]

Truth / Lies

Bio!Dad Bruce

Bio!Dad Masterlist ~~~ Ao3 ~~~ First ~~~ Previous ~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette slipped out of the apartment early the next morning. She ran through the city, the early morning air stung her skin, waking her up more with each step.

Last night was a whirlwind and she didn't let herself think about it. But now she was.

Three months, almost four.

She has only known she was a Wayne for four months.

If this had happened sooner. She shuddered at the thought, yet it still flitted across her mind. She would have married her brother had this happened sooner.

Would she have recognized Damian from the 10 seconds she spent looking at his photo that day. No, she wouldn't and that thought terrified her. If it happened before then, she wouldn't even know she had a brother.

Would Bruce have recognized her, maybe, but then again that was assuming he knew what she looked like. And knowing what and how this happened, they wouldn’t have even met until after the fact.

She didn't even realize she had made her regular circuit until she was back in front of their apartment building. She opened the door and made her way up.

Hopefully Tim was gone, and they wouldn't need to explain last night.

She opened the door and there was not only Tim, but also Dick, Jason, and Bruce. At the table was a statuesque Damian.

"How much did they get out of you?" She tentatively asked.

"They threatened to call Manhunter." Was his answer.

Okay they know nothing, but oh no, oh no, oh no. She sat next to Damian turning into statue number two.

"Mini, the two of you disappeared last night what happened." Dad tried to stay calm, but his patience must have been tested by Sol already.

"Two truths, one lie." She side eyed Damian.

"We were in Nanda Parbat." Damian started.

"We avoided one mind numbing wedding." Marinette continued.

"The order has a larger moral back-bone than the league."

"You two aren't seriously playing this game to stall, are you?!" Tim seemed close to a mental breakdown. Then again, he hasn't slept in a week, so them disappearing may be the straw that broke him.

"Nanda Parbat and the league are tied so 1 and 3 are true." Jason figured.

"I would agree if this wasn't the second time, they said they avoided a wedding." Tim sighed.

"But it doesn't add into any of the others." Dick added.

"This morning their excuse was they were avoiding a wedding." Tim supplied.

"The truths are 1 and 2." Dad spoke definitely.

"Care to fill in the rest of the class B." Jason scoffed.

"Mini looks down for a fraction of a second when she lies, and she didn't when she said 2. Leaving 1 or 3 as the lie. Damian doesn't have a tick but using what he said 1 is true." He explained.

"There is no way for them to make that round trip in such a short time." Dick thought aloud. "Unless the order is filled with magic users. Meaning it is possible. And kidnapping kids could count as a lower moral backbone."

"Okay, so you're right, but kidnapping isn't the reason the League has a larger moral compass." Marinette assured.

"Do we want to know why the League of fucking Assassins has a larger moral backbone than an order of supposedly good magicians?" Jay was the one to speak the question on everyone's mind.

"Well if not saying or attempting to stop marrying two underage people is any indication." Damian scoffed.

"I honestly think it was their idea in the first place." Marinette mused aloud.

"Please for the love of god tell me you two weren't the ones getting married." Tim finally put it together.

"We avoided one hell of a headache inducing wedding. What do you think." She confirmed exasperated.

In a second (4) Errors could be seen on the faces of their family.

"Mini how long will it take to get to the league with Kaalki?" Dad was the first to recover, but his voice was eerily level, scarier than his even tone as Batman.

"Instantaneously, but someone who knows it better should be the one opening the portal." She responded quickly.

"Give the glasses to your brother. Damian open a portal."

Neither of them put up a fight, doing exactly as they were told. Not 20 seconds later all six of them were back in the middle of the League of Assassins following a clearly pissed off Bruce Wayne.

Thank kwamii that everyone else seem to know exactly where they were going in this compound because she sure didn’t. She walked right next to Damian the entire time and they were both watching their fathers back.

Twist and turns one after another and they finally came to what she can only describe as a throne room. When she saw the piece of shit that is Damian's maternal grandfather once again.

"Ra's." Was all her father stated. It is no exaggeration when she says that the color drained from that man’s face. She apparently wasn’t the only one contemplating exactly what had gone down last night. And the inevitable reaction of her family. What she failed to notice however, but her father didn’t was next to him was the same monk, still there. "Name." He ordered.

"Su-Han." He still spoke with dignity, but fear crept into his voice and stance.

"What the fuck did you try to do to my kids." Bruce growled in that instant she stopped breathing.

"Holy shit did Bruce just..." Jason stage whispered to Dick. However, she still couldn’t breathe and just watched the exchange. If she didn’t know her father’s rule to not kill, she would think he would be about to kill both Ra's and Su-Han, but she did know that rule. She’s pretty sure her father my break it though.

---

Bruce immediately was in a state of shock.

As Batman he had contingencies and plans in place for everything and anything. But this, this never was a probable scenario ever.

Once his shock faded, he saw red, he was absolutely livid. Children, his children, were almost married, for what. A feud that neither knew even existed.

"Mini how long will it take to get to the league with Kaalki?" His voice was dead even, attempting and failing to keep his anger in check. Thank God Hawkmoth was no more.

"Instantaneously, but someone who knows it better should be the one opening the portal." She responded quickly.

"Give the glasses to your brother. Damian open a portal."

Mini handed Damian the glasses, who immediately opened a portal. He walked through with his kids in tow, but he did not stray from his warpath. He found Ra's and another man, who wore the symbol on Mari's box.

"Ra's." Was all he said, knowing he had the man's attention the moment he entered. He showed no attempt to be bored. or uninterested. In fact, if it didn't seem impossible, Bruce would go so far as to say he was scared. He then looked over at the second man. "Name." He spoke again.

"Su-Han." He still spoke with dignity, but fear crept into his voice and stance.

"What the fuck did you try to do to my kids." Bruce demanded.

"It is not like you to visit." Ra's seemed to dance around his question.

"Why my kids?!" His voice rose and patience dwindled. So much so he didn't notice his two youngest slipped out of the room. While the older three seemed to be eating cookies and pastries, watching the show.

"Them being related was an unforeseen factor." Su-Han answered. "For there to be peace the two organizations needed to be unified."

"And both of you rubbed your cumulative two brain cells together and thought marrying two kids together is a valid response."

It was Ra's turn to speak. "Both of your children happen to be the next in line to command both respective organizations. Marriage was simply a contract between the two individual organizations to maintain peace. Although that failed to occur."

"Why did marriage come before I don't know, a god damn Peace treaty." He stopped to breathe.

"Given our history." Su-Han tried to make a point, but he didn't let him.

"You want history, I hear they have been around since the time of the Ancient Egyptians and the Ancient Babylonian Empires."

Both men stood there seemingly trying to formulate any response that could work. “Marriage was the most reliable method to promote unity between the two.”

"Bullshit, you both wanted something quick and easy." An explosion was heard in the compound, sending Ra's into a fighting stance. "You both wanted to make it their responsibility to keep the peace. And when it would fail you would use it as an excuse to return to fighting one another."

A full minute of pure silence when no one so much as moved drawled on. Until the doors opened, and in walked his children, as a fox and a horse with two Kwamii in front of them.

"Are you two the ones responsible for the explosion?"

They looked at one another, then back at him. Damian was the one who answered. "Yes."

"What did you four do?" He asked, although he only did so more out of obligation than curiosity.

"We may have destroyed all the Pools of Miracles." Tikki flew forward and answered.

"You destroyed the Lazarus Pits / Pools!" Was shouted by Ra's and Su-Han.

"Yes, so it's magic cannot be further twisted." Mari stood firm.

"And for the monks to stop using it to extend their lives." Damian added.

"Can I spite them now?" A cat Kwamii he never met before asked him.

"I should be more disappointed, but I'm not." He sighed. "Go on ahead."

"Pigtails your family is the best." The cat cheered. "Now for you two."

The best way to explain what he did was that he phased through each of their hearts and floated on back. The entire time he were a grin that rivaled the cheshire cat.

"Plagg, what did you do?" Tikki tentatively asked.

"What's the fun in telling you now. Plagg cackled. With that they all left, back to Paris. Never mess with his kids, because one they can God damn take care of themselves and two, he may not kill but he will supervise if even one of them is hurt.

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