#Jason does the same thing with women

[rigginsstreet]

Jason and Lyla lavender marriage real to ME considering their whole arc is about them being the perfect couple, the perfect quarterback, the perfect cheerleader, the golden child of Dillon, the perfect daughter etc and the deconstruction of that after Jason’s accident

Like…that’s a lesbian and a gay man in small town Texas bearing the weight of everyone’s expectations and hopes and dreams of COURSE they have to be together and make perfect little babies everyone’s counting on them!

Everything about them and their interactions with their peers makes total sense when you realize they’re forced so deeply in the closet in this essay I will

[rmbunnie]

I like Batman. I like Batman as a character. I like Bruce Wayne. But it is very unserious when people act like Jason Todd, or maybe Damian, the robins as a whole, or any one writer, or any specific story arc, is singlehandedly corrupting Bruce’s character into an severe and inflexible colleague and distant, emotionally-unavailable father. Because even if he hadn't consistently been a questionable, loving yet unhealthy AT BEST father figure in the majority of his appearances since the early 80s (and I do mean to Dick, to Cass (actually shaping her into his image in Batgirl 2000 at the cost of her social development and autonomy ISNT good,) a BAD mentor to Steph, not even getting into Helena, like truly it’s not all about Jason?) The first well-written book that comes to mind where his morality is at its worst imo? That’s Wonder Woman: Hiketeia. No robins, no batfamily, just Bruce putting aside Wonder Woman’s input and the context of the situation and chasing down a girl who killed the men responsible for trafficking, assaulting, and killing her baby sister, to the point where it ends with her jumping off a cliff.

And the thing is I still like reading him in Hiketeia, because he fills the role he needs to fill in that story well, his actions align with his wordview even if it’s taken to the extreme in an uncharitable way, and he keeps my attention. I just think it’s goofy how some of us on here look at the guy who’s big character trait is being a hard-to-know, stubborn, and condescending control freak who puts other people's emotions on the wayside in favor of his mission prolifically, and go “all he did was LOVE TOO MUCH! His mean kids and associates and teammates are PUNISHING HIM for LOVING with his BIG BIG HEART and it’s tainting the narrative!” And you could say “well Hiketeia doesn't count, Greg Rucka is just a hater!” (though I certainly wouldn’t.) But when the issue is Damian entertaining the idea of leaving the family business, and before that it’s Red Hood stepping on toes, and then, wait, before that it’s Green Arrow and Wonder Woman, and then Huntress, and then oh wait we can’t think about the weird patch with Nightwing where their relationship was super rocky, and then Jason but before he died, and of course the Green Lanterns are basically treated like punching bags for him to do something awesome then- Like maybe if it’s a consistent pattern spanning what, 20, 30 years now? The issue isn’t Damian or Red Hood alone, or PKJ or Greg Rucka or Judd Winick or Marv Wolfman + George Perez or even Jim Starlin being a hater, but your blorbo just having extremely well-documented character flaws?

[knowthatiloveyou]

Hannah Waddingham at the Women+Film Luncheon at the Denver Art Museum, where she was presented with the 2024 Barbara Bridges Inspiration Award

[bats-and-the-birds]

The Batkids on being mistaken as Bruce's biological children.

Look, the Batkids have all been forced into various social gatherings, and enough of them share vague features with Bruce that some of the older members among Gotham's old money, or the younger ones that are out of the loop, sometimes mix up the facts.

Dick gets it from the very beginning. Old women pinch his cheeks, still tan from a life outside of Gotham's gloom, and tell him, Such a sweet little boy, and just like your father at your age. His hair used to stick up just like yours. Dick didn't like it at all. He bit the first person that told him he had Bruce's eyes, and stomped on the foot of an old politician that told him, With your father's height, I thought you'd be taller by now.

He laughs it off as an adult, but sometimes, it still eats at him. People still tell him that they thought he'd eventually be as tall as Bruce, or that he should be thankful for his inherited jaw line. It's not the comparison to Bruce that bothers him anymore, or even being mistaken as his son, but rather, the fact that he sometimes struggles to remember exactly where his features actually came from; parental faces turning fuzzy in his distant memory.

Jason thinks it's funny, the first time it happens. Mostly because it's his nose of all things. Your nose is bent, grumbled the old man sitting across from him at the gala, Just like your father's. Tough luck on the genetics. The man didn't realize the bent noses were because they'd both been broken in the past. Jason spent days after studying Bruce's face, trying to figure out if their noses really bent in the same way, and eventually came to the conclusion that, yeah, they really did. From that point on, each time either of them broke their nose, Jason would distantly think, Ah, damn, there goes the family resemblance.

As an adult, Jason takes care to make sure people don't often seen his face. The hood does a pretty good job of that. Besides, he doesn't move in circles where the mistake could be made anymore. Still, sometimes he looks in the mirror at the bump in his nose and thinks, Family resemblance. Yeah, right.

It happens less with Tim. Anyone that made the mistake with Jason and Dick also remembered Jack and Janet Drake. It's not until he's almost an adult that a new hire at Wayne Industries, some kid from out of town, sees him and Bruce in the office together and remarks, Oh, you two furrow your eyebrows in the same way when you think. My mom says that my dad and I do that too. We inherited it from my grandpa. Tim feels unsettled all day and makes a conscious effort to not to furrow his eyebrows anymore.

There's no mistake to make with Damian. At least, not the same one that can be made with the others. He's the blood son, and he's a perfect mix between Bruce and Talia. Of course, there's the well-meaning, if confused, adults that assume he's adopted like the others. He corrects them, swiftly, and sometimes aggressively.

There is one incident. It happens while Bruce is gone, after he's been staying with Grayson for a few months. He knew, of course, that people thought that Grayson looked like Bruce. He could even see the similarities. Superficially, of course. However, he never considered that Grayson looking like his father also meant that Grayson looked like him. Not until an old woman leaned over to him at a gala and said, You look just like your father when Mister Wayne first brought him out to these things. The hair, that disgruntled little frown. He hated these parties too. Couldn't ever sit still. Gosh, I really can't believe it's been long enough that he has a child of his own. It took Damian a while to realize what happened, and even then, he couldn't bring himself to tell her that he wasn't actually Grayson's son, or that he and Grayson weren't actually that far apart in age. He felt strangely guilty the rest of the night, and he never dared to tell Grayson about it.

It happened to Steph exactly once. Really, she doesn't look like Bruce at all. It was a man with exceptionally thick glasses, who actually told her that she reminded him of Martha Wayne. She's pretty sure he was just trying to be nice. She tries to forget about it. She never tells Bruce.

You have his eyes, is what Duke gets. Which confuses him, because, uh, no, he doesn't. Not even close like Dick's. He says as much to the woman that said it to him, and she squints her eyes at him and responds, No, you definitely do. Not in the shape or the color, but you look at things the same way he does. Duke thinks about that sometimes, and he swings back and forth between being annoyed and weirdly proud that he apparently looked at the world like Batman did.

People tell Cass that she has his smile. She beams with pride at that. After all, she learned it from him. She studied, closely, the way his mouth ticked up at the corners, both while he stretched the dazzling, fake smile across his face for the public, and the genuine, gentle smiles that he gave her while he helped tie her hair back or slip on her mask, and now she could replicate them both perfectly. She didn't like the fake one, but she knew it was necessary.

[cinnam0ngirlxo]

domestic bliss ✮

j. todd x ex-vigilante f!reader ... headcanons for when it's time to settle down

notes: lots of fluff, established relationship, you both are ex-vigilantes, reader and jason have known each other since robin days

✮ Jason loved having you as his girlfriend, but he had always dreamed of building a life with you, and having children... and he couldn't have that without popping the ring.

✮ He didn't follow Dick's advice— no boring ass sunset proposals or dinners. He proposed at home, while you both were reading (well, re-reading) your favorite romance novel. He knew that you were homebody like him, and that you didn't care for grand proposals. (and yes, it took him days to actually do it)

✮ The wedding is small and intimate; you two were lucky that your lives aren't as publicized like Bruce Wayne's. It was only really the Batfamily and a few other of your superhero friends (and of course, Lian as the flower girl <3)

✮You guys moved away from Gotham, because Jason didn't want to raise his future kids in a city that reeked of crime. Your new home was in a suburb about 45 minutes away from Gotham, just in case there was ever an emergency with the Batfamily

✮ The first thing you guys do right after moving in is buy a kitten. You didn't want to fuck up the whole parenting thing, so you guys decided you would take it in baby steps (that was the excuse you told him)

✮ Inside jokes are a big thing in your relationship. Come on, you guys have known each other since you were fourteen. Even years later, Jason will still find a way to reference Alfred's hidden toupee you guys once found 11 years ago in the basement.

✮ Leaving the vigilante life was hard at first, especially for Jason. he was so conditioned to think like a detective, to move like an assassin, and it was hard to turn his brain off.

✮ So he gets a job, and he does the only other thing he's ever known: fixing vehicles. The pay is nice, he supposes, and the rest of the guys are pretty friendly. You scold him when you see him doing background checks on all of his coworkers (you had tried, but you couldn't take the Red Hood out of him)

✮You were pretty much the same; once you had got your job as secretary at the HR office (Jason urged you to put your psychology degree to good use); you had turned over every electronic device in your office to see if it had been tapped.

✮ You both still had your vigilante costumes stored safely away in the basement of your home. Jason had always kept a gun under the floorboard of the bedroom (you didn't know), and you kept your stash of knives under the floorboard of the living room (he didn't know)

✮Your touch had grounded Jason, and that still hasn't changed. Even when you were out grocery shopping, his hand was always latched onto yours, a silent display of his affection

✮ You two have two little girls, named Elizabeth and Imogen, because you two are avid literature fans, and Elizabeth Bennet was one of Jason's favorite characters.

✮Jason dad is a girl dad to the max: he loves spoiling his little girls, to the point where you have to play bad cop because your husband just turns to mush when it comes to those two

✮He loves reading them books (even when they were in the womb), and I think he'd buy those classic literature books that are simplified for younger audiences

✮ Like just imagine Little Women or The Secret Garden being on your bookshelves, and having nightly readings where your daughters get to ramble about all the March sisters or wonder who's the boy that Mary keeps hearing in Mistlethwaite Manor

✮Bonus that when little Lizzy grows up, she ends up loving Pride and Prejudice

✮ Jason also loves to tell his girls stories about adventure you both had when you were both vigilantes, even pulling out the Red Hood helmet

✮ Your daughters idolized you even more when they found out you two were heroes, and started wearing your old outfits on the daily, playing "hero vs villain".

✮Jason recorded the entire thing, of course ;)

✮When your girls start elementary school, Jason loves to make a whole entrance when picking them up. He loves to pull up to the school in his motorcycle

✮Of course that leads to a herd of kids waddling over to him, admiring him and the motorcycle. He's pretty much earned street cred from a bunch of 5 year olds

✮You two also make sure to be affectionate in front of them, because he read once that it helps shows the kids what a healthy relationship should look like, and he doesn't want any of his girls ever being in any future toxic relationships

✮Both of you swear like a sailor, but you've learned to tone it down after the girls were born. Jason, however, has not.

✮ It's gotten to the point where Lizzy would call her Uncle Roy "asshole" just because that's what her daddy calls him

✮And Imogen is even worse: she once said 'fuck' out loud after tripping and falling in class, which had earned a phone call to you.

✮ "I don't know where she picks that stuff up. We don't swear here," You said into the phone as you glared at daggers at your husband, who just rubbed the back of his neck nervously

A/N: (not edited)

hey guys, i had sm fun writing this! i felt like writing jason some more, and i really believe that jason deserves his happy ending and i just don't think he would stay in gotham if he ever hung up the red hood mantle.

anyways should i write a part 2? i can't think of anything else to write rn but i'd love to write more about this

xoxo, maple <3

[batfam-enjoyer]

Relationship headcanons for the batfam!

Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain

Sorry for no Barbara, Steph, or Duke ☹️ love them but I honestly just don’t know them well enough

Sorry if some of these aren’t the greatest, I feel more strongly about some characters over the others so I don’t have many head canons.oh also also might be out of character ofc, these are just my personal headcanons of how I see the characters. Also sorry if this is a bit messy I didn’t edit the best :)

——————————————————————————————————

Bruce Wayne

This man has been through a lot so I feel like to truly get close to him would be difficult, especially considering he is Batman.

he needs a stable healthy relationship oh my god, yes he enjoys the chase of those hard to get but for his own sake he needs to settle down.

he’s definitely scared of losing you, he’s lost so many people in his life in one way or another.

I feel like he is one to get nightmares at night about losing you or other people. After waking up your comfort is everything to him, and if you don’t wake up at him startling awake he won’t disturb you and will just study your features the best he can in the moonlight before sleep grasps him once again.

Love language is a mix of gift giving and affection!

Always loves to have a hand on your waist, if he ever takes you to one of the gala’s he has to go to he is stuck to you like glue. Once he’s settled with you he doesn’t want women fawning over him, he wants to give the signal that his heart is yours.

Showers you in so many kisses when no one else is around, seems like a hard ass but he’s a softie for you. It makes the bat family happy to see that for him.

Onto gift giving though!!!! He’s a very busy man so he unfortunately cannot be around all the time but he always makes sure to send you little gifts to let you know you’re on his mind.

If you like expensive gifts then he’ll give you expensive gifts but truly he just wants to give you little things that will make you happy, he wants to save the big gifts for important days!

A toxic trait of his is that when he gets hurt and upset he tends to distance himself from you even though you’re there for him. After a while of talking him through it everytime it happens he starts to stop and open up to you more and more.

Dick Grayson!!!

Dick is a bit of a man hoe and has dated many people before you. Hopefully when he finally got with you though he’s matured a lot more and won’t leave you after a while just to date another girl.

If not it’s probably a complicated on and off relationship ☹️ don’t want that for you tho.

For him to settle down with you you’d likely need to be someone who’s like his anchor, able to hold your own and on the more mentally stable side.

You in no way need to be perfect though, he will love you all the same and will do his best to help you.

Speaking of helping, he’s got eldest sibling syndrome. He is STRESSED as he carries the weight of his family and the name of nightwing. He truly loves his family and try’s his best to be there for them but it runs him thin. This does mean he can be a lot snappy sometimes cause he’s not good at actually expressing his emotions so it comes out in bursts.

But for him having that eldest sibling syndrome, support him cause he really needs it, he may seem all happy but it’s usually hiding something.

Back to him being snappy tho is that he has a tendency to not let you know he has any problem with you and will act completely fine and then make some snarky remark which was clearly personal about some thing you did. It’s always uncalled for and happens when his temperament is running thin.

The more he starts to get it in his head though that he doesn’t need to perform being okay all the time he very much improves.

His love language is words of affirmation!

He likes reassuring you, supporting you, and saying sweet things to you. He also loves being reassured, told it’s okay, and being told sweet things, please give him words of affirmation he needs it.

Come up to him randomly and praise him about how well he’s been hiding stuff together lately, that you love him, and are there for him if he ever needs anything? His heart is melted.

If y’all share an apartment it’s routine to leave sticky notes around for eachother.

Onto affection tho, He absolutely will be affectionate to you in front of other people and he absolutely does not care about the teasing of his family, he owns that shit.

If he gets forced to a gala he is dragging you along so he doesn’t end himself. Love hates the attention of other women fawning over him, he’s an attention whore so a part of him loves it but the other part of him gets pissed because he is taken to a lovely you.

That is another flaw of Dick though, he loves attention a bit too much so hopefully you’re not a jealous type? He would never cheat and he absolutely isn’t tolerating any disrespect on your name, he just like when people pay attention to him.

Jason Todd ☺️

I like the idea of Jason with a nurse reader, or at least one well experienced in first aid.

Almost every night he comes home to his cold grimy apartment to patch himself up but once he has you in his like he’s able to come to your warm home to be patched up.

It’d take him getting gravely injured for him to allow you to help him in the first place but after that he starts to come to you to help him, even if it’s not necessary, he just wants to see you.

He has so many walls built up that will need to be taken down. He has a lot of fears that what he does will get you hurt, he’s also just not much of a people person. But if you are able to protect yourself decently well and install some good ass security it’ll put his mind at ease.

He will then constantly fuck with your security to prove it’s not secure enough and then try to make it more secure. After a certain point it is just more of him trying to find an excuse to be around you.

Please reassure him that he can come to you whenever and he doesn’t need a reason to at all. Also give him keys and beg him to stop breaking in. He will still occasionally break in though.

Refuses to introduce you to his family for a long time. They do still find out about for after some point and they will be running many background checks on you, they are a family of detectives after all.

The bat fam teases him very hard about you if given the chance, Tim and Steph are the worst, Damian is in disbelief anyone would even date Jason, Dick and Barbara usually keeps their mouths shut with possible light teasing. Cass and Duke are supportive though!

His love language is acts of service and affection.

He will fix anything you need fixed if needed. Your sink is leaking? Easy he’s fixed that like nothing. Need to to put together furniture but you don’t feel like putting it together? He will put that together in a heartbeat. Parts in your car need to be replaced? Absolutely he’s doing that 10x better than any person you’d pay for but for free.

Well not completely for free though, he’ll want all the cuddles, kisses, and all the affection now, not even in a sexual way most of the time, he wants sweet affection a lot of the time.

He’s almost always very gentle with you despite his rough exterior and personality. He always looks at you so sweetly and has a habit of brushing your hair out of your face and fixing your hair anytime something is astray.

After a while he basically just lives at your place as his place is a shit shack that he sucks at up keeping, he’ll keep your place clean though don’t worry.

Has a tendency to sleep on your couch a lot. He always gets back late and doesn’t want to wake you, also sometimes he’s smelly and gross but too tired to shower when he gets back so he just shuns himself to your couch and showers whenever he wakes up. That’s usually when you wake him up at some point mid day and go make him shower.

Not big on PDA but sometimes he’ll walk with you with a hand on your waist or holding your hand. Especially likes to hold your hand if sitting next to you and will rub his thumb atop you hand.

Tim drake (love my Bi Icon)

He loves cuddles. Tim is often consumed in work and running off so much caffeine and once he crashes and sleeps he’s cuddling with you if available and he’s OUT. Hair messy, sprawled out over you, and drooling. Be ready to be stuck there. It’s okay though because he’s absolutely adorable, messy hair galore.

Vibes heavy with working on things alongside eachother. He’s okay with just being in your presence as he works on what he needs to work on.

He may be hella smart and a great detective but when you guys first start dating he becomes an awkward nervous wreck who suddenly second guesses all abilities to read you. Like what if you secretly hate him? Or think that he’s weird?? What if he’s being to much???

He levels out after a while and is normal again don’t worry, he just gets way to nervous at first.

His love language is words of affirmation. He’ll leave you sticky notes and little cards all the time. Either it’s in your laptop or notebook that you find after you two were just hanging out, or he breaks into your really quick while out on patrol and leaves you a quick little sticky note, he also love making you cards. All of this containing how much he loves you and how much you mean to him.

A possibly toxic trait of his is that he cannot keep in touch and be there for you all of the time. If you are someone who is secure with not having constant attention from your partner then it’ll be okay but Tim is very busy and definitely can’t text all of the time or hangout all of the time.

Makes an effort to call when he can tho! He’s just not much of a texter tbh but he’ll call randomly.

When you two finally get to hang out it is yap central. Y’all are cuddling, playing games, and catching up on any and all drama and things that’s happening in your lives. Also because you guys might be able to hangout much it at least means y’all have A LOT to talk about. Also when y’all hangout it’s usually a sleepover.

When he has you meet his family he will tell you about any and all family drama, and if anything shocking happens between the bat family in front of y’all, you BET y’all are gonna be talking to each other about it later. Y’all love the drama.

Damian Wayne (not kid Damian ofc)

To have gotten close to him you’d likely have to had known him since he was a kid and also through forced proximity, probably due to his family having you around for some reason. It’s possible that you could’ve met him from school but it seems unlikely as he thinks lowly of most average people, BUT if you prove yourself as very intelligent or skilled in some way that would earn his respect.

In the case you are able to get close to him he shows his care in his own interesting way. He’s stubborn and doesn’t fully like to show that he cares about you but he’s very protective of you.

Generally a bit hard to get through to or get close to Damian because of his past. He sees opening up to people as a weakness in one way or another, but, I think over time with the support of his family (that’s not on his mother’s side ofc) he becomes more open to opening up to people.

Back to him being protective though! If you get into trouble he’d likely slightly bully you for getting yourself into trouble, sometimes he is just messing with you but other times he can’t help but feel angry at you if you did or almost got yourself seriously hurt. It’s definitely a red flag of his that he gets angry and doesn’t handle his anger well if your get yourself seriously hurt or almost so, he does try to work on it though.

Damian isn’t a complete asshole though, he still does truly care and if you visually start to get upset or break down he will take a breath and comfort you the best he can. Which isn’t well ,but, depending on how long you’ve known eachother it is something he’s been working on.

will absolutely never admit his weakness to you to anyone, not a soul, but maybe Alfred.

His family is able to see it though, they just chose not to tease him about it like they would for anyone else’s relationships in the family. They understand that feeling weak is a big thing for him and he absolutely will take it to heart if they tease him.

You’re close to the only person he’d not be a complete a menace to, still a bit of a menace though but he tries to be better for you.

also not one to cuddle much but he loves to pet your hair. You both are watching a movie and you rest your head on his lap? You will be falling asleep because how won’t stop playing with your hair.

This is because he still isn’t great with affection, he does still crave it though.

When y’all kissed for the first time he probably ran away to question his life for a little, one of his sensible family members had to tell him it’s okay to love someone and it doesn’t make him weak and his mom won’t kill him for it (well they at least wouldn’t let her)

Oh also I think his love language is acts of service. He will be fixing anything for you if needed. It’s the easiest way for him to show that he does really care about you.

Casandra Cain 💕

Would likely prefer a civilian reader who she can tell about her being a vigilante to, I say a civilian reader as you would have a much more stable schedule than compared to another vigilante.

Her love language is quality time. She absolutely love going places with you, like the aquarium, the park, a coffee shop, any place really.

Y’all have a list of places that with one of you want to visit and you two slowly try to get through that list.

Cass loves people watching, please people watch with her. Y’all can then talk about what your seeing, Cass would have an especially good eye too with her amazing ability to read body language. You will still have to do most of the talking though because she isn’t much of a talker. It makes her happy though to just listen to you talk, she finds your voice soothing.

She’s very attentive to your needs and is very very quick to notice if something is wrong.

Her flaw which isn’t even a bad one at all is that she’s quick to always try and do something to make you feel better. Which that doesn’t sound bad but sometimes being able to just feel your emotions is very important instead of her just instantly trying to make you feel better.

With communication though she gets better at communicating with you about if you want yo be cheered up or if you just need to feel your emotions and just be upset for a little.

It takes her a while to be open to affection with you but after a while she really likes cuddles.

Scary big dog gf, appearance wise she’s not that scary but oh boy can she give of big dog gf energy as soon as anyone comes up to y’all who’s hitting on either one of y’all. Oh if walking in the streets of Gotham and probably about to get mugged she’ll scare that person off in an instant.

She’s sweet but absolutely do not underestimate her- do not forget she kicks so much ass.

[psychemochanight]

Tiktok is basically the place where someone's biggest argument is "it's canon that x character does x thing," and it's the most fanon fact there is.

No, Dick wasn't a cop any longer than any of his other jobs... And he's not unemployed either, that guy's resume must be at least three feet long.

No, Jason's central personality trait is not protecting women and children, he does that, but not as a standout trait; that's Selina.

No, Tim is not a cold calculating genius. The guy can be quite the idiot or just the crazy one of the group (he's a bat for God's sake).

No, Damian wasn't raised by Jason in the league of assassins. No, he's not that same kid you saw when he was 10 either, he's already a teenager now.

No, Cass is not mute, she didn't know how to speak, but now she communicates quite well with minimal grammar errors like anyone else.

No, Duke doesn't hate Dick. He felt betrayed, yes, but he got over it and actually admires him. (And he's not normal, no one is).

No, Steph doesn't want to be Bruce's daughter... And yes, she did call Nightwing hot, lol.

And no, Bruce is not incapable of being surprised or scared, and he definitely lost sight of his kids at least once lol

[pigfacedbitch]

I Worship You

summary : they fell in love with a Greek deity.

word count : 0.8k

type : headcanons

pairing/s : Jason Grace / Percy Jackson x Goddess! Reader

warning/s : large age gaps (lol).

here's my masterlist!

Note : I will also be posting the same idea with Nico, Leo, Frank, and Will.

Jason Grace

You were a Camp Jupiter regular. VIP access. Eternal backstage pass.

Unlike the other gods who ghosted their kids harder than a bad Tinder date, you actually cared about demigods.

Probably because you were one, back in your 'mortal coil' phase.

You knew the struggle. The whole, 'my divine parent left me a prophecy and trauma' starter pack.

The joy of being chased around by monsters while trying to survive longer than Zeus' affairs with women.

Jason first saw you and thought, "Wow, that’s the prettiest counselor I’ve ever seen."

He was just a kid. You were immortal. It was awkward.

The camp had to break the news that you were a literal deity because of Jason’s intense puppy dog crush, and the poor guy almost got zapped into the next reincarnation.

Reyna never lets him live it down. She brings it up during arguments to win.

"You know I’m right, Reyna."

"Fine, but remember when you almost got yeeted with your own lightning because you’re a simp?"

"I was ten!"

It works every time.

As he aged like fine wine (or a stressed Roman soldier), his teen crush evolved.

Your acceptance made him feel seen and understood. It's all he ever wanted.

Jason doesn’t just want your guidance anymore; he wants your love.

He is reminded everyday that supposed to be the perfect Roman, the champion of the gods, a celestial poster child.

But secretly? He prays to you more than any of them.

Not in the "Hey, can you back me up so I don't die?" kind of way. More like "ANYTHING FOR YOU, BEYONCE!" kind of devotion.

You’re having an existential crisis because you practically watched him grow up.

It felt questionable.

"I’ve been around before your puberty."

"Now, I’m emotionally and physically available. Growth."

"I raised you!"

"And I’m trying to wife you up. Can we please just move on?"

You were ancient. Like 'I knew Kronos when he had abs' ancient.

Jason didn’t care.

His whole life was a checklist of what others expected from him.

He had been a puppet his whole life.

Choosing you was finally something he wanted for himself.

It felt like rebellion and therapy.

And once you gave in? Oh, boy.

The golden retriever in Roman armor became yours. Completely, irrevocably, gloriously yours.

Sure, he still does heroic stuff, but you’re his top priority.

Zeus and Hera were livid.

You 'stole their chosen one', or as Hera puts it, "MY PRECIOUS BLOND TROPHY!"

They called you a temptress, a manipulator, basically what they are.

You called them irrelevant.

Because what could they do? Smite you? You've survived worse.

Percy Jackson

You've been his spiritual stalker since Quest #1.

Not in a creepy way, more like a magical support staff that whispers, "You got this!" before he punches a hydra in the face.

Unlike other gods who appear just to flex and disappear like flaky Instagram influencers, you helped from the shadows.

No appearances. No booming voices from the sky. Just vibes.

Whenever he was scared, you sent him courage.

When he was hopeless, you slipped in a little optimism.

When he was depressed, you were the cosmic version of a comfort blanket.

Percy didn’t trust it.

The gods never do nice things without expecting a thank-you fruit basket, or a blood sacrifice.

Yet you did.

So naturally, he did what any traumatized teenager would do: scream "SUS! THIS IS SUS!" in his cabin like he’s playing Among Us at 3AM.

Curiosity got the best of him, so he tried the classic 'summon the mysterious deity' trick. "Hey, mystery spirit! Can you show up before I call customer service?"

Motherfucker even used an Ouija board.

You didn’t show up.

Then he realized you only appear when he’s in real danger.

He decided right then and there that the best way to summon you like some divine Pokemon was to almost die.

Multiple times.

"Hey, Percy, maybe try not to die just to talk to your celestial crush?"

"Grover, let me have this."

When you finally appeared before him, furious and radiating 'I could kill you myself' look, he was dumbfounded.

Not by your glare, but by your beauty. You were beyond words. Probably a good thing, because his brain was busy rebooting.

Hearing his full name made him fall harder, honestly.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, PERSEUS JACKSON?!"

"That I missed you?"

From that point on, he kept 'accidentally' stumbling into peril just to get your attention.

You two became… familiar.

Extremely so.

The more you appeared, the deeper he fell.

When Percy realized he was in love, it wasn’t fireworks or cheesy Disney dance numbers, just serenity.

Just a calm, warm feeling in his chest that said, 'This is home.'

"Are you glowing or did I just eat too many pizzas?"

"That’s eight boxes."

"Shhh. I was trying to flirt."

For the first time, he didn’t feel like he had to fight, to prove, to perform.

You were the calm in his chaotic life.

The eye of the storm.

His little slice of paradise in a life full of monsters, trauma, and water-based destruction. His divine chill pill.

And if anyone tries to mess with that?

Let’s just say he didn’t inherit all of Poseidon’s chaos juice for nothing (Alexa, play Ruthlessness from EPIC: The Musical).

Because Percy’s got two moods: goofy, surfer dude from Manhattan and eldritch hurricane who tortured Akhlys in Tartarus.

Choose wisely.

[yourlocalsurrealism]

DPXDC PROMPT: CASS AND DANNY

so i've seen a bunch of things where jason, or damian, or tim, or dick adopt danny. hear me out. Cass does.

Cass adopts Danny.

Danny gets de-aged, and dumped in Gotham to keep him safe from the GIW and Vlad and his parents. Cass is very liminal because of her time in the league, with a mainly empathy-based power set, and during one patrol, she feels something weird coming from an alley. 

She turns off her comms, then goes to investigate and finds smol Danny in a dumpster, trying to find food. He immediately clocks her as liminal so he trusts her purely because he knows she won’t turn him in to the government. Cass, meanwhile, is drawn to the small child, and turns her comms back on long enough to say “Babs, Bat-doption papers,” before scooping up the toddler and bringing him back to the cave. 

Danny is strongly reminded of Jazz, and he is completely fine with whatever is happening, because this liminal woman dressed as a bat found him, and then used empathy and a little ghostspeak to communicate what is happening, so he just relaxes into Cass’s arms.

Cass returns to the cave, and when asked why she has a child, she simply takes the stack of adoption papers Babs has set up, along with a tablet, puts her new kid to bed and falsifies some records to make him her legal son. Any attempts at questioning where she got Danny result in neutrally blank looks and Cass’s insistence that he is, and has always been, her son.

Bruce had been forced to bed early by Alfred for this patrol, and by the time he wakes up, eight hours of much-needed rest later, his children have come to the agreement that it’ll be really fun to fuck with his head, so he wakes up to a small child jumping on him, and, wondering whether he sleep-adopted another child, inquires as to Danny’s origins during breakfast. When he does, Tim looks shocked, Damian’s eyes widen as if he can’t believe his eyes, Cass looks betrayed, and the rest of the table just freezes. 

Hurriedly trying to fix his misstep, he asks what he said wrong, and Steph wraps her arm around Cass, picking Danny up, all while looking disappointed. 

Alfred finally breaks the silence by asking “Master Bruce, have you forgotten your grandson?” 

Bruce bluescreens. He figures out six hours later that while the kid is legally his grandson, he wasn’t present until last night, and he goes through the same process of questioning Cass and Steph about where they got the baby. The two women refuse to give any answer other than “he’s ours”.

Danny has now been adopted by a whole family of Liminals. There’s even a halfa, who reminds him a little of Dan, and he is very happy.

Duke absolutely adores his nephew. He quickly becomes Danny's favorite person outside of Cass, Steph, and Alfred.

[orchidsarchives]

more jason todd headcanons

- he always keeps extra bandages with little cartoon characters for the injured children that he runs into while he's on patrol

- jason makes sure to take care of the kids. he even carries granolas bars and snacks in the pockets of his tactical pants to feed them (major dad energy)

- he also does weekly readings with the kids in his old neighbourhood. they always get so excited to see him

- the children think of jason as an older brother figure and will pick fights over who loves him more. jason laughs while holding back tears

- he's really good at playing chess and to be honest, he's good at most board games. people always think he cheats, but he really is that good

- he has a huge sweet tooth and will never say no to sugary goods

- jason's nose is crooked from being broken one too many times (it's still so perfect and beautiful tho)

- his hands are almost always bandaged up or covered in bruises. they're cracked and beaten, but despite this, they are the most comforting thing to hold in times of distress

- theres always empty tea mugs piled up in his apartment

- he sleeps with a night light (same, at my big age smh)

- he volunteers at the local library whenever he has free time and the elderly women adore him

- they always ask about his injuries and he tells them they’re from work. he tries to convince himself that he's not technically lying, so he shouldn't feel guilty, but he always does

- the ladies give him sympathetic smiles and bring him lunch and freshly baked cookies. he once again laughs while holding back tears

- whenever anyone shows him affection, he gets really shy and always starts to blush. he tries to play it off tho because he thinks he's a big, strong, tough guy (he's not, he's baby girl)

[pinkhoodi]

saddle up !

✎ᝰ — dc boys as cowboys

♡⃕ — dick grayson, jason todd, wally west x reader

♡⃕ — genre + warnings: fluff & me not tryna go crazy with jason….

♡⃕ — a/n: the entire time I’ve wrote this, I’ve been thinking about cowboy wally with a sleeper build 😵‍💫. its 4 am and I wanna see wally in a fitted white shirt….

꒰ DICK GRAYSON ꒱

Ꮺ COWBOY DICK GRAYSON COWBOY DICK GRAYSON COWBOY DICK GRAYSON- my bad…imma calm down

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who has the girls swooning at his lil accent. his accent is the lightest out of all three boys, think of something mixed with texas with a very light midwest accent. however, it is heavier when he says certain words or when he becomes angry and raises his voice

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who has jet black strands blowing as he pushes them away from his face. his hair that glide against his shoulders as he takes off his cowboy hat. the slight curly strands blow into the wind, having him look like something out of a novella. it doesn’t help that he has it shaped somewhat in a mullet cause he thinks long hair and mullet catches women the most and he’s not wrong

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who is built so so beautifully, you would’ve thought he descended from heaven itself. he stands at 5’10, has broad shoulders with biceps that he flexes without even trying, dark-ish, but noticeable, blue eyes that also have the girls swooning his way. loves to get tattoos left and right, every other month he’s at the parlor getting another tattoo…fien

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who keeps his looks up mostly for the women. I’m not joking, he thrives on the attention of women, and he can never get enough of it. he never denies a photo opp, an autograph, anything his fan girls want, he’ll give them. soemtime’s he’ll give them a lil somethin extra ;)

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who, at competitions, sometimes goes shirtless at a competition. if it’s a competition where he gets down and dirty, or in his heart, it’s a serious one and requires more focus, he’ll take his shirt off. one, it signals his fans that this competition is not to be played with, and two, it feeds his ego when girls are going crazy. let’s not be shocked, it’s grayson

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who brings his voice to a deeper octave and laces his voice with a deeper tone to his voice when he says your name. he delights in the way your name rolls off his tongue, it’s something so alluring, something that he wanna says 24/7, and he has, he can’t help it

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who likes to add a lil bling to what he wears. he likes to rock a new necklace, some iced out chains, a nice watch from those luxury brands that are hard to pronounce, he likes flaunting his wealth soemtimes. he doesn’t do it often, but he does, he keeps it subtle

Ꮺ cowboy!dick grayson who, on his off days from competiton, he’s a model. his pretty boy face has landed him on the cover of many commercials, magazines, and numerous amounts of ads for men's cologne, his favortie thing to model for

꒰ JASON TODD ꒱

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who does not play anyyyy games when it comes to his competitions, he knows what he has to do and he is only determined to do just as he is needed. he’s not really into fanservice, however, he won’t turn a good time for a fangirl

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who has the thickest accent out of all three !!! I’ve said this multiple times but jason’s accent is sooooooo thick and you can tell he’s a native from his vocabulary. also, he differentiates how he talks to women and men; no matter who you are, he talks to women with more politeness and respect than he does around men. especially with older women, he’ll keep all his cursing to a minimum, out of respectability ofc

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who is the biggest and strongest out of the three. though, he and wally are the same height, he is much bulkier than wally. everything about him is enormous, and I mean enormous, starting from his biceps that flex when he’s working in his shop to his quads that sometimes poke in his jeans. his chest that has a lining whenever he wears casual clothing or pokes through when he leaves a few buttons unbottoned

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who has a bit of a mustache, a few tattoos, and a couple piercings. he once studied tattoos before getting his first and learned the best placements for each tattoo he owns. he has a lot of niche ones, a couple of typical cowboy ones, and one on his lower leg

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd, in his free time from competitions, he’s busy working on cars. he’s had a knack for fixing stuff, especially cars, since his teen years. the town usually comes to jason for any of their technical issues, it came to the point where he opened up his shop for it. though, please don’t expect to find him on competiton days cause he won’t be there

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who doesn’t flirt as often as wally and grayson, but when he does, it’ll make you melttt. he knows his way around having someone gushing over what he says, going back and forth with flirtatious comments that’ll have you on your toes, use his accent to his advantage, he knows how to play it well when it comes to flirting

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who is bilingual and can sometimes throw in a spanish accent when he flirts. not textbook spanish, but more so original spanish from places like argentina or puerto rico. though, I do like to think he has more puerto rican spanish instilled in him than other variations of the spanish language (shoutout to my twin kai)

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who would spend money on you more than often. but one of his favorite things that he gifted you was a beautiful jewelry set for you and your initials stitched onto his boots for himself

Ꮺ cowboy!jason todd who always saves his money for a new truck, one of his greatest prized possessions. every few years he would get his truck replaced or modify it to his liking, whether it be a new paint job or a new motor

꒰ WALLY WEST ꒱

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who is extremely sweet to any and everyone. while, his best friend’s brother, jason, can be a brute and grayson can be found flirting with the women surrounding him, wally helps around the town. he can be found helping with the local farmer’s market, holding tutoring sessions, participating at the senior living, you name it, wally has probably done it

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who’s usually deemed as being the smallest out of all three. though, that might be the case when he walks around town, he sports a white tank and baggy jeans, showing off his sleeper build. he’s known for having an extreme amount of endurance and he would like to keep it up, so he works out and it has given him greater results than he could think of

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who keeps his appearance more bare than the other two, but he does enjoy sporting some extremely fine jewlery like a nice snake chain or a ring band. his facial features stands out more than his physique, the green eyes that are soft when first meeting you, the freckles that spread around his face, his pearly white teeth that he uses to charm others ;p

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west whose accent is laced with such refinement, his vernacular isn’t as country as dick and jason. his vocabulary can be said to have elegance, poise, some might say higher class as well

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who tends to have a bit of cockiness when it comes to his competitons. his time with competiton may not have been as long as the other two, but it still isn’t stopping him from making the top five in the rankings

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who can usually be found kissing a girl in the back of his truck. though, he can talk with elegance, he can also speak with enough eloquence that’ll have almost everyone agree to a fun time

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who is keep’s your safety as his top priority !! especially, around the arenas when he knows you can get easily, he’ll hold your waist and walk with you

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who has a great amount of polaroid pictures of all his loved ones. some in his wallet, plenty placed around his room, and a picture of him and you hanging from his rearview mirror

Ꮺ cowboy!wally west who likes to have his passenger side decorated to your liking of course. though, it’s his truck, who is he not make space for his lover ? whether it’s getting a cute hello kitty bobblehead for your side, a small compartment for your bag, or seat covers that match his and your aesthetics. ask and he will go great lengths to accomodate to it

♡⃕ COWBOY DICK COWBOY JASON COWBOY WALLY. I NEEEEEEEEED, NOT A WANT A NEEEEED

♡⃕ if yall want a pt 2, lemme know. I’m stuck on this concept and im scared I might get fixated

♡⃕ if yall have hcs for them as well, pleaeeeee slide. I wanna hear them ALLLLLL 😩

𝐕𝐎𝐓𝐏 💗: luke 6:27

© 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟧 𝗉𝗂𝗇𝗄𝗁𝗈𝗈𝖽𝗂. 𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗌 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖾𝖽

[moratorya]

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 ━━━━ 𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐢

‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊ in which you're a mermaid of the seas, blessed with a love for swimming with freedom, and jason is a sailor of the seas, blessed with a love for you.

word count: 6.9k

warnings: grief, jason's death (literally), perhaps OOC characterisation of some characters (including dick), vaguely edited/proofread, lowkey no development of plot?

notes: guys. this was meant to only be 3 parts. guys. it's growing. it's literally multiplying in size. guys i can't this was meant to be a small commitment but this has taken a life of its own 😭 anyshways please enjoy!!

previous part・fic masterlist・next part

“Miss Todd?” 

You look up. “That’s me.”

The woman smiles down at you, lines creasing across her elderly face. “Here’s your ticket. Apologies for the delay, there was an issue with your identification.”

The ship ticket is gently pressed into your hand, and you smile back at her as you hold onto it tightly. “That’s okay,” you reassure, “these things happen. I’m a recent immigrant, you see, I’ve been told that the IDs are a bit iffy when they’re new.”

“Oh!” The woman peers at you again, this time closer. “Where are you from? I immigrated too! Heavens, don’t tell me that you’re travelling because of work—my son does that, but it is extremely tiring; gosh, are you married?”

You look at her, and hope your smile stays the same. “No. I’m travelling for leisure, though. Exploring the sights.”

“You’re headed north,” the woman nods, musing aloud, “so you mustn’t be from there. Yet there’s something about you—you’re far too elegant to be from the south, as odd as that sounds. Where…you don’t mind me asking, do you?”

“I don’t know,” you lie, and hold the ticket closer, “but the sea is my home. I travel by ship to stay close to it.”

The woman laughs, and it’s a tinkering that warms your heart. You wonder if all humans grow old to be as gentle and kind. “Well, best of luck, Miss Todd. I wish you the safest of travels.”

You incline your head as she leaves, watching as she waddles away to give someone else their ticket. The paper crumples in your hand, and you have to remind yourself not to destroy it before it can get checked aboard. 

The coastal breeze weaves past you, making you shiver at the chill, and you pull your jacket over your shoulders further. There’s still some time before the ship arrives, so you take a seat on a nearby bench, hunching in over yourself to keep warm. Glancing down at the ticket, you shuffle at an angle so there’s more light casting behind to read what’s printed on the front.

One way ticket to Gotham Harbour. Then it’s your name, printed there, in bold. As a mer, you didn’t have last names—you belonged to a ‘pod’, or a group, and you were referred to as such. But to be able to live amongst humans, you needed to adopt one that would make your travels easier. 

He would’ve wanted this, Bruce had said.

The horn blows. You shove your hands into Jason’s over-sized jacket, which now barely fits your adult frame, and you hurry to the pier. 

Even though it’s been a while since you’ve begun living on land, you’re still not used to the way the dark water sparkles with golden freckles underneath the night lamps, and your head swivels on your shoulders as you take in the sight. There are families ushering towards the boat together, young sailors who are looking to find a job somewhere, and loud young women who giggle amongst themselves and trip onto their ship. 

Humans are lively. There’s a kind of energy to them that you’ve yet to emulate. 

“Miss Todd,” the steward acknowledges, once he’s checked over your ticket, “welcome aboard. Let me please remind you once more that this trip will take two nights, including tonight. Decks below the second are off-limits, as guests are only allowed on the top two. If you have anything that you need, please do not hesitate to call upon one of the staff.”

“Thank you,” you reply. This is the first time you’ve used Bruce’s money to travel comfortably, and now you can see why people would prefer it. The service makes you feel like you’re being coddled to the highest degree.

You step across the threshold, making sure you keep and eye out for any ledges. With effort, you manage to maintain your balance without getting throw off with the bobbing nature of the ship deck—you’re still getting used to your legs, okay, it’s a new experience, especially since you’ve taken to reverting back to mer form whenever possible. You make it across the first deck before tripping on a stray rope, and you swear you hear Jason’s voice say, Hey, that’s a new record!

A hand shoots out, grabbing you by the arm, stabilising you as you swear. “Sorry,” you breathe out, hand clutching the edge of the boat, “it’s just—it’s been a while since I’ve been onboard.”

“No problem, takes a while to get used to.”

You look up. For a second, you swear you see Jason.

Then the man smiles, wide and bright, and no light beams out from behind him, and you’re reminded, once again, that Jason is dead. The man’s blue eyes are soft with concern, but he tries for cheerful as he asks, “Are you feeling okay? Do you need some help getting inside?”

“I’m okay,” you reply, tearing your eyes away from the face that looks almost identical to Jason’s, “Thank you, though.”

“Of course.” The man hesitates as you gather your bearings. “Not very good with the sea, huh?”

You can’t help but laugh at the irony, and the man quirks an eyebrow. “Didn’t know I was that funny,” he admits, but smiles anyways. “Uhm, will you be hanging around the deck? You need some help going inside?”

You shake your head. “It’s okay. I think I’m going to turn in, actually.”

“No, yeah, that sounds very reasonable,” the man chuckles, “you seem like you’re a very reasonable person. Well, in case we see each other around, my name’s Richard, though friends can call me Dick—it was nice meeting you.”

Your heart thumps, and suddenly it’s the only thing you can hear. 

No wonder. The identical face. The exact same smile. The way he so smoothly converses—if it had been anyone else, you would’ve been alerted to how suave he was being, but now you know. Just like Bruce, who can make himself to be one of the most approachable people despite his looming stature and his true introverted nature, Richard can do exactly the same.

Jason’s brother. This is Jason’s brother.

“Nice to meet you too,” you repeat, and you shake his outstretched hand. With a tone you hope is even, you tell him your name.

You hold your breath. Nothing akin to recognition flickers across his face, and so you deflate slightly with relief as he gives you one more kind smile before turning away to leave.

You’ve been on land for just over a year. It’s been three since Jason’s death. Counting the day you first met, it’s been almost ten years since you’ve met Jason Todd, the man whose name you’ve taken on. For ten years, you’ve never met Jason’s older brother before. He’s always been busy, either on the other side of the continent, or you were busy running errands for Mistress Talia. The timing just never lined up.

Now you’ve met him. Jason always used to say that he wanted to introduce the two of you to one another, the two most important mers in his life.

“Don’t tell him I said that,” Jason had said, almost immediately after. “He’ll never let me live it down. Eugh. I don’t even think he likes me all that much.”

“That can’t possibly be true,” you had replied, because at that time, you didn’t think there would be anyone in the world that could possibly dislike Jason Todd. He had been so kind, so sweet; only a psychopath could’ve not liked him.

A psychopath like the pirate known as the Joker, apparently. 

The thought of Jason and the Joker sends shivers down your back, and you shrink further into Jason’s jacket. Hobbling inside, you pretend you don’t notice Richard Grayson watching you as you try to find your room.

The first year of Jason’s death, you didn’t exist.

Without Jason, there was no you. He had been everywhere—the cheeky voice getting you through class, the anticipated meeting that you’d always be excited for at the end of every week, and the only boy you’d ever love. So it wasn’t too surprised both Bruce and Talia to see you become a shell of your former self, just going through the motions of what people incorrectly called ‘life’.

You were not living. You were simply…there. 

Instead, when she couldn’t bear to see you moping around anymore, Talia sent you on hundreds of errands. The only thing that you could do that didn’t resemble a ghost was swim, and so she had you swimming across all the seas on the globe, taking missions that took months at a time. It was all non-stop travelling, and all your companions got so annoyed that it got to a point where all the mer would refuse to take a mission with you because they knew what it meant. Constant swimming, no rest, and a mute mer to spend time with.

By the time you had explored the entire ocean bed, once in groups that looked at you as if you were alien, a second time just by yourself, Talia had gotten fed up. You were locked up in her mansion, teaching her son how to swim.

Damian gave you life, for a bit. He was all you lived for, for the next year. His green eyes weren’t the same shade of Jason’s blue, but they were round and wide and so much like him that the first time you saw the child you burst into tears and clung onto him, sobbing.

Now the child goes around calling you ‘blubberer’, each time, losing the harsh edge. You could almost call him affectionate, as much as al Ghuls can be affectionate. Ah, Damian. Whenever you look at the sea, you miss him.

Out of nowhere, in the midst of one of your classes, Talia had snatched Damian away. Before you could protest, you were sent on land with a charm in hand. “Learn to live,” she had snapped at you, before shoving you unceremoniously into Bruce’s hands.

You didn’t even get to say goodbye. You did remember to press a kiss to Damian's crown, though, so you hope he has a relatively good impression of you.

Living on land became all your worries, after that. The first time you had put on the charm, tentatively in the familiar embrace of the lull of the Robin, all you remember was blinding white pain. 

Then you had woken up, with two legs instead of a tail, and you had wailed.

“I know,” Bruce had whispered, gathering you into his arms like you were his child instead, “I know, it hurts, doesn’t it? I know, I know…”

Now, of course, the transition is much easier. You’ve gotten used to it, probably. Bruce also theorises that the more often you switched, the less painful it gets as your body becomes more and more familiar with the ways your cells should morph, but he admits that Richard had left before he could come to conclusive answers. 

You, instead, became his newest mer ward. For months, Bruce had taken you on his travels across the seas, but you noticed that he didn’t chase after any pirates when you were onboard. The one time you had crossed paths with the Joker and his ship, Bruce had turned around so fast that all you really got to see was the laughing green of the ship’s sails.

That green decorates your nightmares. You’re glad that Bruce turned away before you could glean any more details.

But there was only so long before Bruce could ignore the calling of justice. You promised Bruce that you’d keep in touch, sending letters whenever you’d land in a new country, and so he begrudgingly gave you your passport, which bestowed upon you your new identity and name.

“Miss Todd,” Alfred had said, the first time anyone had used the name and you had almost burst into tears, “a parting gift, of sorts.”

He was the one who gave you Jason’s coat. Now you wear it almost religiously, and Jason’s scent has worn off.

If you tried hard enough, you just might be able to inhale the salty scent of the sea breeze and the laughter and sunshine of Jason. But that’s probably your imagination—still, it eases your sleep, so you keep it near you at all times.

When you stumble out of your room in the morning, Jason’s jacket hanging over your shoulders, sleeves swinging uselessly as it’s a bit warm inside, you catch sight of Richard Grayson laughing with his friends where the buffet is. Something in your chest twists at the realisation that you’ve met him now, the last person in Jason’s family, and Jason doesn’t even know.

He wasn’t even the one to introduce the two of you. There’s something final about meeting Richard Grayson that makes you want to rip your heart out of your chest and let it sink to the bottom of the sea.

“Good morning,” the server says when you arrive at the buffet table, “what would you like to have today?”

You know who he is instantly. Mer recognises mer. When he hands your plate back, there’s a green envelope pressed on its underside, its coarse texture tough against your fingertips. 

You smile back, heart dropping, and turn away. 

Richard Grayson tries to make eye-contact, but your head is firmly down as you beeline for your bedroom. The ship wavers, and you almost spill some soup, but the price of your luxury ticket should keep anyone from complaining. 

The door clicks shut behind you with a finality that has your shoulders tensing. You stay there, for a minute, back against the door, envelope in hand.

Your hands tremble as you you open it. There is only one line, with no signature.

You will return.

You don’t need to know who it is. You tuck it away, into one of Jason’s inner pockets, and you close your eyes.

Ra’s has summoned you. It’s time you stopped the needless escapes across the sea, he’s telling you. The grief is never going to end, so you might as well be useful, is what you hear. 

You squeeze your eyes shut, food forgotten. You need air. You need space. You move in a series of semi-conscious movements, and by the time you feel fully in control, you’re already on the top deck, looking up into the sky and feeling the rush of the wind against your face. The chill startles you back into motion, and you quickly shuffle to the edge of the ship, wanting to see the water rush by. 

On the top deck, you have to thread your arms into Jason’s jacket lest it fly away, so you cross your arms across your chest to keep warm as you glancing between the sky and the sea, and inhale the salt of the air. 

Your time is up. You’ve travelled to every country in existence, trying to stay busy, but you always end up back on the sea. Then you miss Jason, and you throw yourself into another new country.

Now, you suppose, you can’t do that anymore. Thankfully, you’re already on your return to Gotham, so that means you’ll get the chance to return the charm that sits alongside your defunct heatstone on your sternum. You also need to thank Bruce for his hospitality, return the jacket to Alfred, and then…

You don’t know how to say goodbye to Jason. You never really know.

The sky bleeds from blue, to orange, and then back into night. You’ve spent the entire day just staring down at the sea, and then staring up at the sky, and then staring back down at the sea, and you sigh as you turn around to retire back into your cabin. Someone will come around and usher you back, anyways. You might as well retire early.

Ra’s voice echoes, You will return. You suppress a shiver, and try not to think too much about the letter that presses against your chest as you pull the jacket close. 

“Cold?” 

You glance to your left, and an entire man is standing beside the door to the entrance back inside. He’s massive, positively bigger than even Bruce, and you blink for a second as you take in the red kerchief that blocks the lower half of his face. You can’t tell if he’s smiling or not.

“Me?” you ask, bemused.

“I don’t see anyone else up here at this time of night,” the man points out. You glance around, and indeed, the top deck is empty.

“I’m not cold,” you reply, cautiously, despite your hands burrowing further into your pockets. “Who are you?”

The man’s eyes lift, corners raising as he, presumably, smiles. “I wonder. Who are you?”

There is a hilt of a sword at his waist. You’re pretty sure there are no weapons allowed on deck for guests—he might be with the merchants who own the ship. You’re simply a rich guest who they've taken aboard. “A traveller,” you reply. “Will you answer my question?”

“A traveller too,” he answers, shifting so his shoulder leans against the door instead of his back. He tilts his head to the side, as if trying to place your face. “Have we met before?”

You blink. “I don’t believe so.”

Although his expression is warm, there is a split second when it disappears and suddenly all you see behind his eyes is a chill far too dangerous for you to deal with. Just as you’re about to take a step back, the glint is gone, and the man is smiling again. Well, you think he’s smiling, but it's hard to see past the fabric that covers the bottom half of his face.

“Huh,” he says, “could’ve sworn we’ve met before. What’s your name again?”

You don’t give out your name to strangers. A mer’s name is important. “Todd,” you say instead, because technically, you aren’t lying.

Nothing outwardly changes about the man, but everything shifts. Tension tightens in the air, and even though the man hasn’t moved at all, you swear the hilt of his sword looks closer to his hand than it did before.

“Todd,” he mulls, the syllable rolling in his mouth, “your name, or your husband’s?”

There is a right and wrong answer to that question. The man is waiting. 

You opt for a smile instead. “Good night,” you reply, and you step inside.

He watches you go, not stopping you, and you hurry as best as you can down the hallway and towards the stairs. His gaze is heavy—sharp, analysing, and even when you lock your cabin door behind you, you can still feel it. 

Even Jason’s jacket doesn’t bring you easy sleep tonight. It must be because you’re getting closer to Gotham.

Alfred is there when you arrive at Wayne Manor, but you’re not quite sure if he’s there waiting outside the house for you or for Richard Grayson, so you just politely nod at him when you see him, stepping through the gate. 

The elderly man’s eyebrow raises into a perfect arch as he says, “And what do you think you’re doing so far away, Miss? Please, let me get your bags.”

“Alfred, no,” you say firmly, clutching your bag close to your chest, “I couldn’t—”

“Miss,” he asserts, pointedly. “Might I remind you once more that I am employed by Master Bruce? This is my job, dear, please, let me do it well.”

The bag you currently use is Jason’s. The jacket on your shoulder is Jason’s, and your name is half-Jason’s. It feels as if you’ve somehow become a placeholder for him, and sometimes Bruce and Alfred’s kindness is so overwhelming that you think that you truly just are Jason in their eyes. Jason would never let Alfred carry anything for him. So you don’t.

“Alfred, I said no,” you command, and he pauses at the tone, “it’s just one bag, let me take care of it.”

Alfred frowns. “Miss—”

“Alfie! Is that you?”

Your shoulders seize and you automatically reach for the charm hanging on your neck. As you turn, you see two horses pulling up just behind you, Richard on one, one of his friends on another. He swings off the saddle with a dexterity and lightness that, if you didn’t know any better, you never would’ve suspected that he was born with a tail instead of legs. His expression turned cloudy with confusion when he sees you, standing beside Alfred, but it gives way to pure happiness as he throws his arms around Alfred like a son returning home. 

Alfred doesn’t struggle under Richard’s weight, against your expectations, but instead he returns the hug with a gentle pat on the mer’s back. Richard’s friend, who slips off his own horse just behind him, stand awkwardly besides you as family reunites.

“Master Dick,” Alfred says, amused, “I am equally as enthused to see you too.”

“Ah,” Richard’s friend sighs from beside you, “every time I see them, they give me even more cavities.”

You glance at him. He’s already looking down at you. “Hey, aren’t you—” He snaps his fingers, trying to remember something. “Aren’t you that lady that Dick met on board yesterday?”

“Er,” you say, because how did he even know that? Even if Richard had said anything about you, how would he know that you were the person who couldn’t stand up straight?

“I’m Roy,” he introduces, charmingly, “nice to meet you.”

You nod, and you shake his hand. He waits for your name, but you don’t give it out easily. Instead, you just smile, and hope that’s enough to placate him.

“You must be cold,” Alfred interrupts, looking knowingly at you and at the way you shrink into Jason’s jacket, “let us go inside. Master Roy, will you be staying for dinner?”

Roy opens his mouth, but then he falls silent. All of you glance up, and there Bruce is, standing by the entrance like a shadow. There’s something about the way he stands that has both you and Richard standing to attention, and Roy reconsiders his answer.

“I—I think I’ll head back into town,” he says, slowly, nodding, “yeah, uh—the team, we’re staying at an inn. I think they wouldn’t appreciate it if I wasn’t back to stop Kori from ordering something new and disgusting to try—thanks for the invite, though.”

Turning to Richard, he says, lightly, “See you in a bit?”

“Yeah.” Richard’s face is missing its usual smile as he stares up at his father. “See you in a bit.”

“Roy,” Bruce says, and everyone freezes, “it’s good to see you.”

Roy swallows, and goes for a smile. It’s pinched, but overall, a success. “Yeah, likewise, sir. Good afternoon, sir.”

It takes not even a few minutes for Roy to disappear, swinging onto his horse and riding away. With his friend now gone, Richard looks far less at ease, and his eyes flit between you, Bruce, and Alfred, waiting for one of you to move.

Bruce shifts. He nods, movement slow and deliberate. “Welcome home,” he says.

You don’t know if he’s talking to Richard or you. Suddenly, Ra’s letter becomes infinitely heavier.

Dinner is a tense affair. Richard and Bruce exchange one line of greetings consisting of ‘welcome back’ and ‘yeah, sure’, and the rest of you suffer in the thick silence. Thankfully, Tim is in the house, and he breaks up the tension by providing you with his latest research on mer-human biology. He also includes Richard in the conversation, but from what you’re understanding, the man hasn’t turned back into his mer form in a very long time.

“And so,” Tim continues, animatedly, “I figured, since you have the hybrid circulatory system and all, I was thinking, if you were free sometime, I’d really like to be able to see how the charm affects that—I mean, you don’t have your gills when you’re on land, right?”

“No, Tim, I don’t,” you say, pausing as you chew on your food, “but I’m happy to test things out for you.”

“Amazing! Are you staying in town for long? Bruce says that you’ve used up all the money coming back on one of Queen’s ships—okay, that sounds creepy, but I swear we aren’t tracking you or anything it’s just that for safety reasons, Bruce was like, we need to keep tabs on you so—”

“Keep tabs?” Richard cuts in, sharply. “What does that mean?”

Tim pauses. It’s so brief that you barely miss it, but he’s sitting right next to you, so you catch the moment his hands spasm when he realises he’s said something he shouldn’t have said. “We keep tabs on you too, Dick,” Tim replies smoothly, smiling cutely, “it’s our way of showing that we love you and all that, of course.”

“Tim,” Richard says tiredly, dropping his knife to massage his temples. His food has barely been touched. “Don’t try to bullshit me. I taught you how to make that innocent face.”

“Uhm—” Tim looks over at Bruce, who is staring into his soup as if it had wronged him. The man makes no acknowledgement at Tim’s imploring gaze. “Uhm!” he repeats, higher, and then looks at you.

He’s just a boy, you tell yourself, he’s just as old as Jason when he died. That’s why you inhale, prepare yourself, and then you address Bruce directly. “Ra’s has summoned me back,” you announce, “so I’ll have to return everything you gave me. My passport’s in my bag. Thank you, Bruce.”

His head snaps up, and he stares at you. His eyes are wide with something adjacent to shock—horror, confusion, something akin to recalculating to account for an unforeseen variable—and he mutedly watches as you slide Ra’s letter across the table. The green-brown paper made of kelp is stark against the whites and blacks of marble, and everyone in the room watches it as it moves.

Bruce reaches for it tentatively. It’s almost like he’s afraid to see what’s written inside.

“That’s…not what I meant,” Tim says weakly. 

“You’re leaving?” Bruce sounds as if he’s never considered the option before. “You’re going back to Ra’s?”

“I serve him,” you reply, frowning, “this day was bound to come.”

“You can’t leave,” Bruce says, getting quieter and quieter, starting to mutter, “no, you must stay in Gotham—or will the sea be safer? You’d be far away—no, but what if—what if—”

“Okay,” Tim says over the top, voice loud, covering up whatever Bruce is muttering, “I think dinner’s over. Alfred, amazing cooking as always. Dick, great to see you. Would you wanna come along? I think I’m going to need to collect my data right about now, if you don’t mind.” 

Tim’s looking at you, and you glance between him and Bruce, warily. Bruce is shaking his head, muttering like a fanatic to himself, just like the days when Jason had just died. He had obsessed over finding the Joker, only to be held back by his best friend and voyager Clark Kent, who was the one who inspired Bruce to encourage you to travel across the seas alone. You probably should send for Clark before you leave.

Bruce catches your eye, and then something painful flashes across his face. He looks away, stands up stiffly, and leaves the room. He takes Ra’s letter with him, the green crinkling under his tensing fist. 

You haven’t seen him like this since that time he had stormed in underwater. Something’s wrong.

Tim says your name, gently poking your arm. You blink back at him as Alfred quietly moves around the three of you remaining to clean the dishes.

“Not to point out the obvious,” Richard says into the silence, “but what the fuck is going on with Bruce?”

No one answers. Instead, Tim looks up at you, pleadingly. “The pool?”

It only takes four switches back and forth before Tim’s satisfied, and he plops down on the rocks surrounding the pool as he scribbles down his notes. Richard sits beside him, legs soaking in the water, and you look up at the two of them from your mer form, body submerged. Tim hums, stretching so his legs rest over Richard’s lap, and he leans against the wall comfortably.

Richard shifts so Tim’s position is more comfortable, patting his brother’s legs absent-mindedly as his eyes track the shimmer of your iridescent tail underwater. Something about the way his eyes glaze over makes your heart pity him.

“I didn’t know your name,” Richard says, suddenly. “That’s why I didn’t recognise you.”

There’s a beat, and then you realise he can’t possibly be talking about Tim, because he definitely knows Tim’s name. You swim over, crossing the pool to anchor yourself to edge where the two brothers sit.

“Me?” you ask, as Tim starts grumbling to himself. He roughly crosses something out in his notebook, shaking his head.

“Yeah. Bruce wouldn’t tell me your name, because, well, he thought you wouldn’t appreciate your name being handed out to random people left and right. I was waiting for Jason to tell me, but—you know.”

“You know my name now,” you point out.

Richard hums. “Yeah. That’s true. You don’t mind me knowing? Couldn’t help but notice you didn’t tell Roy, earlier.”

Damn Bruce and his highly observant sons. First it was Jason, who always managed to be able to discern your mood despite your best efforts to remain as stoic as possible, then it was Tim who can answer his own questions by looking at the way your lips quirk, and now it’s Richard who listens to every word you say. “You’re Jason’s family,” you answer, quietly, because it’s the truth.

“Am I?” Richard smiles, self-deprecatingly, and then he laughs. It’s grating on your ears, and it makes your face scrunch up in distaste.

“I got it!” Tim declares, launching to his feet, almost tumbling into the water as he shoves the notebook in your face. You barely manage to hold down on his ankles so he doesn't topple over. “So the charm actually doesn’t do anything to your system; you just use your four-chamber network when there’s an abundance of air—you know, from those neural sensors on your neck we identified last time—and the other one just shuts off. The charm just closes over your gills—they’re still there, of course, but it’s more like an illusion so you look more human.”

You and Richard stare at him as the two of you process what he’s just said. Tim blushes underneath the attention.

“That’s great work,” you say, patting his knee gently, “you’re incredibly smart, Timothy.”

Tim’s blush intensifies. “Oh—uhm, thanks—that’s really kind of you! Uhm, that means a lot coming from you, y’know, with you being my favourite test subject and all.”

“I’m your only test subject,” you point out, and flick some water into his eyes using your tail.

Tim splutters, wiping it off, grumbling, “Yeah well, you’re no longer my favourite!” 

To his side, Richard watches the two of you with a gaze that is too complicated to decipher, but he smiles through it and reaches over to ruffle Tim’s hair. “She’s right, you are a little genius,” he agrees, glancing over at you. For a second, his eyes flit over to your tail, but before it lingers, he’s looking back at your face. You smile back.

“So,” Richard says, clearing his throat, “what’s up with B? Any active cases, Tim?”

Tim looks at you, before shaking his head. “You know we don’t talk cases in front of others, Dick. But yeah, it’s relating to a…new arrival.”

Richard blinks down at you. “You’re not involved in the cases?”

“I travel,” you supply, shrugging. You sink further down into the water, letting them know that you’re going to leave them to talk privately. “Bruce never mentioned anything.”

Tim waves as you disappear, but you catch his hushed whisper before you drop below the surface. “It’s because Bruce doesn’t want her in any danger,” he murmurs to Richard, “not after what happened to Jason.”

You drop under, missing Richard’s response. Receiving confirmation that you’re simply a reminder of Jason doesn’t hurt like you expected it too, but it settles on your chest like a weight that you no longer can ignore. It’s perfect timing, then, that Ra’s has a mission for you to do.

You haven’t swum at your full speed in a long time, so you take the chance to warm up your unused muscles. The pool underneath Wayne Manor, is large, but it most definitely pales in comparison to the stretch of the sea, so you opt for swimming in circles, closing your eyes once you know the distance by heart. The nauseating quality of the water, the endless circles, the words you will return turns your mind into mush, and you lose track of time. The only thing that gets you to stop is the drop of a stone into the water, and you come to a roaring halt, detecting the foreign vibration with your lateral line.

You peer out. Bruce is there. “Hey,” he says, tiredly. “Are you free now?”

Tim and Richard have migrated to the other side of the cave, Tim used to your rough swimming and so has prepared beforehand, but Richard is completely soaked to the bone. He doesn’t seem upset though, and he watches you bat your tail with wonder.

You look back at Bruce. “Yes?”

“I need to talk to you about your timeline,” Bruce continues, voice flat. “Whenever you’re ready. I’ll be upstairs.”

“Okay,” you agree easily, and Bruce nods. He pads back upstairs, barely acknowledging his sons in the corner.

Richard scoffs. Tim offers, “He’s been under a lot of stress recently.”

“The new player?” you ask, pulling yourself out of the water. 

“Yeah,” Tim replies, distantly as he scuttles over, pressing your chain into your hand. The charm instantly reverts you back to human form, and your empty heatstone finds its home in the middle of your chest. With practised movements, Tim throws a cloak over your exposed legs, Jason’s shawl in his hands, and he passes it over to you once you’ve wiped your hands on the cloak.

“You’ve done this a lot,” Richard observes, as you swing the shawl over your shoulders. Tim hums in response, and then passes you a towel to get rid of any excess water. “Who’s the new player?”

Tim pauses. He looks up at Richard, suspicious. “I thought you said you didn’t want to be involved.”

“Tim,” Richard commands, calmly, “who is it?”

You stumble to your feet, the numbness of your new limbs making it hard to balance yourself, and Tim fits himself under your arm automatically to help you stabilise. “He calls himself the Red Hood,” Tim answers, grudgingly, “and he’s new new. He appeared out of thin air, a couple of months ago.”

“Everyone has a paper trail,” Richard disagrees, “you just haven’t found it yet.”

“Well, jeez,” Tim says, looking away as he helps you hobble to the steps, “thanks so much for your once-in-a-year input. Anything else before I see you next year for our annual meeting? Or will it just be ‘argue with B’ taking up eighty-percent of the schedule as always?”

“Tim,” you admonish. He winces, but doesn’t take it back.

Richard is quiet for a moment. And then he shoves past, going up the steps first, muttering, “Humans,” like it was a derogatory term, disappearing up. Water drips from his back, probably from when the water rushed out of the pool at your swimming speed, and he leaves footprints of water behind.

You and Tim watch him as he goes. You hear the slam of a door, before Tim says quietly, “Well. I probably shouldn’t have said that?”

Bruce has always had complicated relationships with his sons. You’re not surprised it stretches to brotherhood as well.

“Let’s go,” you sigh, taking the first step up the stairs, “you should probably get some rest, anyways. It’s been a long day.”

“I’m not five!” Tim protests, but obediently helps you up each step, one at a time. Just to be a pain, you lean unnecessary weight on top of him, making him grumble, but he doesn’t complain explicitly.

He’s such a good kid. You always wonder how Bruce managed to snag the best children to take under his wing.

By the time you reach the top, you’ve gotten most of the feeling back from your legs, and you press a chaste kiss to Tim’s forehead in gratitude, making him fluster at the affection. He reminds you of Damian, and how Damian used to be averse to any form of intimacy. You only realised how much your quick kisses affected him until he had voluntarily given you a hug on Jason’s death anniversary.

You’ve taken to showing these two boys as much love as you can. Life is short, after all.

Tim tries to accompany you straight to Bruce’s office, but you shake your head and send him to his bedroom. He protests, citing that one time you thought you could control your legs but ended up being found at the bottom of one of the many staircases in Wayne Manor, and you flick his forehead in retaliation.

“That was years ago,” you rebuke. “Now go. I’ll see you after.”

Tim frowns, but knows he can’t win against you in an argument. He sulks away, and you mentally promise to visit him before he goes to bed tonight, and then you turn and head for Bruce’s study. 

On the way, you bump into Richard, who’s changed out of his wet clothes into dry ones, and he has a towel in his hands as he aggressively scrubs at his hair. His face is set in a sombre expression that you never would have associated with the Richard that you saw laughing on the boat, but you suppose, Wayne Manor has a way of doing things like this to people. 

Your eyes meet, temporarily, before he turns away. You turn the opposite way, and knock on Bruce’s door. He watches you, and you’re acutely aware of his attention.

“Come in,” Bruce calls.

You push the door open. He’s waiting at his desk, glasses on, and he swipes at his desk to move all stray paper out of his way.

“Shut the door behind you, please.”

You close the door with a gentle click. He leans to the side, opening a drawer, and then takes out Ra’s letter. He places it in the middle of his desk.

Bruce tries for a smile, but it’s far too tired to be comforting. “Take a seat.”

You sit. Bruce doesn’t complain when there’s a squelch of water, probably because he could just buy another one, and so he waits patiently waits until you find the best way to sit in the chair without getting all of it wet. You tug Jason’s shawl closer.

“What is it?” you finally ask, because no one ever knows what Bruce is thinking at any moment. “Is it Master al Ghul?”

Bruce winces at the formal address. “No, well. Actually, it’s related, but it’s complicated. I—has Tim told you about our newest...player?”

“The Red Hood,” you incline your head, “yes.”

Bruce nods. “Yes. The Red Hood.” He pauses. “Some information has come to light and, well. Tim and I believe that it would be best if you stayed in town. In the manor. For safety, of course.”

“The Red Hood,” you repeat, confused. Not only have you never heard of this person before, but you don’t know how they link to you. Are they a mer? Is that why?

“He’s human, as far as we can tell,” Bruce continues, always knowing what you’re thinking, “but he’s…shown interest, in mer that have come onto land. We think he’s…looking for someone.”

“Looking for me?”

Bruce winces again. “Not exactly.”

Now he’s being obtuse on purpose. The only problem is, you don’t really have any authority to challenge Bruce, so you just sit there, in his luxury seat, and wait for him to elaborate. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts, before he leans forwards, and laces his fingers together.

“Do you,” he says slowly, “know why Ra’s is calling you back?”

“We’re never given reasons,” you reply. “We just listen.”

Bruce nods. “I know. I know—but nothing has happened recently? Nothing that seems, well, suspicious?”

It’s been over a year since you left. You don’t know what Bruce wants you to say. He’s probably got more information about what’s happening underwater than you do.

You shake your head. Bruce sighs, nodding as he accepts your answer. “So you’re happy to stay for a bit? Just until we get this new arrival sorted?” 

“Sure,” you shrug, “as long as you notify Mistress Talia.”

Bruce’s eyebrow twitches at the mention of Talia. His next sigh is even louder. “I will,” he promises, before reaching for your letter. “Do you want this back?”

You will return.

You shake your head once more. “You keep it.”

Your time in Gotham has been extended. You should probably take the chance to visit Jason, if possible. Ah, but you need to check on Tim first—you give Bruce a nod as you turn to leave, bare feet padding on the wooden floorboards as you head for your usual room to get dressed properly. 

Bruce watches you as you go. He doesn’t say anything, but you know.

Something is wrong.

previous part・come chat to me here!・next part

[gaywineauntsstuff]

See one of my favorite things about fanon is that Dick is like a normal dude outside of nightwing like genuinely he’s normal person who isn’t that extreme canonically. He loves his family but he needs space with them and doesn’t want to be a carbon copy of his father.

He follows Bruce is moral compass while also being more lenient on some crimes. He canonically values life and protecting the sanctity over it than actually stopping crime and has a very strong moral compass that exceeds “well it’s the law”. Dick canonically thinks that Corrupt police officials are worse than criminals and became a cop to weed them out the same way he did the mob. And has bad blood with the BPD despite working for them.

He has genuine reservations about trusting Jason for obvious reasons even if you don’t like Dicks run as Batman where Jason was flat out the worst or like stealing the Nightwing suit in New York in brothers and blood. While still being able to work with and like him.

He is supportive of Tim while still being frustrated at taking on more work bc he knows Tim does too much and will need help.

He loves Damian but steps away from that relationship because unlike Bruce at his age he’s emotionally mature enough to realize he cannot be a parent for the kid. A role model sure! A big sibling, yeah. But not a parent.

He didn’t want Steph as spoiler, Robin or batgirl bc she wasn’t well trained but neither did literally anyone else. Once she and him started working together they had a decent relationship.

Dick and Cass have a strong relationship and he helped Babs with her when Bruce was being an asshole while still not stepping into a parent role bc he’s in his mid 20s and not going to do that actually.

And Dick believes Duke is going to become a big leader in the hero world and sees his potential despite not agreeing with the we are Robin thing.

And the fanon goes 1 of 3 ways

he’s fully uninvolved, doesn’t like the bats, has cut them off after trying to send Tim to Arkham, and abusing/ mistreating or co-signing the mistreatment of Jason. All his relationships with everyone except Damian have been erased. He ruined Tim’s trust, hated young!jason, has never spoken to Steph or duke and Cass doesn’t like him because she’s on babs side or in Hong Kong.

Or

Literally Bruce Wayne’s lapdog, says yes to everything with the worst case of battered women’s syndrome you’ve ever seen. Jason must stand up for him and protect him from the big bad bat/ the bats cut him off aswell after abandoning the bat movement (more rare but I’ve seen it). He doesn’t have critical thinking and his morals are identical to Batman’s and he refuses to question them. Will call the police on a homeless man stealing food bc it’s illegal. And has never tried to rehabilitate anyone including his friends, abandoned Roy and Kory bc of moral differences. He’s still a cop and doesn’t understand the nuance that Jason, Tim, Steph and Duke do.

Or

Dumb himbo, doesn’t know nothing except smile and nod. Pretty face, no brain. Has had one thought and it’s the fact he misses his siblings and needs his cereal oh wait was that two thoughts? He forgot how to count lmao. Babs or Tim will roll their eyes and do stuff for him bc he’s so dumb and sweet like a puppy who has had a lobotomy. :( doesn’t even have a college degree dumb silly teehee. Worst liar you’ve ever met everyone can see right through him hehe. He’s loves Bruce and calls him Dad 24/7 and uses nicknames for everyone.

And like it’s total flanderization

He has some of these traits sure, (more rigid moral compass, more willing to work with other heroes and delegate though this one literally only became a thing during Tom kings run and maybe a little bit after Donna died, in the current canon he went to Uni for business and dropped out, he’s not as good on the tech side as oracle)

But they’re just so exaggerated and I firmly believe it’s bc the rest of the bats are so extra. Like Tim trying to clone his dead bestie 99 times.

Jason goodness gracious I’ve been bamboozled let me try and kill the penguin on live tv

Damian my mother literally tore my spine out

. Duke let’s start a cult that’s something that isn’t dumb and won’t get us murdered.

And Dick is just there like… yeah fuck okay.

Like he’s still unhinged even for a superhero but he’s just objectively more hinged than all of his siblings like you’re telling me if TIM got the talon ancestry storyline shit wouldn’t have hit the fan??? The mother fucker who at age like 13 broke in Nightwing and starfire’s house, memorized all their schedules bc he’s the most insane stalker you’ve ever met. You’re lying and we both know it.

And everyone thinks their fave is the sane won and you are all just wrong I fear. I have already slandered Tim so I’ll do the rest for funsies

“Oh babs is the only sane one”

Bby Barbara is such a stalker with a need for control someone stole her tech and turned Gotham into a police state. If she decided that she wanted to go dictator she has a WHOLE setup for it. She’s also unhinged

“Jason just needs to get away from the bats then he’s the only sane one who the others go to for protection”

Yall Jason’s 2 biggest teams were

An Amazon, and a kryptonian

An arrow and an alien (also some times an Amazon)

So the league big three knock off and a titans knock off

He has also slept with his dad’s ex and 2 of his brother’s exes. Let’s not pretend that he’s being dragged back into the bat family, bro never left.

He wears a bat on his chest

He has a helmet with explosives in it… when he died in an explosion and fought with a crowbar when it was one of the major reasons he died. Let’s not talk about his whole thing with scarlet but the Morrison run had some weird characterization.

“Damian-“ no actually you can’t even start with Mr let’s go to Lazarus island. Let me adopt a giant bat monster bc my abusive childhood means I slaughtered his entire race. No actually I will not allow it. The fucker is unhinged and I love him.

“Steph” - you know what she is also my fave so everything she has ever done is justified and she has the best batgirl run and also her and Damian are hilarious. (She’s also the best female bat hands down I prefer her to both Cass and Babs for so many reasons I will not get into)

In summary this isn’t actually a criticism I find it hilarious plz keep going my darling fanon fanfic writers

[autisticrosewilson]

It's not that I hate fanon or that I think fanon is inherently less intelligent or morally wrong, but a LOT of fanon is based in racism, misogyny, and classism that I feel like a lot of you accept without question.

WHY is Duke (Daredevil, son of a god, has never once allowed himself to be defined by anyone's actions but his own) relegated to a background role, only characterized by reacting to the whims of other bats?

Why is Babs - Birds of Prey leader and backbone of the hero society, tells Bruce to fuck off and die 4 times a day and is constantly ruining her relationships by being biased and unhinged - Gotham bound, the mature responsible mom of the group who never argues with Bruce and never gets in trouble?

Why is Dick, both a tactical genius and master manipulator, a himbo only appreciated for his sex appeal? Especially when he is both Romani (group of people demonized and condemned as hypersexual by their nature alone) and an SA victim.

WHY is Damian "feral" and "uncivilized" despite being raised as a literal prince? Half of you treat him like a sociopath with no hope of redemption for an unfunny three second joke and the other half of you go full throttle into Bruce's white savior bullshit so that Damian can be "redeemed". Y'know when you're not villainizing Talia and acting like Dick is his other parent, actually.

WHY is Stephanie - extremely intelligent detective who can't stand Bruce and has a living mother she loves - lumped in as another member of the Batfam, a blonde ditz who only cares about prank wars and emotionally supporting Tim?

WHY is Cass - intelligent, a grown adult, suicidal perfectionist - emotionally intelligent, primarily existing to support the characters around her, immediately accepting of everyone she meets regardless of her own morals?

Why is Bruce the golden standard? Enough so that though everyone in the fandom could agree that he's an emotionally unstable wreck, being considered "the most like him" is seen as a compliment and not the HIGHEST insult? Everyone would agree if I said that Bruce purposely self sabotages his relationship half the time and the other half he simply does things without caring about the emotional impact it will have on people because he has to be the smartest in the room, but if I said that makes him a shit partner and emotionally abusive parent the fandom would bend over backwards to argue with me.

Why is Tim "the best Robin" when Dick Grayson invented the mantle, it is impossible for someone to embody the spirit of Robin better than him because he made it and he created what being Robin means. Maybe Tim is the best in Bruce's eyes, but what Robin means and who has the right to give it over was a significant thing they argued about. Tim the high school drop out, and yet also somehow the smartest? Tim "the most like Bruce" except no he's not, that's Cass. Poor neglected, abused, victimized little Timmy (the rich boy at the elite boarding school with loving albeit busy parents and almost every instance of him being victimized by another character has either been racist bullshit - The Al Ghuls and Rose Wilson- or a complete 180 for the character that made no sense when examined through the lens of prior characterization - Jason for instance.)

Almost every fanon trope that gets passed around like gospel seems to deliberately push POC characters and women into the background and strip them of interesting complex traits and stories, usually for the purpose of fitting them all into bite sized incorrect quote character types and uncomplicated narrative roles that are not only completely divergent from canon, but primarily exist to prop up the two rich white boys.

Also the insistence that Bruce, a 20 year old at the time, should actually be excused for how much he mentally and emotionally fucked Dick up because really they're more like siblings! While deciding that Dick at the same age was actually the perfect candidate to be Damian's new parent/guardian...have you lost the fucking plot you don't even make sense to yourselves.

Okay I lied at the beginning, I do hate fanon. You guys are so uncritical about the media you consume it is BEYOND just letting people enjoy things and have fun. I guess it's one thing if you KNOW this stuff isn't canon and UNDERSTAND why these tropes are problematic and you engage with it as such, it's fine read and write what you want, but just spreading the same nonsense around and parading it around as "better than canon" (version of the character so bland and boring you've somehow made the old white men at DC look like geniuses in the art of representation) is just infuriating.

[aingeal98]

Thinking about Bruce and his flaws again and the thing is while I can ignore most of the things he does in other comics because they're clearly using him to dramatically advance the stories of his kids (firing Dick in ntt, beating Jason in rhato, Tim's 16th birthday in Robin, his treatment of Cass during her Batgirl run etc.) it's his treatment of others in his own run especially women like Helena and Steph that kills me. Because several of the writers are clearly fully aware that they're writing him as a misogynist but instead of overcoming that character flaw the narrative ends up making the women atone and prove themselves to his unfair double standard (Helena in NML Steph in Robin) or suffer and die because the misogyny is as strong in the creative team as it was in Bruce (Steph during war games)

There's never any real reckoning with the flaws and attitudes they give him, likely because the writers see it as a character quirk instead of something that should negatively impact him and that he should overcome. Bruce Wayne murder fugitive has him hit Dick and later apologise. NML and War Games never have him take responsibility the same way. He's misogynistic, the women pay the price, he learns nothing because the message gets twisted to avoid the writer's own misogyny.

If you're a fan of Bruce you probably want to just pretend it never happened which is what a lot of writers choose to do. If you're a fan of the female characters affected you have to acknowledge it because it was a major story point for their character. And it wasn't even for them. They were were used and spat out to try and fail to make Bruce seem more complex.

And I say fail because it doesn't make Bruce more complex. The writers make him a bad person and then call it a day. No one around him actually holds him accountable. Everything goes back to the status quo. A new writer comes along and Batman is a straightforward hero again.

The only lasting impact is on the characters torn down to give him poorly written drama. All this to say if Babs Helena and Steph teamed up to murder Batman completely unprompted I would be their number one defender.

[shan-yee]

𝚆𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝 ?

𖦹𝘧𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

𖦹𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 = Cheating.

𖦹𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜 = 542

𖦹𝙰/𝙽 = English is not my first language, please let me know if you see any mistakes ! Enjoy ✨

——— 𝐒 𝗨 𝗠 𝗠 𝗔 𝗥 𝗬 • • •

𝐈 :: 𝗝𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻

𝐈𝐈 :: 𝗗𝗶𝗰𝗸

𝐈𝐈𝐈 :: 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗮𝗻

𝐈𝐕 :: 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗲

« ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ »

╰─► 𝐈 ･ ｡ﾟ☆ 𝗝𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 [𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨]

⇰ To cheat on your partner you must already have a partner and love is a very taboo subject for Jason Todd, he does not trust and is grumpy with everyone which is not very sexy.

⇰ So let's imagine that this guy gets into a relationship, it's out of the question for him to ruin that. Even if he shows it in his own way, he'll care a lot about his partner and absolutely nothing will make him succumb.

⇰ If unfortunately, his partner cheated on him he wouldn't do anything to her, but I wouldn't want to be the man or woman who receives Red Hood's wrath.

⇰ Honestly I think that Jason could forgive, he would be extremely angry and will have lost some trust in his partner but a part of him will want to keep her close to him.

⇰ It is clear that something will be broken but he will be willing to let it go, little by little.

╰─► 𝐈𝐈 ･ ｡ﾟ☆ 𝗗𝗶𝗰𝗸 [𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨]

⇰ Did y’all forget the Barbara and Dick wedding thing ? So let's assume he's cheating.

⇰ Dick is a ladies' man, it’s clear that he can fall in love but his desire to please and seduce women is much stronger.

⇰ He will hate to hurt his partner but will surely not regret his deviation and will keep silent forever if the reader does not find out.

⇰ He is the type to half-assume his infidelity but he will never reject the fault on his girlfriend and will try to make amends as best he can.

⇰ If she decides to keep him he will try to hold back as best he can and if she breaks up he won’t try to make her change her mind and will respect her decision.

╰─► 𝐈𝐈𝐈 ･ ｡ﾟ☆ 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗮𝗻 [𝘿𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙣𝙤]

⇰ Damian is the type to get into a relationship with the aim of marrying his girlfriend, his partner can't be just anyone and after choosing the rare gem there is no question of letting her go.

⇰ He will never look at any other woman than the reader and expect the same thing from her, painful will be the fate of the woman who dares to deceive him.

⇰ Before being in a relationship Damian will probably have a few crushes here and there but never anything serious.

⇰ Let's imagine that for some reason he has to make a marriage of convenience, even in this situation, he will not cheat on his wife.

╰─► 𝐈𝐕 ･ ｡ﾟ☆ 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗲 [𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚]

⇰ Just like Dick I see Bruce as a ladies' man who likes to please, however the situation is slightly more complicated with him.

⇰ Normally he is not the type to cheat, it’s rare that he decides to get into a real relationship and even more so to make it official.

⇰ So I think he might cheat during a gala or a similar evening after drinking too much, but on the other hand, he probably won't go further than a few kisses and caresses before realizing his stupidity.

⇰ He will try to hide it at first then feeling slightly guilty he will decide to confess everything to his partner, he will not blame the alcohol and will fully accept his mistake.

⇰ Bruce will respect his partner's choice and will completely understand if she decides to leave him even though his ego takes a hit.