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[malfiora]

Dick Grayson x Fall Out Boy

Playlist (YouTube)

A huge thanks to @tnevmucric for the inspiration and for listening to me yap.

Background

Fall Out Boys is synonymous with the emo genre. They're not the angstiest punk band but certainly one of the most poetic. They debuted in the mid 2000s, went on hiatus in the 2010s, and returned about a decade later triumphantly. They're not afraid to experiment with their sound, but what remains consistent is their lyrically complex way of capturing emotions that are hard to define. Their songs are often cheeky, sometimes even irreverent, but always contain some deeper layer suggesting that something isn't quite right — and then you dig past that and everything is actually fine again.

Right up Dick's alley.

Pros and Cons Of Breathing (Take This To Your Grave)

And if I could move I'm sure it would only be to crawl / Back to you / I must have dragged my guts a block / They were gone by the time we (talked) / Woah I want to hate you half as much as I hate myself / Know that I could crush you with my voice / Woah I want to hate you half as much as I hate myself / Know that I could crush you with my voice / Stood on my roof and tried to see you / Forgetting about me / Hide the details, I don't want to know a thing / I hate the way you say my name, like its something secret /.../ Wish that I was as invisible as you make me feel

This song is a power ballad of angst and misery over a lost love. It's the heart wrenching middle ground of trying to get over someone who hurt you but still loving them. This is where I choose to start, recalling Dick and Bruce's brief but painful separation. I particularly love the line "tried to see you forgetting about me" as an invocation of Dick leaving Gotham but not going far physically (literally just across the Hudson to NYC) and eventually watching Bruce replace him with another Robin. As sarcastic and wretched as this song sounds, it's also full of love — just as I imagine Dick feels towards Bruce at this time.

XO (From Under the Cork Tree)

To the love, I left my conscience pressed / Between the pages of the Bible in the drawer / "What did it ever do for me?" I say / It never calls me when I'm down / Love never wanted me, but I took it anyway / Put your ear to the speaker and choose love or sympathy / But never both, love never wanted me

The way this song captures not only post breakup sadness but the entire downward spiral of giving up on romantic love is perfect for Dick, especially after the whole crashed wedding thing. Specifically, the feeling of tension of having to choose between something selfless like sympathy and selfish like love is so appropriate.

Golden (Infinity On High)

And I knew that the lights of the city were too heavy for me / Though I carried carats for everyone to see / And I saw God cry in the reflection of my enemies / And all the lovers with no time for me / And all of the mothers raise their babies / To stay away from me

Making "golden child" references is too easy. Instead, I'll point out the melancholic tone in this song, and the weight of the speaker carrying gold for everyone but him to benefit from. He is a beacon, a leader, a fighter (with enemies), but he is also distant from everyone else, with lovers who abandon him, and used as a cautionary tale even as he's looked to. Plus: my blorbo deserves to be assigned my favorite FOB song.

Sunshine Riptide (MANIA)

The sign says "Don't you tap the / Glass," but I read it in reverse: "eht pat uoy t'nod syas ngis ehT" / The world tried to burn all the mercy out of me, but you know I / Wouldn't let it, it tried to teach me the hard way, I can't forget it /.../ There are no atheists in foxholes /.../ 'Cause I'm stuck in the sunshine riptide / Dancing all alone in the morning light / The sunshine riptide / You came back like a wave when I was feeling alright, the sunshine

If he's reading the sign in reverse that means he's the one behind the glass. On display, once again. "No atheists in foxholes" is a phrase meaning that everybody believes in something when they are in a desperate enough situation, and I love the mental exercise of trying to figure out what Dick believes and how much pressure it would take for him to admit it. "Dancing all alone in the morning light" cuts an image, doesn't it? I immediately see a lone figure on a rooftop at sunrise. And throughout this selection is the theme of being or feeling stuck: behind glass, in a foxhole (a hole in the ground used as shelter by troops), in a riptide (a hazardous, strong current) made of sunlight (so a tractor beam?). I imagine that the man who needs constant movement can feel like this often.

Heaven, Iowa (So Much (For) Stardust)

Scar-crossed lovers forever / I'm checking myself out forever / I'm saving this all for later / Scar-crossed lovers forever / Here we are, untouched forever / I'm saving this all for later, oh / They don't know how much they'll miss / At least until you're gone like this / Talking to the mirror, say, "Save your breath / Half your life, you've been hooked on death" / Twice the dreams, but half the love / Be careful what you bottle up / The chemistry is a mess, it seems / But me, I'm still a sunbeam

Continuing the sunshine metaphor: This song is pensive, and I love this bit in particular for Dick. It's messy but ends on a positive, almost bragging, note. I'm still a sunbeam. Who is he saying this to? Himself, as he talks in the mirror? And "still," as though he's repeating something he's been told.

Honorable mentions:

I lived so much life / I think that God is gonna have to kill me twice

Young and Menace (MANIA)

A fun one because Dick has technically died once (at least).

Fake Out (So Much (for) Stardust)

Do you laugh about me whenever I leave? / Or do I just need more therapy?

Because he needs therapy. Also this lyric talks to the line in Last of the Real Ones on the MANIA album: "I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me," lending to a fun interpretation of Dick's mental health (paranoia vs grandiosity) — or that's just me projecting.

I Am My Own Muse (So Much (for) Stardust)

I like playing dumb, letting you figure me out

I mean, this one is self explanatory.

[malfiora]

hey don't worry. if you accidentally do something wrong I'll just kick you in the ribs and sides and chest and stomach and body and kidneys and head and neck until one of us feels better. I have heavy boots and no empathy. I forgive you babe. now stay still.

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Hm, how do we feel about Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most as a joint monologue between Jason and Roy over Dick?

(Pronouns notwithstanding, of course. Unless you want Dick to be a beautiful woman for the duration of this song.)

To feel her touch / It's almost impossible to hold still / Maybe we can go back to the way it was / Well, at least let me love you the same

I've got lies to tell your children / When my smile pierces through your bones / Right through your bones / The grass is green inside my yard / I can make you laugh so fucking hard it hurts you / Inside your bones

When she talks, I listen, she's in the shower and her skin glistens / Like oh my god, I like it / Like oh oh god, I like it / I suggest a drive, lets take the back road / Lets get lost lets lose our minds / Hey, little girl, I think we found it tonight / I think we glow that fucking bright, oh / And when she laughs I like it / Like "oh ha ha ha ha ha"

I've got lies to tell your children / When my smile pierces through your bones / Right through your bones / The grass is green inside my yard / I can make you laugh so fucking hard it hurts you / Inside your bones

Holy shit she smells like heaven / Been best friends since we were eleven / Oh my god, I like her

(Yeah, I heard you like her)

Baby, I thought that we had something / Compared to him, I'm next to nothing / And oh my god, I like her

(Yeah, I heard you like her)

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I wanna try something new. I have never done playlists or mood boards for my fics before and I want to try to see if I find it fun. I'll publish the playlist here somewhere. It'll contain at least five songs.

Summaries for each fic are below the cut.

Empty Tombs: Set during W.A.R./Grayson, after Dick returns to Gotham and reveals that he is, in fact, alive. Dick talks to Jason, who reveals that he's upset Dick lied because he mourned him. That talk reveals some feelings neither was prepared for, so then they have to "talk" about that. Contains smut.

Too Much / Not Enough: Gotham Knights universe. Jason and Dick go undercover as a cohabiting couple to get information on a sleazy landlord. Things get awkward and feelings are revealed. Slow burn, mutual pining, happy ending.

Is This Flirting?: Dick (demiromantic) and Jason (demisexual) have to navigate competing relationship needs if they want to be together. Very light angst, getting together, happy ending.

Prey Instinct: Red Hood is fascinated with Nightwing, and Dick might be a little fascinated back. Pre-reveal, identity porn, contains smut.

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"Oh Steph wouldn't like Jason just because they have similar backgrounds because he kills people/is a criminal/fights the bats!!"

This is in the 90's BEFORE he even tortured her. She doesn't go through with it, but she sees the evil he's capable of and its enough for her to justify it. She only doesn't because it "goes against what Batman taught her" but well.

That's the same man who would let her dad's friends infest her house for MONTHS until BLACK CANARY came to Gotham and handled it

A grown man who would go on to verbally degrade her, withhold the tools he gave everyone else, keep her intentionally isolated and then use her lack of resources against her.

So yeah. I'm sure Steph's faith in Batman and his teachings have wavered plenty. Just because DC casually discarded the way she was treated so she could play happy family with the boys, but she has NO REASON TO. Before she was aged down there was definite tension between her and Tim, and while Babs worked to get that relationship back, Bruce did no such thing. "Oh I'm just as proud of you as I was with the boys" when he thought she was dying doesn't fucking change how he treated her.

And of course, there's her own forray into betraying the family and being a criminal in The Next Batman series.

That's without getting into how she was compared to Jason, the way she watched a murdered east end kid be toted as another violent, reckless, idiot who didn't think and got himself killed.

"Oh but he tried to kill Tim!" First of all, you didn't read that comic. Jason was TESTING him, they were 2 years apart MAXIMUM, and Tim FOUGHT BACK. Jason gave him a little cut and a nose bleed that he slapped a bandage on and was fine. Damian also started his first meeting with Tim antagonistically and even though he was actively hostile to her, Steph still formed a close sibling bond. Her first meeting with Tim she threw a brick at him. He spent a not significant amount of time belittling her and telling her she wasn't cut out for hero work when she came back. This is the same guy who hallucinated Jason just so Jason could be like "Oh I got myself killed don't be like me!" Can we be real she doesn't give a shit. I guess you could count Hush but. I know they retconned it so that was Jason but when the fuck would he have had the time to do that between death, catanoia, the All-caste, and his murder tour.

Stephanie understands better than anyone that desperate circumstances lead to desperate people who do bad things. Stephanie understands being belittled and compared to a rich white boy who never had to fight to survive like you did. She understands being isolated from the hero community. She understands the evil that exists and the ways the system is corrupt, and that the bad guy never STAYS caught. And it's not like she has any big problem with people who kill, Babs said in 90's she would fucking LOVE Joker to drop dead and Dinah has killed multiple times. She literally switched places with Lady Shiva? These are both women Steph looks up to. You don't think Steph would feel any admiration at all for someone who gave Bruce a taste of what it feels like to be shown up? Someone who made Roman's life hell? Someone who made Tim put action behind his shit talking? An alley kid who came back and refused to be another statistic, who showed everyone who spent the last decade calling him stupid and reckless EXACTLY how cunning he can be? None? At all?

I just find it a little hard to believe.

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Keeping extremely popular DC ship communities well fed with just crumbs:

Dexter Soy 🤝🏾 Dan Mora

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What people think I mean by DickBabsKory:

Dick: I love Barbara and I love Kory I should have them both.

What I actually mean:

Dick:

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A wise council has decided that in a multiverse film in which we have multiple Jasons and Dicks and some of them are women, we will be casting the following:

Jason Todd

Priyanka Chopra

Katie O'Brien

Dick Grayson

Simone Ashley

Katie McGrath

Further announcements will be posted as they come. Stay tuned!

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Hayden Christensen for EMPIRE magazine (2024)

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God I fucking love how this confirmed in the comics that batman goes like. "... God fucking damn these kids and them TAKING MORE OF MY SHIT. I allocated so much fucking funds to them and for what? They just burn all of it and-"

And Alfred sits there like.

"of course master Bruce, it's not like a father stitching their son night after night despite you teaching them how to dodge bullets or anything."

"..."

I live for Alfred sassing hypocrite Bruce 😂

"and so the pot meets the kettle, Master Bruce"

And what's Bruce going to say, really?

[malfiora]

don't let my tits distract u from the fact that i'm not ok in the head

[malfiora]

Okay, so... Blüdhaven residents caught having Nightwing photobombs on their phones?

Imagine being a resident of Blüdhaven, one brave enough to take photos or even record videos at night for your social media... And when you check a tiktok that you just recorded on a rooftop with the rear camera of your cell phone, you realize that Nightwing was behind you, sometimes he even has fun dancing with you without you realizing it.

Nightwing never shows up when everyone tries to record him, but suddenly, some citizens discover they have a picture of him on their phones.

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Fuck me, I'm so happy this is done 😭

Matches Made!

The moment our authors and artists have been waiting for: matches have been made!

Now each team will start working hard on their beautiful jaydick content. Please make sure to cheer them on!

And a quick reminder for participants:

If you haven't seen your match information, please make sure to check your Emails (including your spam folder, just to be safe).

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Poor Dick :(

Commission Info / Kofi (members get comics a week early)

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MEGAN THEE STALLION — on the set of Whenever’ M/V (2025)

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Modern Star Wars by @thisuserisangry