#Bruce means well

[nelkcats]

Empath

Jason Todd is an empath, something that probably no one would believe if they were told the story of Red Hood. It's not an ability he likes to brag about either, honestly, Jason hates it, as much as he hates being back from the dead, it makes him feel different, it makes him feel like he doesn't fit in.

It starts small, with a boy who feels his mother's pain and his father's rage. With a child who sees Batman and instead of a big scary bat feels layers and layers of sadness. It starts with Robin, feeling too much and wanting to change everything for the better.

He never tells Bruce, what good would it do? It's not a useful skill, sensing the Joker's madness didn't help to prevent his death. Feeling Bruce's despair wasn't enough to keep his eyes open.

It ends too quickly, too soon. Maybe for that reason he was given a second chance. One that Jason didn't want. Pit madness feels a thousand times stronger than it should, it pollutes his mind, it seeps into his heart and Jason hates it a little more every day.

Then, he meets Danny in a bar, full of smiles and biting comments but so so scared. He hears his silent pleas, his regrets, his desire to belong, to not be hated. And for the first time in a long time, Jason's heart breaks a little.

For the first time in a long time, the pits fall silent and give way to the confused feelings of the boy beside him.

Danny becomes part of the routine, Jason doesn't quite know how but the boy refuses to leave. He never asks about Red Hood, though the small flicker of doubt every time Jason leaves the apartment confirms that he knows. He never stops him, he just smiles and waits for him with a first aid kit under his arm, bandages his wounds and sleeps beside him.

Jason knows he is dangerous but can't help but love him as much as he can't help but feel the pain that accompanies the boy.

Then, his little home life is invaded by Bruce (worried, always worried, overly cautious), he warns him that Danny is a dangerous creature, warns him that he will hurt him. Jason can't help but snort.

Jason knows Danny isn't human, it's not something his ability tells him, it's just easy to deduce. But when Danny confesses it to him (scared, so so scared), he downplays it, tells him it's okay and he can go back to sleep. Danny doesn't fit into what's normal, but that's okay, he doesn't either.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 271

“Grandmother is visiting,” Damian suddenly said with no warning and with his usual not-quite demanding tone. 

“Who?” Tim wasn’t the only one to startle, seeing as Bruce had practically froze, a downturn to his lips in a silent show of confusion. 

Damian scowled. “Are you deaf Drake? Grandmother is coming to Gotham to, quote, make sure I am being properly cared for.” None of them had known that Ras was with anyone actually. At least Tim was pretty sure that would have been in the files. 

“Oh?” Dick didn’t quite crouch to Damian’s height but it was a near thing. “She-” “He,” Damian corrected, interrupting him. They all exchanged a glance before Dick continued. 

“Is he coming to the Manor or…” 

Damian scoffed again, a tiny bit of a flush against his face. “No, Grandmother will most likely be staying with Akhi-”

Now wait one moment-

“YOU HAVE ANOTHER BROTHER?!” 

[ruenii]

Tim, [pointing his staff at the human traffickers]: YOU ARE OUTGUNNED

Jason, [hyping him up]: WHAT?

Tim: OUTMANNED!

Jason: WHAT?!

Tim: OUTNUMBERED OUTPLANNED

Jason: PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES!

Tim: PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN ON MY COMMAND

Jason: HAND EM OVER!!

Tim: THIS IS HAMILTON MY RIGHT HAND MAN!

Jason, [getting his guns out]: PWO PWO PWO PWO PWO-

Goons: *shaking* what the FUCK are Batman feeding his partners--

[brucewaynehater101]

I can imagine after Jason's death Tim wasn't like a therapist instead he was bullying Bruce into therapy, during a fight Bruce goes "I don't need another robin, I don't need help" and Tim just stands aside and watches Bruce get his ass kicked while throwing our random tidbits of therapeutical advice.

I can definitely see this as a different hc as well.

Tim has perfected the Disappointed Stare™ as he watches Bruce in a fetal position getting kicked by a basic goon. Sometimes, when he's really tired babysitting the man, he'll allow the goons to get a few extra kicks in.

He also seems like the type not to intervene when he told Bruce exactly what was going to happen. It's not Tim's fault the man refused to listen to him.

Tim operates on spite, being right, manipulation, and bullying someone for their own good. If the bat-loving depressed middle-aged man wants to be sad by being mean to everyone else, the kid will sign him up for furry support groups. He'll get Alfred on his side to force Bruce to attend those meetings.

Tim Drake is not a licensed therapist, and he'll make damned sure that Bruce knows that. If the man wanted professional help instead of relying on bullying by a kid, the man could afford to do that. Instead, he has a thirteen year old putting itching powder in the batsuit when Bruce refuses to take it off after 27 hours.

[bluegarners]

bruce and dick are both emotionally repressed but in kind of different but parallel ways. like, the repression that bruce experiences stems from never confronting trauma or any negative emotion, whereas dick's repression stems from needing to be the emotional support for an emotionally repressed man at the ripe age of 9 and so never being able to process any emotions associated with that responsibility

[bruciemilf]

There’s no such thing as a good patrol.

The bats prowl among dark corners like quiet shadows. They’ve been doing it since youth was reality, and not a distant, blurry daydream, that left them feeling like icons and ghosts.

There’s certain measurements to what makes one satisfactory, thought. Boredom checks no boxes.

“An ouija board? Seriously, Steph?”

Stephanie looks at Jason with a small smirk, “What, is this cultural appropriation? Let me get the ukelele out.” She dodges the batarang effortlessly.

Dick frowns, “What are you guys talking about?”

“Dude, just don’t. You’re too old for trends. Accept it. Live laugh love it, or whatever the hell boomer Milennials say.”

“SHUT UP! THAT’S THE THING I’M SENSITIVE ABOUT.”

ANYWAY. They get the brilliant idea to try and conjure Thomas Wayne, because why not?

Theres has to be some fragments of the street urchin Bruce gave wings to still breathing in Jason, because he’s absolutely against the idea.

Tim, surprisingly, agrees, “What if ghosts ARE real and we’ll undo years of scientific research negating the existence of supernatural entities Christians use as proof to validate their beliefs?”

“…And…You know, what if we upset Bruce.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure, that too.”

But they never listened to Tim before, so why start now?

They do use the board, and it does work, and the thing is? They get to SPEAK to Thomas, too.

What they discovery leaves them all petrified. When they tell Bruce, they do so with regret in their hearts.

He turns around, comically slow, eyes wide and bright against his eyeliner, shimmering with angry fire. They’ve never seen him so angry. So offended. So utterly disgusted.

“How DARE you call my father a New Yorker?!”

[gretahayes]

there's a world out there where haiti never happens, and tim's parents get their divorce but are both allergic to spending any time with their son still and keep traveling, so in a few arcs and a series of comic events, tim gets left in the primary custody of That Nice Bruce Wayne Guy, Isn't It Great He's Always There To Look After Tim When Disaster Strikes And They're Not Around? while they globetrot and occasionally visit. and it's so funny to me.

[oifaaa]

Don't understand people who think Batman could beat up anyone no matter how strong his opponents are with the whole "he just needs prep time" argument but then I'm also a huge advocate of Bruce getting his ass kicked on the daily

[tequiilasunriise]

When Steph and Cass get married they don’t take the last name Brown (Daddy Issues™️) or Cain (Daddy Issues Prime™️) or even Wayne (Steph absolutely REFUSES to become a Wayne nosirree), but a secret fourth thing (Gordan).

[batcavescolony]

Tim: *going to the circus to find Dick to get him to become Robin again*

Circus: *lion tamer gets killed in front of everyone*

Tim: wow I have bad luck with the circus....hey while I'm here I'll help with this too. Side quest, then I'll get Dick to become Robin again.

[mistergreatbones]

People always say bruce kidnapped jason immediately after meeting him but at least he only took him in after leaving him at the crime orphanage didn’t work out. With cass they had exactly one conversation consisting of them drawing in the dirt and throwing punches at each other while bruce projected his past experiences onto her and then he was welcoming her in like “i have complete confidence that she won’t kill anybody”

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt in Memes 4

Another prompt, but in memes because trying to gather my thoughts is hard sometimes lol.

[distort-opia]

Alright excuse my compulsion to situate everything within a timeline, but. I love that now there's more than one story taking place before The Killing Joke that establishes Bruce empathizing and relating to Joker, and that Zdarsky clearly took inspiration from the one before his own for this aspect of Bruce and Joker's relationship.

The events of Zdarsky's I Am A Gun take place while Dick is a boy and still Robin, early in Batman's career... and so does Darwyn Cooke's amazing-showstopping-spectacular Batman: Ego. In Ego, we get another instance of Bruce's mind being split in two; there being a separation between Bruce and Batman, with the embodiment of Batman arguing for Joker's murder:

-- Batman: Ego

But Bruce says no. He says he isn't a killer:

Forever obsessed with how Darwyn Cooke so efficiently conveys how Bruce understands Joker, and relates to him. He knows Joker chose madness to deal with tragedy, that he was faced with the same choice Bruce was, and that Bruce could've become him. Because that's what Bruce lapsing into laughter and acting like Joker shows.

But the story is centred around Bruce in Batman: Ego, while in I Am A Gun... perhaps the best line to summarize it is Bruce thinking to himself, "Is the Joker broken too?" in Batman (2016) #128. It's not just the two facets of Bruce vs. Batman in this story, it's also the two facets of Joker: a human being, and a monster.

The conflict in Bruce is mirrored in Joker, and I am kissing Zdarsky on the mouth for acknowledging it and portraying it so beautifully. There's a monster in Bruce made out of hollow anger, and there's a human being crying for help buried inside Joker:

-- Batman (2016) #130 -- I Am A Gun

"He'll fix you." And Martha being the one to say this, the one who becomes Joker herself in a different world, a different Universe... perhaps it's not intentional, but it feels so relevant. In Flashpoint, Thomas Wayne is a Batman who kills. In New 52's Earth 2, he's a Batman who killed Joker himself. And in Bruce's head, it's Thomas Wayne arguing for Joker's death.

But I just love that keeping both I Am A Gun and Ego in mind, knowing that these thoughts and emotions were there for Bruce for years, makes The Killing Joke... even more poignant.

Bruce has been thinking about this for a long time. And all of it coming to a head with the iconic offer for help, with the one time Bruce offered Joker his hand despite what Joker had just done...

-- Batman: The Killing Joke

[clenches fist] It's beautiful.

[jessoloslemons]

Poppy: Branch, a brother is like a friend that could never leave you!

His brothers: had literally left Branch

Poppy: okay not helping

[blorb-el]

so apparently. dc editorial/carmine infantino decided bruce wayne was gay. in the early 1970s. and then every single bronze age writer proceeded to ignore it. no one actually followed through. if elliot s! maggin's recollection from 40 years later is accurate.

“No you don’t understand, Elliot,” Archie interrupted me. “This morning Bruce Wayne was a millionaire playboy who wasn’t gay, but now he is gay.” “Really?” I said. “Yeah,” Julie said. “So from now on Bruce Wayne is gay, until further notice.”

[shahrwrites]

I’m a normal amount obsessed with them.