#and also she’s already a lot more confident than Bruce

[aealzx]

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Prologue | AO3

Previous

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“So…Let me just summarize to make sure I understand,” Jazz requested, feeling a little overwhelmed by all the new information Bruce, Barry, and Leslie had explained to her, but at least not so overwhelmed to the point of breaking down anymore. She’d just never heard of something like hemoperfusion before, so it had been a lot to take in. “Danny has blood blossom toxin throughout his blood stream, and since blood blossoms don’t exist here there’s no antitoxin to inject him with. And since developing one would take too long and be too risky, you want to try hemoperfusion. Which is like hemodialysis, except it removes toxins instead of fluids. And since hemoperfusion is known to cause a mild decrease in various common blood components, you want to have a blood donation from Danielle to offset that. Because she’s the only one here who also has ectoplasm in her blood, and you don’t want to dilute that in Danny since he’s already low…Did I get all of that?”

“Yes,” Bruce answered simply, giving a small nod. He was ready to go over anything they needed to again, a tablet in his hand ready to be used to open any of the files he’d already shown Jazz a second time. She had reacted to the information about Danny’s condition with anxious fear, but overall she was managing to remain significantly calmer than earlier that day.

Jazz was silent as she ran through everything she could remember just one more time, as well as trying to think of anything that they may have missed. Either because it was an oversight, or they simply just didn’t know. But she couldn’t see any risks other than the ones they had already told her they were aware of. She honestly wasn’t sure she would have caught the risk of diluting the ectoplasm in Danny’s blood herself. Amity always had an abundance of ectoplasm leaking everywhere, so even when Danny has spent a lot he’d always been able to recover some from the ambient. It, and the way they had addressed this situation, was enough for her to finally look to Bruce and nod. “Okay. Go ahead.”

Bruce was admittedly pleasantly surprised at the response, but kept his response in check other than a content smile. Barry’s shoulders sagged with his sigh of relief, and he barely waited for Bruce to give him a nod before he dashed from the room in a blink.

“Barry and Wally will take care of getting the supplies. We’ll test the types of resin with the blood samples we already have to make sure we use the correct one. But it shouldn’t take too long. Is it alright if we inform the rest of your family of what’s going on?” Bruce requested, not wanting Sam, Tucker and Danielle to be left out just because his own children were doing a good job keeping them occupied. Barbara had come over to meet them already, and she and Tim were indulging Tucker’s questions as well as getting some of their own answers. Then Stephanie and Cass had spent some time letting Danielle pick out some different clothes before they had joined Wally in the gym. Danielle had been ecstatic to find out about Wally’s abilities, and all four of them were having fun showing off and messing around together. Which left Sam talking with Duke, Damian, and Alfred about some of Duke’s adventures, Damian’s menagerie of pets, and Alfred’s recipes and food sources. The news would be an interruption to their fun, but Bruce had confidence that his team could help them stay occupied and taken care of instead of relying only on Jazz.

“...Sure,” Jazz agreed once more, giving another nod. They had already told her that they would have Danielle stop by the room to draw her blood, so having the three of them back in the room for a bit wasn’t a bad idea.

It didn’t take long at all for Barry and Wally to return with the equipment, getting it set up in record speed next to the bed before Barry joined Bruce back in the lab to test the different resins. They were simple tests that could all be done at the same time, so they were back upstairs soon after Leslie had finished drawing Danielle’s blood.

“Here’s the lucky winner,” Barry chimed, holding a second canister of the resin that they had found cleared the blood blossom toxin from Danny’s blood while having minimal effect on the important parts that needed to stay.

“Woah… I was expecting something bigger,” Sam admitted, watching Barry from where she was hovering near Danielle.

Barry just chuckled as he headed to the machine and popped the canister in. “It doesn’t need to be that big. We’re only pulling a tiny amount of toxin from him and putting the rest back after all.”

“Fair enough,” Sam accepted, attention shifting slightly as Danielle flexed her arm and moved around to make sure she wasn’t dizzy or anything.

“And you’re sure it’s going to work?” Tucker asked, his nervous nature prompting him to reach for reassurance despite the procedure not being used on him.

“It’s not as common as dialysis, but it’s still something that’s been used thousands of times on thousands of different people. I’m sure it’ll get most, if not all of the toxin,” Barry assured, stepping out of the way so Leslie could proceed to get Danny connected to the device. Unfortunately the IV needle that had been used was too small, so Leslie couldn’t use it for one of the tubes, even if it had been in the right place. So it was simply pinched closed, and disconnected to use again later while the other two tubes were inserted.

The others continued to chatter lightly, but Jazz was more focused on what Leslie was doing. How she was prepping Danny’s arm, where she put the tubes, trying to guess what she was looking for. She didn’t think this would be the last time Danny, or Danielle got poisoned, so she felt she should learn as much as she could while she could. It also helped her feel like she was being useful. Adding to her skillset to maybe use later instead of just sitting and being worried. It certainly helped even though once Leslie finally started the machine nothing seemed to be happening. It was a good thing though. No immediate adverse reactions, no sudden drop in vitals. Nothing but the quiet hum of the machine added to the soft beeps of the heart monitor and puffs from the oxygen tank.

Within an hour the others had gotten bored enough to easily be lured away by the rest of Bruce’s family once again.

Thirty minutes after and Jazz was the only one left, having moved to sit on the floor at the side of the bed. She wanted to be close to Danny, but she felt in the way if she sat on the bed. There were too many tubes now. Before he could have been mistaken for just sleeping. But now he really was looking like a coma patient. It made it hard to watch him, even though she refused to leave.

A short time later Jason was knocking on the doorframe to announce his presence, causing Jazz to look up.

“...Hey,” she greeted, a little confused.

“Hey,” Jason returned, “Just checking in. You need anything?” A half lie. He’d actually volunteered to hang out for a while to make sure the hemoperfusion process was going well. Luckily it looked like Danny’s vitals hadn’t changed much from two hours ago.

Jazz blinked in mild surprise at the offer, but even after thinking for a moment she couldn’t come up with anything. Part of her knew there were probably a multitude of things that she should be at least curious about, but mostly she just felt tired. The near quiet of the room while she knew everyone was okay and having fun was nice. She was content to just relax as well as she could for now. “No, I’m good,” she responded.

Jason didn’t quite believe her, his brow raising. “Says the girl sitting on the floor wearing random spare clothes borrowed from someone else, and doing nothing but stare at the other side of the room,” he commented dryly with a half smirk, stepping into the room and taking a seat on the floor near Jazz.

The comment caught Jazz off guard, but she could only give a small giggle. She probably did look at least a little unwell huh. “...I guess I just haven’t fully realized I’m safe yet,” she admitted. “It’s hard to think about anything.”

“Fair enough,” Jason accepted, being able to understand the feeling. “...Do you mind if I ask you something then?”

Another mild surprise, but Jazz just nodded after a moment. “Sure.”

“You mentioned before…” Jason started, thinking back to something Jazz had said before lunch, “that your parents tried to hurt Danny before they knew….” The reminder was potentially a very unhappy topic, but it was prodding he felt was necessary. Were they safe at home? Were they runaways? Were their parents involved with the ones that had hurt Danny recently? They needed to know if it was a good idea to try and get these kids back to their family or not. And if he was going to keep Jazz company and monitor the hemoperfusion process he didn’t feel like spending the time in silence.

“....Yeah… Our parents used to be ghost hunters,” Jazz admitted, a sorrowful smile as she stared at her hands. It seemed she was in the mood to talk, for she continued unprompted. “We grew up with their crazy antics. Making machines that could track down and destroy ghosts. Always talking about dissecting them, or using them as a power source. They had so many studies supporting the idea that ghosts were just residual emotions from people, given human form, but not actually human. So many things that convinced others that ghosts weren’t people anymore.”

“And yet… all it took was them finding out that Danny was half ghost, half dead, and it made them rethink everything they had developed. He was fourteen when… And I didn’t find out until a few months later. I didn’t even tell him I knew, because I knew if I did he would get scared. Why wouldn’t he, after all? With the idea that his mom and dad might cut into him just to satiate their curiosity looming over his head. It was an accident that they found out, and I was so scared he was going to run away. But mom just tried her best to treat him like Danny, and nothing else. Dropped her gun and told us we should go home and get a snack, because we were probably hungry. It…. it was enough to keep him home, but it wasn’t enough for everything to be okay. It was like everyone was trying to pretend everything was normal, but we all knew it wasn’t. They stopped doing their experiments. Started pretending they were oblivious to anything related to ghosts. It was awful. I felt so… so useless.”

“It was months of this stupid, awkward fake normal family facade before it finally broke. Danny accidentally got burned when mom was cooking, and she had a breakdown. We found out that our dad was okay with everything, but mom was having a hard time because she couldn’t believe that she had hurt Danny before. Even if she didn’t know it was him. But, after she had a really long talk with my brother, things started to look more normal again. Only this time, instead of being ghost hunters my parents dove headfirst into trying to figure out how to help ghosts. We realized we couldn’t take Danny to the doctors anymore, so my parents and I tried to make sure we could fill in that role. Mom would try all sorts of new, ectoplasm rich meals for him, making sure they tasted good to him. She started making smoothies for him every morning once she found ones he liked. On top of helping him study for school every day when there weren’t other ghosts causing trouble. There’s so many nights I found them asleep together on the couch. Danny was always mom’s favorite, and I think dad got jealous about how close they got. Until Danielle came back from her world exploration adventures and Danny convinced her to officially meet my parents. Then Dad and Danielle latched onto each other so quickly, and became inseparable.”

The retelling had seemed a little painful at first, but it was easy to see that Jazz was at least content with the way her family life was now. It wasn’t perfect, but then again families never were. Jason couldn’t help notice the tone of voice she took when talking about her parents favoring her siblings. She didn’t seem too upset, but there definitely wasn’t complete indifference to the facts. “...Does it make you upset? Having your siblings be your parents’ favorites?” he couldn’t help asking.

Jazz could only snicker at the question, falling quiet for a beat before answering. “Sometimes,” she admitted, then looked over with a mildly mischievous grin that made Jason semi think of Danielle. “But then I remember I’m Danny’s favorite, and I’m usually okay.”

The proud declaration made Jason snicker, glad to hear she had at least one thing keeping her from devolving into jealousy. She didn’t seem to want to talk much more though, and Jason wanted to leave the conversation on a happier note and therefore didn’t ask about the ‘Guys in White’ Danielle had mentioned before. So instead, after another stretch of quiet, he just chose to reassure her. “... He’ll be okay.”

Jazz didn’t answer immediately, drawing in a sigh and letting it go. She seemed to be doing much better as the day had stretched on, handling the news that Danny had poison throughout his bloodstream much better than the suggestion of drawing his blood. And being reassured that he would be okay, she gained a smile. “... He better be,” she commented, gaining a glint in her eye that Jason had seen in others he knew. “Otherwise the government back home will have to deal with a new super villain family.”

The comment only caught Jason slightly off guard, eyes widening just for a moment as he looked at Jazz before bursting into a hearty laugh. “Fair enough,” he agreed. The son of a family getting killed by the government was a legit enough back story for super villains in his opinion.

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lil bit of home situation dump and hopefully the last bit of the part that was giving me trouble. Nice to get to draw Jason without the suit XD though I almost forgot to draw the bandage on his fingers.

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[zahri-melitor]

Catwoman 1989 (Her Sister's Keeper):

This is a direct sequel to Batman: Year One, and I definitely had to dig BYO back out and line the stories up, and in doing so I noticed how much work Mindy Newell did to transform the needlessly dark, grim and gritty reboot of Selina's origin into a story where you could see Selina in it.

I actually do think Batman: Year One is a story worth reading, and it very much fits into the dark realism turn that was gripping DC in the mid to late 80s. I also think that Frank Miller doesn't care about the interior lives of women (or as them as anything more than set dressing, given how much of his oeuvre consists of every woman appearing being framed by her sexual relationship to the men in the story, down to 'and the women here are all prostitutes').

Mindy Newell does.

Selina's bondage-gear costume and mask from BYO makes sense - as it's a costume her pimp gave her to wear for a particular client. Selina's haircut makes sense - she's started training in self defence with Ted Grant after having been beaten up by a client and left for dead outside of Maggie's convent. Newell literally spends half of the first issue reusing every panel that shows Selina or Holly from Batman #404 and #405, and providing context and additional motivation for what's happening and how that affects Selina. She breaks down the hardened, self-assured Selina that Miller wrote and shows the uncertainty, self doubt and determination under it.

It's just fascinating reinterpretation work to find a character underneath a story that doesn't centre them, and as someone who's done similar work as a fanfic writer it does indeed strike me that Newell does this in a confident way that makes it clear both Newell and Brozowski were sitting there with the issues open in front of them...and Brozowski was redrawing, not tracing. Transformational storytelling!

It also hits a lot of points about how and why Selina becomes Catwoman. Why's she stealing jewels? Because it's a lot more lucrative to her than sex work (and she enjoys it more). She's caught up in her quest for revenge more than saving Maggie - until her decisions lead to Maggie almost dying. She gives Selina and Bruce a proper conversation together about their different moral codes and motivations. Selina's desire to check on the people of the East End starts here, even if its initial form is mostly selfish and does not extend much past the people she cares about.

What I also did not expect going in was how much I was going to like Magdalene. Maggie’s tougher and has got more grit to her than I expected. She stands up to the cops with assurance, she seeks help on her own terms, she refuses to be a victim while she's kidnapped, and she faces off with Batman to protect her sister.

(Batman and Maggie talking in Catwoman #4)

The art is also excellently atmospheric the whole way through, hampered as it is by the fact that Batman Year One had already given Selina two of my least favourite outfits ever to use for this overlapping story.

I really liked this. From what I hear, Newell's Lois Lane mini is equally interesting in terms of centring a woman's story in a dark and gritty setting. Her background in healthcare as a nurse pops out in terms of what the story focused on. I really wish Newell had been given more writing opportunities, later on, because what she put together here is just really intelligent and entertaining.

[mpregandproud]

Isaac II (Part 4)

I can't complain that my rest period is being boring. Three weeks of bed rest and between my hot flashes, anxiety, late night feasts and the surprise of Sandra's pregnancy I am living this one full of surprises. If someone had told me that I was going to experience my sixth pregnancy at the same time I was about to become a grandfather, I wouldn't have believed it. And it wouldn't be the last surprise we would receive in the same period.

Sandra and Cal came home to talk to us. He apologized to us for making this mistake, still feeling very guilty “for having ruined Sandra's life forever,” as he put it. By the time the two of us came to see each other we had already spoken to Sandra, and she seemed more and more convinced every day that she wanted to try to become a mother, but apparently Cal had not processed the shock of becoming a father at 20 years of age.

It's normal for a guy who is in school, in the prime of his life, and a flirt, to feel like this is the biggest mistake of his life. But as Isaac told him, “sometimes from mistakes come the finer things in life.” The reality is that he and I got pregnant by mistake the first time… well, and the last time too. Without disrespecting the truth, Sandra was also a “mistake” for her mother and me, but I love her madly and if you asked me now if I would be willing to make the same mistake again I would say yes with my eyes closed.

Speaking about my pregnancy, it is growing faster than ever. At only three and a half months gestation, it feels like I'm almost nine months along. Of course, I'm not carrying just one baby, I'm carrying four. And if that wasn't enough, my husband is giving me enough food to feed our 16 children, including those I gave birth to years ago.

I've grown a beard and my hair is growing very fast. At another time in my life I would have visited the barber much sooner, or I would have asked Isaac to cut my hair, but for some strange reason this man likes me with a look that I consider unbecoming of me: fat as a cow and with facial hair. I guess this is synonymous with true love, loving someone no matter what they look like.

I've always wondered if I would be able to love him too if he looked fat like I do right now. I've never seen myself in that situation, but I drool over him no matter what he does, so I guess the answer is yes.

That week our youngest children returned from camp, so we had a house full of people again. The quietness vanished overnight, although as the summer went on they didn't spend much time at home either. Charlotte and Ivana partied a lot with Cristina, who also returned from her trip with her college friend. Svetlana, my sister's daughter, also went out with them. Dylan, Nate, Philip and Edward share a group of friends, so when they are not at their summer jobs they go out together to the movies or to a disco. My nephew Boris, my sons Jason, Ken and Bruce and my friend Lucas and Adam's son Daniel have made their gang since they went camping. Patrick and Lucas' son Isaac have become very close, so much so that they don't usually hang out with their brothers.

As for Sandra, she spends most of her day with Cal. I admire how well she is handling her pregnancy and how confident she is with everything. She has inherited that confidence from her mother that I was so enamored with in college. Shortly after talking to us for the first time to apologize for getting Sandra pregnant, Cal came home and asked her to marry him. He said that although he doesn't consider himself traditional, he thinks it's best for the baby if he and Sandra start a family. He told us that he had some savings after working since he was 15 years old, and that a year ago he had inherited an apartment in the village where they can go to live together. Although he had many doubts at the beginning, in a matter of days he seemed much more confident than Sandra with their pregnancy. He will be a good dad and a good husband.

She said “I do” immediately. I don't know if the pregnancy hormones have made her more in love than usual with her guy or if she was already deeply in love with him before discovering the pregnancy. Cal is physically gorgeous, a strong man who looks like he was sculpted by Michelangelo himself. I understand my daughter perfectly in this aspect. I don't know either if it's the pregnancy hormones or that Isaac still refuses to fuck me, but when I saw that man on his knees asking my daughter to marry him between our rose bushes I was about to run out and say “I do” myself. The hug I got right then and there from Isaac stopped me. Just kidding, as a father this moment was almost as powerful as when I was told that Sandra, my ex-wife had given birth and I had become a father.

The wedding-to-be became the talk of the town. The most handsome boy in town and the most beautiful girl together, as if they had taken this story from a movie. Although, in truth, in those TV movies the girl is not usually pregnant when they ask her to marry them. Long live love, but they are aware that an accident has brought them together. Holding my daughter's hand, he came to where Isaac and I were with our children watching the proposal and told us a phrase that made me love him even more: “I will take care of your daughter and I will make her the happiest woman on earth, I promise”. There are no romantic men like him anymore.

I don't think the next generation of our family will live up to Cal. Especially my son Patrick who is very uptight lately. Since returning from camp he rarely interacts with the rest of his siblings, he has had several arguments with Philip and Edward about things at camp that I don't quite understand and he is with Isaac jr all day long, who to him has always been his cousin, even though they are not really related nor do they share genes, since when I gestated them I did it with genetic material from Lucas and an anonymous ovaries donor. When Isaac and I agreed to be surrogate, one condition I set was this: not to share genetic material with the children I was going to gestate.

The situation worried Isaac and me, as Patrick is at that age where he is elusive with his parents. He had always been very affectionate when he was younger, but lately we haven't been able to connect with him at all. I guess it will be a matter of letting time pass for him to approach us again, but I don't know what to do.

The thing is, one afternoon, the day I entered my fourth month of gestation, Isaac and I were watching a movie quietly at home, while Patrick and Isaac were in their room when Lucas and Adam suddenly arrived. They were furious. “Where are they, get Patrick and Isaac to come in here and clear this up for us!”, he said showing us two pregnancy tests. I was stunned again, and that was one too many times in such a short time with so much pregnancy.

Isaac went to pick them up and brought them both into the living room. The look on their faces was one of knowing they had been found out. What's worse, Isaac showed us a third pregnancy test, also positive, just like the ones Adam brought in his hand. “You can see the surprises don't end,” Isaac said, as always trying to lighten the mood, although this time he looked very worried.

They both sat at the table together, staring blankly at the three tests on the table, while the four of us adults stared at them, waiting for an answer that didn't come.

“Can you explain to us what these are?”, I asked. ”I think it's obvious, Daniel, they are positive pregnancy tests. The question should be who is expecting a child?”, Lucas immediately cut me off.

Young Isaac mumbled something that none of us understood. “What did you say, speak more clearly, my son!”, said Adam who was still furious. “Both of us! Okay? Fuck, we're both pregnant! Shit!”, reacted Patrick. Isaac next to him burst into tears. My husband and I gawked at each other, as did Lucas and Adam. “What?”, the four of us asked after a few seconds of disbelief.

If there's one thing I love about my son Patrick, it's when he gets sarcastic. Do not misunderstand me, even if it gets on my nerves as a parent, I admit he gets very funny without intending to. “I'd explain the process to you, but I think you already know it. Especially you two”, he said, looking at us, ‘who have given us one example after another of how to get a man pregnant", Patrick replied.

“Patrick, don't make things worse,” my husband Isaac told him with a seriousness that is not typical of him, who is more inclined to defuse situations. Patrick looked at him angrily, because deep down he knew his father was right.

“We've liked each other for a few months now. In high school we started seeing each other on the sly. We know that a relationship between the two of us is like a scandal, since we were gestated by the same man. People think we're family or something, like those medieval kings and princesses who married their brothers, but everyone here knows the truth. At camp we were given a tent for the two of us, and that's where we found the intimacy we hadn't had earlier. One thing led to another and we ended up doing what you know”, young Isaac finally said. All the anger with which Patrick speaks contrasts with how clear Isaac II, as my sister once called him, is when he has to explain something.

“Is that the reason why you are constantly arguing with your older siblings?”, I asked Patrick, lowering the tone of the conversation. I know we were very insensitive before, so deep down I also wanted everything to relax, since the damage had already been done.

“Yes, partly yes, although they don't know anything about it. Turns out Edward found us fucking in the tent, and told Philip. They both gave us a hell of a telling off. We tried to convince them that we really loved each other, that we were serious, but they wanted nothing to do with it. They said that between cousins this is not right. And although they know perfectly well that genetically we don't share anything, they refused to listen to reason,” Patrick replied. I know my son and I know he was more angry that they didn't understand his relationship with his boyfriend than the fact that they got pregnant each other. He really cares about his boyfriend.

“What about the third test?”, suddenly asked Adam. We had all forgotten about the test Isaac brought in his hand, but there it was, on the table. If they had already taken two tests, why did they need a third.

“It's mine too”, Patrick said. “We both took the test at Isaac's house. We were so shocked that we needed to know if it could have been a false positive, so we were going to take another test to confirm it”, he continued. “That test is mine, and his is hid in a drawer in my room. Both positive, so there are no doubts. We are definitely expecting children”, he finished.

“16 and pregnant, looks like an MTV show,” Isaac apostilled. The two young men didn't understand the reference, but Lucas, Adam and I looked at my husband wondering how this man already in his 50's is able to blurt out these comments at this time. It's his trademark.

Go to Part 5

[youhavelessproof]

mob Dickie Jaydick AU anyone?

mob Dick is a thing we've seen in canon before and it will not leave my mind so y'all get to deal with ramblings about it. :) (Crutches and also a timeline where he never met Bruce.)

brainstormed this in the bottom Dick server, but here's me trying to summarize it.

general premise: no capes AU where once Dick escaped juvie he went and killed Zucco. (not quickly, he was 8, but he's a smart kid,) and then decided well police are useless, so I'll just help people myself. (very similar to how be became Robin, but like. more real world vigilante justice which is more morally questionable than fictional vigilantes.) Dick is a part of a mob at any given time because it makes doing what he was already going to do easier. which mob changes because he's not really part of the mob to be part of the mob and it's more a access to resources thing. Dick is allowed not wear a face mask/helmet because no records of him existing really exist. he was a circus kid that just ended up placed in juvie. he doesn't have records. Jason on the other hand is just a normal fucking dude. (probably a priest like that one timeline but I've never been religious so I wouldn't really know how to write it. but I could try.) also yes obviously Jason's life has not been easy-peasy or whatever but in comparison he is so very normal.

they meet at a bar or diner or something and Dick uses Jason to get some dudes of his back. probably an "I'll owe you, but I need you to kiss me right now." regardless, Dick had no intentions of actually getting Jason interested in him, but I mean. look at him.

their meeting should've ended at that, but Jason is involved now because he keeps wanting to see that pretty boy that definitely had knives and a gun on him but. pretty 🥺

also I just wanna clarify that Dick is not killing bad people to prove a point. he doesn't even necessarily see what he's doing as 100% right. the systems are corrupt and he knows it, but he also knows he is one man with 0 resources if he didn't get involved in crime. he can't change the systems as one man, but he can help people sleep at night. (kinda think of it like fanon Red Hood. except with less "I know I'm right." because Dick is not concerned about being right, he's concerned with helping people.)

which leads to a lot of conflict with cop Babs. because she doesn't agree at all with what Dick is doing, but also? he's so... gentle with victims. and he doesn't try and hurt Babs unless she tries to arrest him. he seems like an upstanding guy but also he has a kill count. and it is not a small number.

there's no past of present Dickbabs btw. they can be a little flirty at times, but Dick wouldn't date a cop and Babs thinks Dick is too self-righteous anyways.

Jason also has moral objections, (whether just personally or because of religion depends on the priest thing,) but he understands Dick on a deeper level than Babs. he's been at the bottom, he's had to steal to live, he knows. he just wishes that Dick didn't kill. didn't cross that line. it's not a deal breaker, but it is a point of tension.

Dick is basically talking to Jason sporadically at first. nothing much but some surface level conversations, but they're more than Dick usually has with people. Dick is thinking about trying to shut out Jason because he's just a guy and he's gonna get himself hurt. like. really hurt. Leslie encourages him to talk to Jason though because she's known Dick for forever and she says he needs the company. (Leslie does not agree with what Dick is doing btw, but she found him hurt when he was like 10 and became something a confidant for the boy. plus, Dick trusts her enough to bring victims to her when they need help.)

Dick still has Roy as a friend in this AU and they are close but also Roy has a government job that Dick isn't thrilled with and Roy is not thrilled with the murder. they are best friends, but they have a lot of... tension we'll call it. (Jason will have something of a friendship with Roy, but it is mostly formed from mutual concern about Dick.) also Donna is here, but I'm gonna say she does not live in Gotham so y'know. she also doesn't like murder, but Dick's her boy so it's... not fine, but it doesn't matter.

Dick and Jason end up in a friends with benefits situation because Jason assumes Dick would not be willing to commit to relationship considering everything around him and Dick assumes Jason would only want him for his body. they are both stupid. (/affectionate.)

possibly also a marriage of convenience at some point so that Jason can't testify against Dick. how Dick would even get caught in the first place? good question, have not gotten there.

anyway one last thing: Dick does not share his name like. at all. Donna knows it and maybe Roy too but generally it's either aliases or nicknames people call him. so when he tells Jason his name is Dick it is a big deal.

"see you around." "Dick." "huh?" "that's my name. Dick." "in that case, see you around, Dick." "see you, Jace."

anyway this AU will not leave my brain. I like role reversals when they're done in a specific way and this one just itches my brain.

also some quick little things: * I have no idea if Babs is a cop in any DC timeline, however the reason I chose this is so that she can still interact with Dick on some level. because while I don't like Dickbabs personally generally, she is an important character to Dick and I think her being to cop that's chasing him fits better than Gordon. * Roy used to be a government agent in mainline canon. I don't particularly love it for him, but I understand why they chose it and it is canon. I am not making him work for the government out of nowhere or just to fit into the narrative. there is a basis for it. * yes I do recognize that not everyone that is important to Dick has been included. I have not fleshed out every role in this AU and haven't decided what Kori, Wally, etc. will be. * as I mentioned in the post itself, priest Jason is canon to a specific timeline in the DC comics. you can like or not like it, but I am not pulling it out of my ass. (the flashpoint timeline which yes is supposed to be a bad timeline, but my point stands.) * "where's x member of the Batfamily?" I don't know. Tim is probably doing fine just living a normal life. Damian might not even exist. I will probably include Damian just because I love Dick parenting him, but like. I have no idea where the rest of the Batfamily is and this ain't about them. /lh * just because something is in a canon DC timeline does not mean I think it's in character or a good character choice, (looking at you cop Dickie), but I am saying that I think it's fair game for AUs. (like really anything is fair game for AUs, but you hopefully know what I mean.)

sorry to get a bit defensive, just thought I'd explain some of this AU upfront just to deal with some misinterpretations that might happen in one go. <3

Mob Dickie and Normal Guy Jason my beloved. maybe I will explore you in an actual fic someday.

[kiwisfics]

A/N: Don't read this if you don't like dark fics! Don't come at me if you don't like the content. Triggers are listed and the only non-"constructive" comments I'll take are about any triggers that need to be added. I said I was gonna post this like... three days ago but I kept going over it again so if I don't post it now I'm not gonna. JUST TAKE THIS! Let me know if I missed any uses of my SI's name when I was editing.

Context Needed: I normally keep the fics I write that are lore-heavy to myself, but since people said they wanted the dark fic… Reader is a rifter, which basically means that she’s capable of traveling dimensions, and is conditionally immortal. Reader goes by Black Robin and is implied to have a suit that shows a lot of skin and to have a flirty persona as a vigilante.

TWs under the cut because there's... a lot.

Light TWs: Self-loathing, reader diminishes her own worth, reader has past trauma with being left behind by people she cares about, Dick is giving reader the silent treatment at the beginning but it’s mostly pre-setting, canon-typical violence/blood mentions. “Good girl” gets used condescendingly.

Heavy TWs: Do NOT read this if you have any triggers related to rape/non-con. Nothing actually happens, but it heavily revolves around reader believing that it's going to. Seriously, don't read this if you don't like whumpy stuff, because you're not gonna like it. My love of whumper to caretaker shows through here. Lots of mentions of trafficking, reader is kidnapped by said traffickers, fear of rape/non-con, Dick is very mean. Like, seriously, he’s very OOC for the majority of this fic. Threats/implications of rape/non-con, inappropriate use of one of his escrima sticks (just in the mouth) reader has a spiral at the end where she’d convinced that Nightwing and Red Hood are going to rape her.

If it’s any consolation, this is technically hurt/comfort, so it isn’t all horrible. Just… most of it. Reader also forgives him far too fast in the end, but I can gladly share some more snippets of how this affects the reader character in the future. I’ve already got ideas for some short scenes that I’m gonna write.

-

Nightwing was going to kill her.

He’d been explicitly clear: he didn’t want to see Black Robin out ever again. She’d nearly gotten herself killed, but she knew that wasn’t why he was so angry. He couldn’t have cared less about that, after all, she was a rifter and that meant that she was built to take pain and that death was a moot point. He was angry because she’d risked the mission, nearly let a trafficker that they’d all been hunting for weeks get away because she got too confident for her own good.

She’d snapped back at him when he told her that she wasn’t to wear the suit again, told him that he was just like Batman. That was the wrong thing to say.

He hadn’t talked to her since.

So, maybe she was trying to bait him a little by coming into Blüdhaven in her suit, maybe she was trying to get his attention back because she couldn’t stand being punished with the silent treatment. Maybe this was her fault.

Well, it was definitely her fault, but in her defense, she was thinking with her heart and not her head. She didn’t want to lose him, and in some twisted way, having him level her with lecturing and anger was still better than the radio silence.

She would have been fine. Nightwing would never actually hurt her. That wasn’t what went wrong.

Her suit didn’t have a panic button. It didn’t need one because she was forbidden from going out on her own even before she’d wrecked a mission and been benched. So, when she’d stolen a bike and made her way to Blüdhaven in costume while Bruce was off-world, Tim was with the Titans, Jason was off on a no contact mission, and Alfred was distracted with keeping Damian from abandoning his studies in favor of full-time vigilantism, no one knew where she was going.

She’d even been stupid enough to leave a note saying that she was heading home to visit family, and she wouldn’t be back for a while.

Alfred would have already found the note. Bruce wouldn’t start worrying for at least forty-eight hours with no word.

By then, it might be too late. Too late for her pride and her self-respect at least.

For now, she contented herself with growling and spitting at the traffickers, fighting the urge to be sick over the taste of her own blood soaking the rag in her mouth. She had no chance of picking the locks on the handcuffs, because she’d never gotten the hang of it while Bruce was teaching her, so she didn’t bother fiddling with them, instead preserving her energy.

If no one found her, she’d need her energy if she got the chance to run. They’d have to uncuff her from the chair if they wanted to-

She gulped, pushing down the thought.

Nightwing was going to kill her, but he was also the only chance she had of getting out of this without something worse than torture occurring.

She could see the leering. She could read the expressions. She promised herself that if she got out of this, then she was going to change the layout of her suit. She needed to cover more skin. She needed to flirt less with enemies too, apparently, because the men that had grabbed her had parroted some of her own lines back at her while they gagged her and dragged her back to this warehouse.

It was always warehouses. For once, she wanted to get dragged to a penthouse suite and get threatened and tortured by a classy villain.

Nightwing was going to kill her, but she couldn’t help the way that her chest lurched with relief and happiness upon seeing his form drop to the floor from one of the open skylights.

At once, all of the guns were on him, but, as suspected, he didn’t so much as flinch.

“Here to save your little friend? Awful bold to jump right in the middle of the warehouse full of men with guns, even for you, Nightwing.”

He tilted his head, the clench in his jaw speaking of rage.

She was sure she was saved, because even if he was mad at her and was going to give her a lecture that might have her in tears by the end of it, Nightwing wouldn’t hurt her. Dick wouldn’t hurt her.

“Save her? No. She’s just getting exactly what she asked for.”

Her stomach lurched this time, but it was with fear and a sickly cold feeling that crawled up her throat like it was being swarmed by ants.

Was she wrong? There was no way he would just leave her to her fate. He’d saved genuinely terrible people from situations that weren’t even as bad as the one that she’d found herself in, so there was no way he was going to leave her here, just because they’d had a fight.

Right?

The men’s guns all seemed to lower in the slightest bit, but they didn’t leave his form, “You expect us to believe you’re going to just leave her here? That you just dropped in for a friendly chat?”

“Oh, no. I don’t plan to leave her here. You just saved me the trouble of getting her pinned down is all.” He twirled one of his escrima in his hand, like it was a fidget toy instead of a dangerous weapon. “I appreciate you making my night easier, but I’m going to be taking her off of your hands now.”

So, he was saving her, right? He was contradicting himself, but she didn’t care what he said if he got her out of this.

“Thought you weren’t saving her,” the guns raised back to their full height, the leader scoffed, “you go play hero somewhere else for the night and maybe will give her back when she’s nice and broken in. Might not even charge you the full rate.”

She didn’t like having her suspicions confirmed about what they planned to do with her, but that was fine. She had guessed that, and it didn’t matter anymore, because Nightwing was here and that meant that these idiots were just delaying the inevitable rescue he’d come to pull off.

“Well, I guess you could consider it saving. After all, I might not be quite as into pain as some of your clients are, but you shouldn’t worry, I plan to make good use of her.”

What?

No, no, that wasn’t right. He was not actually implying that he was going to use her exactly how these men planned to. There was no way. He was Nightwing. He was-

They’d been flirting since they’d met, the kind of flirting that made everyone that didn’t know better think they were already an item. Even she knew that he was attracted to her, but… had she really pushed her luck this far? Had she really made him hate her so much that the only way he wanted to make a move on that attraction was like this?

She was having more and more trouble holding back on throwing up the meal she’d had before leaving Gotham.

“Yeah, right. You expect us to believe you want her as a toy?” The leader scoffed.

She wished she was that certain that he was lying about it.

Dick- Nightwing walked forward, still twirling his escrima as he approached her. The men parted for him despite keeping their weapons squarely aimed.

“Who could blame me?”

She could feel his eyes burning into hers even behind his mask. Her own mask was long gone, leaving him an unabated view of her frightened eyes. She was sure there was betrayal there too.

His escrima rested beneath her chin, and she forced her head back, trying to put distance between her skin and the weapon that she knew could easily shock her, “Look how pretty she is when she’s scared.”

She tried to muffle the whine that escaped her throat, but there was no way that he didn’t hear it.

What was going on? This was wrong. Was this- was someone wearing his face?

No, she couldn’t pin it on that, because no one knew about the way he’d yelled at her about never wearing the suit again, and there was no denying that was what he meant when he’d said she was getting what she asked for.

He really did hate her, then. She’d really, really messed up, and now he hated her, and for some reason the sting that knowledge made bite at her heart was worse than the fear at what he planned to do to her.

“And what kind of payment are we getting out of this? We could make hundreds at least by selling a vigilante, especially if we only rent her out. And this one can break over and over again, just to heal back up. She’d a goldmine of opportunities. Why would we just hand her over to you?”

Dick’s—no, no, she couldn’t think of him as anything other than Nightwing, because if she thought of him as Dick, then she was going to breakdown for sure; Dick didn’t hate her, Dick cuddled her during movie nights and carried her to bed when she fell asleep—Nightwing’s jaw ticked with irritation. Apparently, he hadn’t expected them to be so unwilling to give her up just because he wanted her to himself.

Was he waiting for this? Did he know what he was going to do as soon as he’d told her to never put the suit on again? Was he hoping that she would, just so he could use it to justify punishing her like this?

His empty hand trailed up her chest, just barely brushing her shirt, but it was enough to make a jolt go down her spine. He grabbed her jaw, the escrima stick brushing lightly against her cheekbone, “You’re going to let me take her without causing me any more trouble, because otherwise, I’ll be telling the Bat about your outposts in Gotham.”

Angry muttering began among the traffickers, but the leader remained silent, “That’s not much of a payment.” He hummed, like he was considering the offer, but anyone could tell that he already planned to ask for more, “Tell you what, you can take her out of here, no problem. I’m not interested in getting caught by a stray bullet in a firefight, and, honestly, keeping one of the Bat’s things seems like asking for trouble. She didn’t put up much of a fight, so you can walk out with her, after you give us a show.”

She gagged audibly on the rag in her mouth, tears finally escaping her eyes while she put renewed effort into forcing the rag out of her mouth. She wanted to beg and plead and cry. If he was going to do anything to her, at the very least she didn’t want an audience.

For his part, she could see his eyes widen just a fraction behind his mask, but the surprise quickly seemed to settle, and he flashed a smirk to the men that made her feel like she was about to start hyperventilating.

“Fine.”

No, no, no, no, no.

He pulled the gag from her mouth with the hand that had been against her chin, and she instantly opened her mouth to beg, but snapped it shut a millisecond later, her teeth clacking together almost painfully.

His escrima stick was resting against her lips, and his free hand was holding her jaw again, fingers squeezing against her cheeks in an attempt to make her open her mouth, but she wasn’t budging. She wasn’t stupid, and maybe cooperation would make things better in the long run, but she wasn’t letting him put his weapon in her mouth.

“Unless you want this to hurt a lot more later, you should cooperate right now. I’d hate to use this somewhere-“

Her mouth shot open before he could finish, fast enough that her jaw popped.

Okay, so she was letting him put his weapon in her mouth. She’d take the loss.

“Good girl.”

She hated that the praise stroked something in her, making her heart flutter even while he shoved the escrima stick past her lips and far enough into her mouth to hit her throat and make her gag.

Blood. Steel. An iron tang that made her brain go blank for long enough that she missed what he said next.

He didn’t appreciate that.

“Am I boring you?” He growled the words as his free hand tangled in her hair and pulled her head forward, making the escrima stick hit the back of her throat again with what was almost a bruising force. “I asked if you were going to behave, or if I was going to need to make you deepthroat this while it was on, but I guess I have my answer.”

Cold terror battered against her ribcage in place of her heart. All that was left in her chest was a black hole of absolute horror and fear that could hardly classify as a heart.

She didn’t realize that the sobbing in her ears was her own at first, too far into her own head and too tense while waiting for him to flick the switch to make this humiliation painful to know what was going on around her.

She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe!

And suddenly everything around her stopped and went deathly silent before gunfire began and the yelling of the traffickers became frantic and chaotic. The only words she picked up were “it’s the Hood!” and what normally would have made her think she was saved only made her panic more, because if Nightwing—the one that had held her while she cried and always agreed to musicals just because he knew she loved them—was going to use her as a toy, than that meant that Red Hood would too. She was sure he hated her too. She’d thought the way they bantered was fun and games, but she’d also thought that Nightwing cared about her and clearly, she was wrong about that. Nightwing had probably called him here so he could take out the frustration he had with her on her.

And then they’d tell Batman that they’d found evidence that she’d been trafficked and then they’d keep her locked up somewhere and- and- and- and- she couldn’t-

“Breathe.” A familiar hand fanned across her cheek, fingers brushing away tears that were immediately replaced with more, “Breathe for me, bird. It’s alright. It’s okay.”

She couldn’t. She couldn’t catch her breath, but the escrima stick wasn’t between her teeth anymore, so she could beg now. She could plead and promise to behave and maybe if she asked nice enough and they believed her then they’d let her go after they were done with her instead of keeping her.

“Please, please, I’m- I’m sorry, I-I’ll never wear the suit again, I promise. I promise.  I’ll be good. I won’t fight, I’ll-“

“Hey, hey, stop.” He pressed his hand against her mouth, not hard enough to force her to be quiet or to muffle her voice if she did continue to beg, but she silenced herself instantly regardless. “You’re okay, bird. Just breathe. I’d never hurt you. Never. There wasn’t a way to warn you about what was going on without cluing them in. I’m so sorry, bird. I really am.”

He sounded like he was about to cry, and the way he was holding her face in his hands certainly didn’t give her the idea that he was going to hurt her or force her down to her knees so he could-

“I could think of a hundred better ways to have gone about that, ‘wing.” Hood’s voice made her flinch and sink farther down in the chair she was tied to. She didn’t even move her legs or arms when he’d gotten the cuffs undone.

“I needed to distract them so you could get the files and I’m still injured. I wouldn’t even be out tonight if you hadn’t told me that they’d gotten their hands on her. If I’d tried to fight them, then they would have taken me out before finding you, so I don’t want to hear it. Don���t act like I wanted to do or say any of that.”

That was… fair. It wasn’t fair to her, but she had gotten herself into this situation and- she would forgive everything if it meant that he wasn’t going to hurt her. Actually, she’d let him hurt her if it meant that he wasn’t going to use her.

“Dick?” She whined out his name like a kicked puppy, tilting her face against one of his hands in a placating gesture.

“Yeah, bird. I’m here. It’s me. That wasn’t real. None of it was real, and you’re safe now. No one is going to hurt you, especially not me.”

Another sob tore from her throat, and she threw herself forward, into his arms. She was trembling and sobbing harder than he’d ever heard, and she was almost positive it was harder than she ever had in her life. His form wrapped around her, tucking her against his chest as he pressed his face against the top of her head and placed comforting kisses.

Jason sat on the ground behind her, one of his hands running circles against her back in an effort to assist in calming her, and it worked.

After her sobbing began to slow, Dick spoke up hesitantly, “I thought you would know. I never meant- I thought you would know that it wasn’t real. I thought you knew I’d never hurt you.” His breaths shuddered, “I thought you knew that I love you.”

“But you- you were mad at me. You told me- told me I could never wear the suit again and- and then you didn’t talk to me all week and I thought- I thought you hated me. And- and I came here to get your attention because you were ignoring me, so- so I would have deserved-“

“Hey, no. Don’t even finish that sentence.” His hold on her tightened and his voice turned even more tense, edged with anger, “No one deserves to be taken advantage of and you know that.”

She sniffled, tucking her face tight against his neck, and breathing in the scent of his suit and sweat. “You said you love me.”

There was a long pause, and Jason took it as his cue to leave, ruffling [Name]’s hair as he stood and headed out of the warehouse. He landed a boot against the ribcage of the leader of the traffickers as he passed by.

“I’m going to alert Blüdhaven PD. Half of their guys are probably on this group’s payroll though, so I’d get out of here before they show up. They’re probably hoping whoever shut down this location sticks around so they can fill them with lead.”

“We’re headed out now.” Dick stood as he said it, taking [Name] with him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung onto him.

“You said you love me.”

“I did,” he finally confirmed, “but I don’t think now is the time to talk about-“

“I love you too. So much.”

He went quiet again, feet still carrying them away from the nightmare that she’d just gone through, “I don’t expect you to forgive me for that.”

She tightened her hold around him, burrowing against him as a sign that she wasn’t holding any grudges, but also in an attempt to hide from the could Blüdhaven night.

“I knew you were after them. I shouldn’t have stuck my nose in it. I just… I wanted you to talk to me again. Even if you were angry. I… I don’t handle the silent treatment well and… it felt like you were leaving me behind, just like everyone else always does. It felt like you had decided I wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.”

“Never. I’ll never leave you behind, okay? I know that me saying that isn’t going to make you stop thinking that I might, but I’ll prove it, alright? I’ll never leave you behind.” He brushed his lips against her neck, and she couldn’t fight the light laugh that escaped as the gentle touch tickled her skin.

“Okay. I, uh, just… one thing though.”

“Anything.”

“Please keep the escrima sticks away from me for a while?”

 She could feel him cringe, but he nodded, “Yeah. That’s fair.”

[ceasarslegion]

I support u getting back into marvel. Who were ur big fave characters?

We liked Hawkeye, Bucky, and like, pre- Tom Holland Spiderman. Nowadays we r a fan of Bruce lol

Man I have a lot. Deadpool, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel, Daredevil, Black Panther, The Falcon. I don't put Deadpool and Wolverine at the top of the list because of the new movie either, I've been reading Deadpool and the X-Men comics since middle school. I think I connected with them easily because I was always the only Canadian I knew overseas so having two characters of my own nationality meant a lot to me and filled this need for commonality I was lacking. But the one character that I really can not understate the importance of to me is Tony Stark.

Tony was everything to me. I knew exactly how he felt in so many deeply profound ways and I also hide behind this false confidence and sex appeal to push away my own insecurities and traumas. The fact that he was flawed, and that was a feature, not a bug. All I really have in the face of neglect and abuse is my hyper independence, and he used his in the same boat as me to literally build a better version of himself. He's not perfect, he's far from okay, he's a bit broken and rough around the edges, and hey, so am I. Seeing a man like Tony portrayed as a superhero who is not defined by the worst parts of himself means so much to me that I really can't put it into words. And every Iron Man and Avengers film with him released at exactly the right time for me to see it.

Tony will always be special to me. My favourite Iron Man run is International Iron Man, which hammers it all home for me that much more. It's about how Tony was adopted as a PR stunt by the Starks because his birth mother was just too poor to take care of him, and although she loved him, she gave him to this rich family that couldn't conceive because she thought they could give him everything she couldn't, and she wanted her baby to have the world to explore with no barriers to entry. Tony learns about how he was adopted, and sets out to reunite with the mother who loved him more than Howard ever did. It's a deep exploration of identity and how complicated the world is when you're someone like Tony, and they never once portrayed it as his birth mother not loving him, it was the dichotomy between Tony's paths in life being a mother who loved him to the point of letting him go who had nothing to give him, or a father who had no concept of not having who couldn't really care any less about him.

And when MCU Tony got to be the one to save the universe after spending his whole life haunted by his past actions and trying so hard to be a good person (which he already was, he just never accepted it) it hit me real hard man. I don't like that he had to die though, not when he had his little family and life and finally got to be the one to save the world he spent so long trying to be worthy of.

I also got really attached to Tom Holland's Peter Parker as a consequence of this, for obvious reasons. Irondad makes me mentally ill for all the reasons listed above.

All this is also why i dont... really engage with what the fandom has to say about Tony. It makes me want to chew glass that both haters and fans despise both him and everyone who likes him, and seem to make it their goal to completely misunderstand and shit all over his character to the point of saying that he had no right to be mad that Cap lied to him about Bucky killing his parents.

[armed-with-a-waffle-iron]

Bat Family— Star Trek AU💫.

"Captain’s log, Stardate 688 09.9:

4 weeks in the big chair and it still takes me an extra second to remember it’s my final orders the bridge waits on. Today, my chatty science officer even told me “careful, Grayson; even a small leak can sink a great ship”. I told the kid I’d make sure to put it in my log so here it is.

It has been only 6 weeks since the so-called “New Gods” attacked the Federation, and the Long Shadows and its brave, young crew are not just grieving the loss of their captain but one of our world’s finest…;a man whom, despite our rocky history, I saw as a brother. Aboard the Federation’s lead emergency and rescue vessel, our crew is, on a daily, reckoning with the fallout of the final crisis in the Alpha Quadrant and the power vacuum left in its wake. Firefighting aside, our crew is also adapting, rather hurriedly, to the musical chairs in both senior and junior staff.

I began my career on the bridge of this fateful ship and somehow I always find my way back to it. It wasn’t long ago that I was a small, cocky, upstart ensign, masking tragedy with a smile. I was just lucky that my captain saw something he liked in me. “I’ll be head monkey before you know it” I used to tell Bruce and, cruelly, that was closer to the truth than I could have imagined. It’s strange how much of an imposter I feel in his chair— my chair now. Just weeks ago, I was commanding the Big Apple, which gives me more pleasure than I can say but…this— this ship is different; Bruce made it his and to take over as their captain? I should know more than anyone; the show must go on. I’ve spent too much time treating this role as a memorial. It’s time to properly redefine the role as my own. Life’s a carnival and it’s time I take the stage.

My first act as captain was appointing Ens. Wayne as my chief science officer; the very role I served under his father when I was an ensign no older than him. This may raise eyebrows but, while I can’t always excuse the kid’s abrasiveness and pride, I want it on record that I have my full confidence in his abilities. Ens. Wayne is a determined and focused officer whose brilliant thinking has already saved dozens of lives. Any sniff of bigotry regarding his Romulan heritage, on and off this ship, will be dealt with directly by me. And Miss Brown. He’s a diamond in the rough but I expect the rest of my seasoned bridge crew to rub off on him. There’s something written in the stars about a captain and their science officer, and there’s no one on this crew as ready as Damian to begin a new chapter in their story; we’re gonna be a hell of a duo.

I have worked closely with Counselor Brown since she returned to The Shadows from service on the medical vessel Katavi. Miss Brown is inspiringly driven. She’s a practiced medic though an unconventional choice for a counselor but I’m sure she’d take that as a compliment. She has a magnetic charm and a gift for connecting with others, and is a savvy diplomat when she remembers to not to think aloud. She was always prone to the odd risk, especially when lives are on the line in the field, though it’s safe to say that she never runs out of ideas. “If I was gonna play by the book, I’d have never left Earth,” she told me recently. Dr. Pennyworth claims she reminds him of…well, me but I don’t know, I don’t really see it. Perhaps the lines between bravery and recklessness are blurrier than I thought, and maybe every starship needs medics and counselors with Miss Brown’s unyielding dedication to the wellbeing of others.

It’s been a… a pleasure to serve alongside Cmdr. Gordon again, after almost 2 years. Sometimes it is…a lot to share a bridge with someone who’s known you so inti— known you for so long. Especially when tensions are high. Nonetheless, there is no one on this ship I trust more to set me straight if need be. In fact, there may be no one on this ship I trust more. This ship would have never left its dock if we didn’t have Cmdr. Gordon in charge of operations. Barbara’s truly the ship’s 411— if there were two of her, I’d opt to retire the ship’s computer. She’s a born leader; also responsible for the appointment of half of my senior bridge staff and she comfortably takes the big chair when required. We’ve always made a great team, which will mean a few clashes and compromises too. To whoever it may concern, we’ll keep things professional this time, I promise…

Lt. Cmdr. Bertinelli is a stellar security chief and it’s in these uncertain times that her very own Atlas of Organised Crime is consulted significantly, on and off this ship. I’ll admit that the two of us haven’t had the smoothest of working— or personal— relationships in the past but “the past” is all it is. I’m happy to call Helena one of my greatest allies— and friends. It’s been lovely to see someone so solitary find a family on board this ship. I may not always see eye-to-eye with Cmdr. Bertinelli but I have no qualms in saying that she would be a captain by now if Star Fleet tribunal and their rulings against her weren’t riddled with rigid hierarchies and double standards.

My 1st Officer, Lt. Cmdr. Kane, certainly knows how to run a tight ship. She has made it clear that she thinks mine lacks a little discipline and caution. Her security background really shows and we definitely have different styles in leadership but hopefully the Shadows can get the best out of both worlds. In her words; “this ship is facing a different breed of threat and disaster every day, so it needs a different breed of crew”. She’s happy to take the bridge when an away team is needed so she’s probably spent more time in the captain’s chair than I have by now. 

Lt. Cmdr. Montoya was an instrumental player in Star Fleet’s response to the final crisis and she is determined to honour the memory of the late Mr. Sage, whose post she has assumed. She’s a veteran investigator who’s quickly learning the ropes to service aboard a starship and she already sets a high bar on scouting and espionage assignments. Cmdr.s Kane, Montoya and Bertinelli, form a simply excellent criminal investigation team, although I won’t pretend to understand their more personal relationships with each other.

Doctor Pennyworth, as he was before, has been my rock. He’s the heart of this ship, and he does a solid job at keeping its crew alive and well. The Shadows just isn’t the Shadows without him.

It’s no secret how hard Lt. Drake is taking Capt. Wayne’s passing— his regular counselling sessions with Miss Brown too often end in a screaming match in the hallway. For the record, I stand by my decision to give Mr. Drake’s bridge posting to Ens. Wayne and put Mr. Drake in charge of engineering. The Ensign is a real prodigy and needs this show of good faith while Mr. Drake, who has been a brilliant science officer to Capt. Wayne for almost 4 years, deserved the chance to step out of his old captain’s shadow. Nonetheless, our relationship has soured since I, in his words, “kicked him off my bridge” but that is not to say I don’t have the utmost faith in his performance as our new chief engineer.

Lt. Cain has been distant…let me rephrase that— Lt. Cain has been taken to self-isolating since the captain’s passing. Counselor Brown says sometimes she’ll go almost an entire counseling session without saying a word. Funny enough, when I suggested joint sessions with Mr. Drake, the counselor told me to get out of her office. Babs— Cmdr. Gordon, sorry, insists Miss Cain will come around in time; she knows she is among dear friends. She continues to be reliable and cool under pressure at the ship’s helm, adept at assignments in zero-G, and a clinical melee fighter when it’s called for. Yesterday, I suggested that she also head combat training down at security and she smiled, so maybe she will take up that offer.

On a ship so aptly named, it’s hard to forget that old sins cast long shadows. We now reckon with both old foes and threats unforeseen, which place the now vulnerable Federation in jeopardy and expose the cracks in its facade. It’s almost as if the ship herself questions how well we learn from history, and how history will remember us."

[mochegato]

Even the Losers

Chapter 36

Chapter 1     Chapter 35

The sound of the alarm rang through the visiting room, disrupting the inhabitants’ already fitful rest.  Groans and scuffles from the majority of the people sounded throughout the room, but Conner jumped up immediately, his head whipped around for the source of the alarm. His body immediately, naturally eased into a defensive stance while straining his super hearing, trying to figure out if it was in their room, Adrien’s room, or Roy’s apartment, which he was also trying to keep a watch on.

Bruce joined him just a few beats slower, jumping up and scanning the room with an intense gaze, brain immediately launching into action to isolate the source of the Code Red that awoke him, heart pounding in his chest at the thought that it might be Marinette’s room.  He quickly furrowed his brow and when he could no longer hear the noise, his brain still running too slowly to process what was happening despite the massive surge of adrenaline flowing through his system. Surely, a code red doesn’t just shut off so quickly.

His entire body lurched when the noise sounded again and realization hit a second later, allowing the rigidity to ease out of his frame.  He groaned deeply and dragged his hand down his face, before clumsily grabbing his phone with one hand and massaging the kink in his neck with the other.  The rigidity that had just left his muscles rapidly returned upon seeing the name on his screen.  He mentally cursed.  He was definitely not awake enough for this conversation.  “Sabine, good morning,” he offered, his voice still gruff with sleep.

“Good morning, Bruce… how are you doing this morning?”

The saccharine tone in her voice immediately set him on edge. “Exhausted,” he admitted cautiously. He quickly scanned the room for anything out of the ordinary with a bit more care than the first time.  “Been up all night working with police and waiting for an update, which I have not received yet.  You?”

She chuckled mirthlessly.  “Rather stressed myself, actually.  I haven’t heard a word in hours, Bruce.  This is a bit more severe than just breaking an arm.  I need to know what is going on.”

“I’m sorry, Sabine,” he sighed heavily, his hand resuming his neck massage as he tried to work the kink out.  He was getting too old to sleep in chairs like the ones he’d spent the night in. Probably too old to continue to be Batman as well, but that was not the point at that moment.  “I don’t have any news to give you.  We don’t know more than when we last spoke and even that was just what Alfred was able to uncover.  We haven’t even seen a doctor yet.  We’ve been letting Marinette rest and Adrien is still building up strength.”

Damian pursed his lips and looked away from him, accidentally meeting Chloe’s amused eyes.  He shot her a glare and returned his eyes to his father with a huff.

Sabine was quiet for a few moments before finally blowing out a reluctant breath. “That’s good, I suppose.  I have a few questions, but first, I was hoping you would please tell me where exactly our child is resting.”

“Just down the hall from us here at the hospital,” he answered confidently.  “Did you need the room number?”

“No Bruce dear, I know where Adrien is and I have a lot of questions about him, since the front desk won’t tell me anything other than he is, in fact, there.  I meant my child who isn't in the hospital.  Our child.”

Bruce froze, his hand mid neck massage and his eyes darting to the doorway suspiciously.  “Yes, she is,” he forced out slowly.  “I'm right outside her door.  Well, down the hall from her door, anyway.  We have been all night.  She hasn’t been moved.”

“No, she isn’t,” Sabine repeated just as slowly, but with significantly more confidence.  “They refused to give me Adrien’s room number because I’m not his legal guardian, but they were able to tell me they have no record of Marinette Dupain Cheng or Marinette Wayne.  I thought I’d check both names just in case, because I couldn’t imagine why she would be somewhere else and you wouldn’t have told me.”  Her voice gained a cold edge before continuing, the next words coming out harsh and clear.  “So, I’ll ask again.  Bruce, dear, where is my daughter?”

Bruce dragged his eyes from the doors to Chloe, Max, and Conner, his eyes narrowing as they moved until they settled on them in a cold accusatory glare through nothing more than slits.  “I was told she was here,” he growled.  Dick and Damian stood quickly to join him in his glare.

Chloe raised an unimpressed eyebrow and shifted slightly in her seat, out of her more comfortable dozing position, to face him better.  “I merely said Marinette was sleeping and I wasn't going to let you bother her,” she shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance.

“You said, ‘Marinette is in there’,” Dick hissed, motioning harshly toward the doors.

Chloe cocked her head to the side and pretended to think, her perfectly manicured finger tapping her chin lightly.  “That doesn’t sound like me…” she pointedly ignored Max’s scoff.  “Dupain Cheng would not approve of lying, especially when talking about her.  I believe what I said was that Dupain Cheng was in there.  I never said Marinette was.”

“Who did you mean then?” Dick cut in is ice cold and scathing.

Chloe opened her eyes wide info in faux innocence.  “Adrien, of course.  He hates his last name.  None of us refer to him by his old last name.  He’s essentially Marinette’s sibling anyway, so we all call him Dupain Cheng. What?  You didn't know?  Surely whatever background check you ran on him showed he was in the process of changing his name.”

Markov’s display switched to a furrowed brow, and he bobbed forward, but before he could comment on the inaccuracy of her statement, Max reached up and pulled him back with a quick shake of his head.  For the first time, he didn’t believe facts were an asset. He finally understood Chloe’s philosophy; some conversations were better with fewer facts and more emotions.

“You lied,” Damien growled at her, a flash of something that almost looked like hurt appeared in his eyes so quickly it was almost like it never happened.  

"Told you,” Chloe jerked forward in her seat and pointed to her chest, letting her nail dig into her clothes slightly, “bitch who protects her family. And I might not be blood, but they’re still my family.  We chose each other.  We wanted each other.  We protect each other.  And you all can fuck off."

“She hasn’t been here all night!” Bruce roared.

“Obviously,” Chloe scoffed as she examined her nails, unimpressed and unthreatened.

“You knew,” Dick hissed at Conner, betrayal and fury clear in his tone and stance.

Conner shrugged and kicked his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles as he brought his arms behind him, not remotely remorseful at the accusation. “Nobody asked me.  I tried to tell you that you should go home, there was no reason for you to stay, but nobody would listen to me.  So don’t come at me.  I’m just here for my boyfriend, not your family drama.”  He paused and blinked a few times as the words hit him. His arms quickly dropped as he stood up straight.  “Kind of boyfr… we haven’t defined… Adrien,” he amended quietly, his gaze drifting to the floor.

Sabine cleared her throat loud enough to grab the attention of everyone in the room even without being broadcast.  “Bruce, dear, could you put me on speaker, please?”

Bruce’s lips pressed together so tightly his lips turned into a barely visible white line, but he obliged with an aggressive punch of his finger. “Done,” he barked, hostility clear in his voice.

“Thank you, Bruce.  First, young man who has an undefined relationship status with Adrien but has clearly been there all night, we’ll talk later.”

“We can discuss cake flavors!” a new voice boomed over the phone.  “Or will it depend on the time of year you get married?”  Conner looked over at Max and Chloe wide eyed, not at all feeling relieved by their snickering. Conner opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted.

“Oh, sweetie, it gets so much worse,” Chloe assured him with an unrepentant, saccharine smile.

Max glared at her quickly but turned back to Conner with a reassuring smile.  “They’re a lovely couple.  You’ll love them,” he added quietly.

“I know some people prefer richer flavors during the fall and winter and lighter flavors during the spring and summer…” the voice continued unperturbed.

“Not really the time, dear.  We can get to know him later,” Sabine’s voice cut in. “Chloe, sweetheart, there’s no need to lie to make your point.  Now, where is my daughter?”

“Good morning, Mdm. Cheng.” Chloe addressed the phone with a frighteningly polite, respectful tone that no Wayne had heard from her before.  “We sent her home to rest.  She was pretty exhausted.”

There was a moment of silence before Sabine sighed again.  “So, she’s in her home there?  And I still can’t get her on the phone because?  Isn’t her phone there and charging.  Surely, it’s fully charged by now.”

“She may have forgotten to turn it on,” Chloe answered quickly with a glance toward Bruce so quick it could easily be missed or dismissed as another glare.  “She was pretty dead on her feet, that’s why we forced her to leave, she may have forgotten.  Or it may still be off so she can sleep.”

Sabine let out a grunt of annoyance followed by a few more long breaths before speaking in a resigned tone.  “Yes, I suppose worrying about Adrien would be exhausting for her.  Thank you for making sure she got rest.  Next time please inform me of her location and make sure she turns on her phone.”

“Of course, Mdm. Cheng,” Chloe agreed immediately, relief clear in the easing of her shoulders, but short lived.

“It wasn't the worrying that exhausted her,” Bruce growled, ignoring the way Chloe scowled at him.  “She went after the rogue herself.”

“She what?” Sabine shrieked.

“And survived,” he continued with a hiss.  He walked to the far corner of the room for a semblance of privacy he was well aware he wasn’t going to receive. “You told me she couldn't fight,” he seethed, not bothering to hide the accusatory tone.

“She ca...” she started but stopped short with a long, resigned sigh.  “I suppose she didn't do it alone then?”

“So it would seem,” he agreed harshly.  Kon tried to ignore the way Chloe’s heart raced at the statement, but the look she was giving Max from the side of her eye was hard to ignore.  He raised an eyebrow at them but they were ignoring him, very intentionally so, if he knew how to read their strained muscles, and he usually did.  “So, you knew about her association then.  Why didn't you tell me?”

There was a pregnant pause that dropped the temperature a few degrees.  “I didn't realize having a superhero crush warranted a call but breaking her arm didn't,” she retorted.

“Of course it did,” Bruce groaned in frustration.  “They both did.  What do you mean cr…”

“That’s definitely not what I recall,” she cut in before he could finish.  “I recall getting snapped at that you had more important things to deal with at the time. I recall calling you every time something happened and getting brushed off.  I recall my updates only getting received on your schedule.”

Bruce groaned and dragged his hand down his face. There was nothing he could say to defend himself.  He knew it then and he knew it now.  Nothing had changed.  He almost flew to Paris the next day but had stayed home because Jason had been hurt and needed him.  And he couldn’t tell her the call came in the middle of foiling the Joker’s plan to blow up a chemical plant.  “But I called you back the next day to check on Marinette because it did matter.  I know I did because I always did.  I always called back as quickly as I could. There are things in my life I can’t just brush aside…”

“Marinette should be one of those things,” Chloe whisper hissed to Max, intentionally loud enough for her voice to carry across the room. Bruce let out a drawn-out breath, determined to ignore her, but Damian narrowed his eyes at her and growled. Chloe glowered right back but quickly relaxed her face, massaging the skin between her brows before it could wrinkle. Damian used every bit of self-control to force his body to turn away from her.  She was not the focus.  His father’s discussion of Marinette was.

“But, as I was saying,” Bruce gritted into the phone, “what do you mean crush?  It was more than a one-sided schoolgirl crush that got superheroes to cross an ocean help at a moment’s notice.”

Sabine scoffed.  “I never said it was her crush on him…”  She paused for a moment to let her words sink in.  “It might have started with her crushing on him, but that’s not how it ended.”  He could hear her smirk through the phone, which he did not at all appreciate at that particular moment.  “But, yes, it was more than a crush and it was more than just Chat.  It was the whole team really.”

“Excuse me!” he bellowed.  His voice echoed throughout the room, startling everyone from pretending they weren’t eavesdropping, other than Chloe who hadn’t bothered hiding it.

“They’ve made a point of helping Adrien and Marinette, during the fights and after.  I would call them friends.  Maybe something more.  All the heroes helped,” she clarified.

Bruce fought to process the words.  What the Hell had been happening while his back was turned?  He’d relied on Sabine to keep her safe.  To protect her.  And she’d allowed this association, these associations.  Multiple.  Each one capable of putting her in danger.  Each interaction threatening to drag her into their rogue’s focus.

His inner torment was abruptly interrupted by Sabine’s voice.  “What is your problem with this?  I was under the impression you had a rather close association with superheroes yourself.”

Dick froze and leaned back as casually as he could manage, flicking his eyes toward Chloe and Max to determine how much of the comment they were cataloging. The way Chloe narrowed her eyes fractionally and clicked her tongue was incredibly concerning as was the way Max flicked his eyes up to Markov who bobbed slightly closer to Bruce.

Bruce straightened to a dangerously rigid degree.  “It’s dangerous,” he barked out louder than he meant to, but didn’t feel remotely guilty for.  “They endangered her.”  He seethed in righteous indignation, starting to pace in anger.  “I am heavily guarded and can defend myself.  She is innocent and had no way to protect herself and they didn’t care.  They pulled her in without regard for her.  They only cared about themselves.  Who knows what could have happened because of them.”

It took a moment for Sabine to speak up.  Whereas Bruce’s voice had gotten louder and hotter in his anger, hers had gotten quieter and colder.  Each word was a knife’s edge, cutting unobstructed like slicing through water.  “Marinette got kidnapped a week ago because she is your daughter.  Adrien almost died because of her affiliation with your family and you're going to get mad at our heroes?”

“And I stayed away!  I recognized I was a danger to her and stayed away and I made sure she was protected when she was here,” he thundered, throwing his arms out in fury.  That was the entire reason he’d cut himself out of her life.  He’d lost her entire childhood to prevent exactly what happened as soon as they reconnected.  He’d suffered for twenty years, cut out a part of his soul for her, to keep her safe, and they’d just sauntered in and put her in the middle.  “They put her in danger and didn’t care.  They kept doing it.  They keep doing it.  They call themselves heroes.”

“They are heroes.  Heroes that saved Marinette and Adrien time and time again, physically and emotionally.  Heroes that took time to make sure Adrien was okay and not harassed after his father was taken down for crimes Adrien knew nothing about.  Heroes that stopped to make sure Marinette was smiling more times than I can count.  Heroes that put more time…”

“Supposed heroes that allowed my daughter…” Bruce cut in.

“Our daughter…” she corrected coldly.

“…to saunter into the den of one of the most deranged criminals in the world…” he continued without stopping to give her a chance to redirect his justified anger.

“And clearly kept her safe and saved Adrien while doing it,” Sabine argued pointedly, unwilling to give into him in any way.

“So they got lucky,” he dismissed with a grunt. He waved his hand like shooing away a fly.

“Well, that is Ladybug’s power,” she chuckled mirthlessly.

“She wasn’t there,” he insisted.

Dual scoffs sounded over the phone.  “Just because you didn’t see her doesn’t mean she wasn’t there.  There’s no way Marinette walked into danger and Chat wasn’t there watching over her. And where Chat is, Ladybug is,” Tom chided.

Bruce gaped at the new information, his mind reviewing the video they’d watched earlier in the night, scouring for any sign they’d missed, but there’d been no unexplained destruction or creation, no indication of other powers.  He’d have to review it again when they returned home, or ask Marinette when he found her.  His mind raced to reassess the situation with his new knowledge, trying to pin down how Ladybug and Chat’s presences changed their interpretation.

He tuned back in after a few moments, catching her mid-sentence.  “…don’t like it either, obviously.  I hate it. But I will not let you make them into the bad guys when they’ve never done anything but watch out for and protect our daughter.”  She paused for a few seconds, long enough that he almost started speaking again but she started before he could.  “And they are not the subject right now.  I couldn’t care less right now about the heroes.  What I want to know is how she got that far anyway?  I thought you said you were protecting her.  I can’t imagine letting her go somewhere without protection was part of your plan.”

“It wasn’t!” he insisted offended at the very idea he’d allow his daughter to get herself into danger.  “But she seems unable to stick to a well-defined plan.”  He ignored the loud, offended squawk that Chloe let out and the arm Max threw out to keep her in her seat.  “We were trying to keep her out of it.  She snuck out of a locked room.”

A weighted silence settled after a quiet intake of breath.  The air seemed to turn into ice, freezing everyone in their place, not even able to shift their gaze.  “You locked up my baby?” Tom implored with an eerie calm. His voice rang through the waiting room in a clear contrast to Bruce’s, crisp and demanding without being harsh.

“To protect her,” he clarified indignantly, seemingly the only one in the room who wasn’t heeding the warning tones in Tom’s voice.

“While Adrien was in danger!” Sabine demanded. Deep, drawn-out breaths could be heard for a few moments before.   “And how did she sneak out when you were with her?  Or did the Miraculous Team help with that as well?”

For the first time Bruce’s voice showed a hint of uncertainty.  “I… wasn’t.”

“You weren’t?  Who was?” her voice now repeating the eerie calm her husband had employed moments before.

“Nobody,” he admitted hesitantly.

“Excus…”

“We had someone coming to stay with her.  She wasn’t meant to be alone for long,” he cut in quickly in an attempt to stem the fury clearly building in her voice.

“Someone?  Where were you?  Her father. The one that was supposed to protect her.  The one that was so adamant about being there for her from now on.  Where the FUCK were you?”  Her voice echoed throughout the room, making even the eavesdroppers on the other side of the room shrink back except for Chloe.

“Yes!  Thank you!” Chloe exclaimed loudly, throwing her hands up in relief.  “Fucking finally.”

“Are you incapable of shutting up?” Damian barked. He lurched toward her, aching to continue their previous conversation at the same time Conner leaned in front of her, prepared for the moment Damian launched at her, but Dick held him in his seat, preventing the attack.

“Many akuma have tried,” Max shrugged tiredly. “Very few had succeeded.  I calculate a less than 5% probability of success on your part.”  Chloe glared at him, but it lacked the heat she had unleashed on the Waynes.  She eased back into her seat with a smug uptick to her lips.

“I’ve succeeded with lower odds,” Damian hissed.

Bruce continued with his argument, ignoring the children. “I was trying to save Adrien!  I was working my ass off to find him.  I was working with the police!  I was out there checking out leads.  We wanted to find him as quickly as possible for Marinette so she wouldn’t be so terrified.  We wanted to keep her out of it so she was protected and we could wrap it up quickly.”

Chloe quirked her head to the side at his phrasing. Her eyes slid over to Damian, her mind replaying the almost identical words he had used shortly before.  He was watching his father with rapt attention, almost desperate in his focus, like the outcome of the argument meant more to him than just whether his father was offended.  She scoffed at the proud look on Damian’s face as he nodded in agreement.

“Without her,” Sabine seethed.  “You froze her out… again.  You went and did what you wanted.  What you thought was best for her without asking her.  Without knowing her.”  The silence following her words was electric.  “You know what your problem is?

“You're insinuating there's only one?” Chloe scoffed.  She raised her voice to be heard while she batted away Max’s hand as he shoved her shoulder lightly, more a show than actual objection.

“I was under the impression I had more than one,” Conner agreed.  He determinedly ignored the betrayed glare Dick shot him and the growl Damian aimed at him.

“Beyond not being completely useless in the search,” Bruce asked bitterly.

“Yes, beyond that.  And beyond the whole egotistical, fear-driven, distant bastard thing,” she amended unabashedly.

“I thought that covered it fairly well,” Conner nodded.

“I didn’t,” Chloe scoffed.

“That’s more than one,” Bruce pointed out.

“You are uncompromising.  Which sounds better in theory than it is in practice.  You make these decisions and force them on other people without their input or consent. You refuse to adapt or give at all, no matter how it affects them.  You are so certain, with no evidence mind you, that you know better than everyone else.” Her voice dripped with distain as she addressed him.

She’d wanted him to make an effort, but she wasn’t convinced that was the right choice any longer.  Not if this was the result.  He couldn’t see Marinette.  Not really. He was too caught up in his head. She chuckled to herself bitterly. That was probably where Marinette got it from.  But where Marinette’s inability to get out of her head destructed herself, his was destructing those around him, in this case, Marinette.  They were so similar in so many ways.  That was the potential beauty and strength of their relationship. But it was also the potential devastation of it.  “It's going to bite you one of these days... more so than it already has.  You screwed up.”

She sighed deeply and for a moment it seemed like she was going to say something more, but Tom’s voice came through instead.  “I know you still look at her and see that bright-eyed baby looking up at you like you have all the answers and still needs you to do everything for her, but she's not a baby anymore.  Still bright-eyed, but no longer a baby.  And no longer dependent on you for everything.   You missed those years, Bruce.  You chose to.  She's an adult now.  One you don’t know.  One who can make her own decisions.  You need to learn to respect that, or you are going to lose her before you even have her. And believe me, Bruce, she is worth having in your life.”

The enthusiastic, hopeful tone of Tom’s message was quickly replaced by Sabine’s firm, cold, harsh tone.  “And in case I’ve been in anyway unclear up to this point, you are fucking this whole thing up.  If you do not change, the interactions you’ve had so far will be your last with her.”

“Right, I’m going to go check on my daughter,” Bruce growled, already halfway through the exit doors.  “Goodbye, Sabine.”  He hit the end call button before she had a chance to reply, decidedly ignoring the “Well that was rude,” that followed them out in a sarcastically feminine voice. He was not going to commit murder that night.  But at this rate, it may be soon and at present there were multiple potential targets.

His footsteps echoed through the hallways until he stormed through the hospital emergency doors, quickly making his way to his car.  “Why didn’t anyone know she wasn’t here!” Bruce barked into his com.

Alfred was quick to respond, his voice calm and detached.  “Oh, I must have forgotten to check her tracker… and the hospital records.”

Bruce took a few deep breaths before he was able to respond.  “I've only ever known you to forget things on purpose,” he gritted through clenched teeth.

“Very astute observation, sir,” Alfred acquiesced.

“Ms. Bourgeoise said she went home, but I do not trust her.  Turn the tracker on now and tell me where the Hell my daughter is, please,” he spat out the last word like it burned his mouth as he said it.

“The language is rather unnecessary, sir,” Alfred chastised.  His unimpressed tone coming through clearly and, as Bruce noted angrily, not over the sound of buttons being pushed rapidly on his end.

“It is beyond necessary!” he bellowed as he dropped into his car, barely waiting for Damian and Dick to join before shifting it into gear and pulling away in a random direction, the need to move overriding the logic of knowing which direction to move.

“My daughter is somewhere, unprotected after Black Mask tried to torture and kill her.  Which is what happened after the last time she snuck out.  So, you will have to forgive me if I’m not predisposed toward tranquility just right now.  Or don’t, currently I don’t fucking care.”

He turned so sharply Damian’s head knocked into the window with a loud thud.  Dick craned around to check on him.  He raised an eyebrow and nodded toward his head in silent question. Damian waved him off with a frown but continued to lightly rub his head.  He barely grabbed the grab handle in time to stop himself from being thrown across the backseat when Bruce took another sharp turn at full speed, his seatbelt not even enough to keep him in place.  He caught Dick bracing himself with his arms and feet and quickly emulated the position.

“She is a civilian.  She is untrained.  She is weakened.  And she is a target.”  Bruce’s voice raised with each point but never lost it’s dark, hard edge.  “Highly trained heroes have been beaten into comas they barely survived after getting taken.  Highly trained heroes have been tortured into madness after getting taken. Highly trained heroes have died after getting taken.” He paused a moment to let his words soak in, to let the memory of each devastating loss infiltrate each and every one of them so they could remember what he was trying to avoid, what haunted him at night.

“She doesn’t even have the training they had to defend herself.  She could have died!” he barked again, his voice straining at the edges.  “She could have died tonight, and we would have gotten there too late.  I will NOT bury another child.”  He lowered his voice to barely audible, yet still managed to sound more dangerous than his previous screaming.  “I need to know where my daughter is and I need to know now.  And Alfred, so help me, if something has happened to my daughter, I will fire you.”

There was an audible gasp in the car at his words. When Alfred finally spoke again, his words were as professional as ever but somehow colder than anything Bruce had ever said.  “I’ve been monitoring the situation, sir.  If she gets hurt today, it won’t be from taking a step back to rest away from drama and stress, which is surely what she would have encountered in the hospital.  Mr. Harper has taken her to his home to recuperate and Master Jason has been watching over them all night.  I also believe Mr. Kent has been keeping an ear out for her while he was waiting at the hospital.

“She is safe and protected.  I would never have allowed anything else,” he continued indignantly. “You are not the only one who realizes the stakes and cares for Miss Dupain Cheng.  There is more than one way to protect someone.  There is more than one way to keep them safe, sir.  She is safe,” he repeatedly resolutely yet with disappointment coming through enough to coat the entire car in it until Dick and Damian squirmed uncomfortably.  “And she is safe on her terms.”

“She had better be,” Bruce fumed, punching the accelerator.

Chapter 37

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[raeuberprinzessin]

Coffee Fairy Twins - Chapter 3 - Shadows of what could have been

Summary:

Marinette always knew that she was a fairy and that Tom wasn’t her biological father. But he was her papa and he adored her and she never felt the need to know her biological father. But she never knew that she had a twin brother. Tim never knew he had a twin sister. He also never knew that the people he thought were his parents kidnapped him as an infant or that it was his biological father who adopted him. And since he had no idea that he was a fairy - or that fairies existed for that matter - he seemed like an ordinary human to almost everyone (immortal megalomaniacs may be an exception). Sabine never knew that the child she thought was taken from her was still alive. And Bruce? Bruce never knew that his parents hadn’t been fairies (or maybe he didn’t want to know) or that one of his Robins, who he thought to be human, had a lot more in common with him than he thought.

But it might only take a nightmare and a shiny new pair of wings or two to change all that.

AO3 | Masterlist

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An immense power rippled through the magic veins that span the globe. Alfred was an old fairy. Well, maybe not by fairy standards, he could barely claim an age of half a millennium. Still, it was an impressive age as a fairy living amongst humans and not in the Otherworld.

Nevertheless it was rare to feel a ripple like that when he wasn’t attending a Blessing Ceremony. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe right after the ripples hit Gotham and it was pure willpower alone that brought him from the medbay, where he had restocked some of their supplies, over to the bat computer to answer the questions that would doubtlessly come.

“Agent A? Can you hear me?” his son’s voice already asked. He could hear the concern that told him, someone else had already unsuccessfully tried to contact him.

“I’m here, I just had to get over from the medbay,” he answered in a calming manner. Everyone else fell silent. It was practically already the answer they had sought.

“So, you just felt it as well?” Dick wanted to know.

“I have,” he confirmed. His breath had returned but there was still a tingling feeling in his body. The kind of feeling one would get in a numb limb when the feeling returns. “Maybe this is a sign to end patrol early for tonight.”

Gotham had the dubious pleasure to be located on a hub of the magical veins. One of the reasons everything just went batshit crazy as Jason once described it. A ripple like this one would lure the craziest of Gotham’s Rogues out of the shadows.

“The disturbance occurred at 00:07 am, it’s too early to return on a saturday night,” Bruce decided and even though his children loved to disagree in any other case, they hated cutting patrol short more. Alfred sighed internally. “As you wish, sir,” he answered and resigned himself to attempt to balance the ripples as fast as he could. It was always easier if he had the other fairies in their family near. Bruce, his son, even though he still had no idea, that his parents hadn’t been fairies, Dick, Jason, who came back as a fairy after his death, probably thanks to the hub of magic veins, and Damian, although their youngest was only a half-fairy and concerningly unbalanced himself. It happened when the fairy-parent didn’t introduce counter-measures. A strong bond to a fairy companion, who also supported the not-fairy addition to the relationship would be ideal. Although a confidant, willing to support the relationship would also do it. Of course, this needed the willingness to be open with another fairy.

And willingness to be open and therefore vulnerable with someone else was not something his son excelled at. You could say he was allergic to it. If Thomas and Martha had been there longer …

He missed his old friends. Alfred had lived with the Wayne family for many generations due to a debt he owed once. And after that he stayed. The hub was one reason. 

There were many magic hubs around the world, some smaller, some larger, although the one under Gotham was without a doubt one of the largest. Almost comparable to some in Ireland, which was the country with the most magic activity. Hubs were places with a lot of magical energy that could be used to open portals to the Otherworld most Fairies lived in. Fairies and magic users with special talents could even use all this energy to travel to parallel worlds with their own human and fairy worlds. 

The Gotham hub had been corrupted even before Alfred came here. And it only seemed to get worse and more unstable the longer nothing was done. He had the theory that some sort of current carried every taint from all over the world - and since hubs connected to other worlds as well, maybe even from there - to Gotham. And years ago some fairy hunters found a way to use the magic. This was what had cost his companion her life.

Vega had been magnificent. Alfred had never been easily impressed but Vega did so again and again. She had been kind and peace-loving and in her burned a determination he had only ever seen in her and their son. Vegaon on the other hand once told him that she had been inspired by her grandmother. After Azelio had become queen, she had done everything to make sure most humans thought fairies didn't exist. It was the best protection for their kind. 

Alfred would argue she used the rivalries between fairy families and fairies and humans to take this position, but she just had the willpower to do what Alfred himself would have wanted to do, so he didn't think too much about it. The only exception Azelio had made were the families of blessed guardian knights. The knights were originally human but received a fairy blessing which gave them some magical powers and a prolonged life span. Knights could live as long as the fairy who blessed them, if they weren't killed and even killing them was a lot harder than killing a normal human. In the many years since his friends Thomas and Martha had been killed Alfred had often wondered if he could have changed their fate, had he been more persistent. He had offered them to bless them. He had wanted to one day properly introduce them to Vega. He just knew they would have become a close-knit group.

But Vega had been killed by hunters, right here in Gotham. They had used the tainted magic to rip apart her mind into tiny shreds until there was nothing left of her except the weapon they wanted.

The pain of losing a companion is immeasurable, he was told, but Alfred wouldn't agree. He didn't lose Vega. She was taken from him. And he measured the pain in dead hunters. He didn't regret their deaths, but looking in the mirror afterwards he couldn't help but regret what this turned him into. Many years later he would see the same pain in Bruce after Jason was taken from them. And he feared to see his son repeat his own experience until Tim pushed into their lives to prove he could out-stubborn Batman himself. Alfred loved all his grandchildren, but he couldn't help but feel especially grateful to him. Tim had saved Bruce and brought him back to him twice now. He wasn't just the boy who figured out Gotham's best kept secret, but the Robin who saves Batman - even from himself.

Looking back, he didn't have all that much time to regret anything, because it was 1924 and some thug shot Martha and Thomas Wayne for some measly dollars and a pearl necklace. Suddenly he had to be there for his 8-year old son who had no idea he was his father. He had to become his father figure instead of his butler or family friend.

"Thinking of me?"

Alfred opened his eyes, not knowing when he had closed them and turned to the voice. His mentor and confidant walked from the shadows. Considering he didn't see her car anywhere he could only assume she came here by shadow walking.

"Good evening, Leslie," he greeted, for once not bothering to hide his exhaustion. She would understand more than anyone. When he was born, the changeling tradition was very different from the one today. He didn't know who his biological parents were. And back then they hadn't figured out things like the Blessing Ceremony during which young fairies got their wings. Weird things started to happen around him and one night he had awoken from a sleep filled with nightmares that would make Jonathan Crane envious and in the first light of the rising sun he had seen the giant wings he now had. The family he worked for at the time chased him away and when he showed up at the house he had been raised in, his older brother almost decapitated him with an ax.

He had roamed about, cold, hungry and lonely, until Leslie found him and taught him everything. Years ago, when he couldn't bring himself to tell Bruce about his parentage, he asked her if she was his mother. "I've always preferred being a mentor over being a mother, Alfred," was all she told him. It wouldn't have changed anything anyway.

Alfred didn't know his parents, but he knew Leslie and she was there when he needed her. After Vega was taken from him, she decided to stay in Gotham to help with the steadily increasing strain the tainted magic caused.

"When are the others coming back?" she asked casually as she sat down on a chair near him. "They're not," he answered, too tired to formulate a full sentence.

Leslie was silent but Alfred could feel her gaze and finally assumed a proper seating position.

"Batman decided it's too early to return on a Saturday night," he explained. Leslie scoffed.

"Do you know what caused the disturbance," he tried to change the subject. 

For a moment his old mentor seemed as if she wouldn't go for it, but then she gave him a vague nod. "I heard there was a Blessing Ceremony in Paris. Rumors say Azelio and Omaru planned to attend which would make sense since we could feel the magical explosion all over here. This would at least explain the disturbance coming from the east. But there was another disturbance coming from the west, just as strong as the one from Paris. They clashed over Gotham which is probably why you're so exhausted. Gotham's taint and a clash of two powerful magical awakenings would do that."

"How big is the chance that two fairies had their awakening at the same time?" he wondered. Not very likely. But not entirely impossible.

"Considering the power we could still feel here they probably were able to complete the whole ritual from midnight to sunrise. When did the sun rise in Paris today?"

Alfred turned to the Batcomputer and looked it up. "06:07 am. Batman said the disturbance occurred at 00:07 am and Paris is 6 hours before us." So it was the most reasonable assumption that they had felt the disturbance of the ceremony in Paris, just …

"Twins have to have their awakening at the same time. But they are also at the same place."

They were both silent as they had the same thought. “Except when they're not in the same place. There might be a reason why they wouldn't be together,” she finally said softly what they were both thinking. Alfred massaged the bridge of his nose. This wasn't his problem. He now knew what caused the disturbance. He would relay that information and be done with it. Why should it be his problem if there were powerful twins who for some reason didn't share their Blessing Ceremony?

“Do you know where the other awakening was if the queen and the king both were at the one in Paris?” he asked. At the same time something about this felt strange. Separated twins and both of the leaders only joined one ceremony? Was it possible they simply didn't know about the other twin? And who had their awakening that both leaders were there? Usually only family members and invited friends would celebrate a Blessing Ceremony. Were the twins the children of one of their children? He didn't know much about the King's family, but his grandmother-in-law had a few children and some of them had children as well. But he thought most of them lived in the Otherworld. Although, Vega had at least one sister who loved exploring the human world. The Blessing Ceremonies in this family had never been big occasions, so he wasn’t sure what was normal. Bruce had only wanted Leslie and him there, Dick could barely be convinced to come back to the manor for his ceremony and Jason had his awakening when he was with the League of Assassins. And Damian would probably be too unstable for the next few decades. Today, usually a fairy would be deemed an adult according to the place they lived at before the Blessing Ceremony would be initiated, but especially half-fairies could be too unstable and in that case the magical awakening would be pushed back if possible.

Something about that thought tickled something in Alfred’s subconsciousness. He just didn’t know what or why.

“Don't worry. I’m sure if that fairy was alone, another fairy close by noticed the disturbance and will help them. Just like I helped you. And maybe they won't even have to chase after the newly winged fairy,” Leslie replied dryly. Alfred didn’t even react to this any more. She liked to remind him when he worried too much in her opinion that had he stayed where he was, she would have found him within a few days after his awakening. But she was probably right. If it was too far away for them to make out where the new fairy was, they couldn’t do anything. There probably was another fairy closer than them.

Alfred opened the fairies-only com line and told them what he had learned from Leslie. Bruce just gave a noncommittal grunt, Dick sounded excited about the idea of twins having their magical awakening at the same time and Jason expressed his sympathy for the twin who wouldn’t want to have their awakening with both of the fairy rulers there. Damian demanded they should both attend his ceremony as well and Alfred closed that line on his end just as Dick reminded Damian that the ceremony was for family and friends.

He obviously couldn’t tell them that Azelio might agree to come, since Damian was her great-great-grandson.

“Is everyone out tonight?” Leslie asked. She had sat down next to him and he felt her magic weave around and straighten out the tangled up magical veins, cleansing what she could at the same time.

“Yes, except for Tim. He is at the Titans Tower to celebrate his birthday with his friends,” he told her as he let his own magic flow out and follow the veins to reach as far as he could as fast as he could.

“Has Bruce finally told Tim and asked him to become a knight?” Leslie asked, unknowingly hitting a sore spot. Alfred tensed at that. It was an ongoing discussion amongst the fairies in the manor. Should they tell Tim and ask him to become a knight? Cass had become a knight after her 18th birthday. It would give Tim added protection and every vigilante could use that. Also, since he went out alone to bring Bruce back from the time stream Tim had drifted a bit away from the family. Telling him and asking him to become a knight might pull him back to them a bit.

Yet, Bruce still didn’t want to hear about it.

“Bruce still thinks Tim might be able to stop with the vigilantism and he doesn’t want anything to hold him back. He thinks, because he wasn’t pushed into it, he would one day be able to get out.”

“Alfred, please excuse me, but Bruce is an idiot.” Leslie shook her head slightly. “Tim won’t quit. Yes, nobody pushed him into this life, he could have easily lived as a normal civilian, but Tim chose this. He went out at night long before Bruce was part of his life. If you ask me, Bruce would quit before Tim would even think about it.”

“You know that, I know that, I’m sure even Tim will tell you that. But we both also know how stubborn Bruce can be. I can only hope that nothing happens to him before Bruce comes to his senses. Because if Tim isn’t there, I don’t know who would be able to pull Bruce back again.”

[themculibrary]

College/University Roommates Masterlist

a home for two (ao3) - watsonmj (divineauthor) mj/peter T, 3k

Summary: MJ can’t count how many times Peter has shown up in her dorm.

Peter and MJ become unintentional roommates. They’re also incredibly in love with each other.

A Little Larceny (ao3) - checkmate bucky/tony T, 5k

Summary: Bucky has a bit of a thing for his roommate, but Tony is far too busy setting him up on blind dates with other people to notice.

California king (ao3) - withered bucky/tony T, 1k

Summary: Bucky should be used to Tony ending up in his bed.

cross your heart (ao3) - softnslow mj/peter, ned/betty T, 6k

Summary: God, he's so pretty.

His eyes dart from the textbook to his journal, and his head is lowered so a brown curl droops down from his forehead. His dorky T-shirt is hiked up slightly so it reveals- his stupid perfect six-pack, damn. 

The soft glow of the lamp outlines his sharp, perfect jawline to his pretty boy features.

MJ looks back down, biting the inside of her cheek.

She's crushing so hard on Peter. A nerd. A dork. A really hot, cute, awkward, pretty guy. 

--

or, a sweet roommates au featuring babysitting morgan stark, snowball fights, and study sessions.

Death and the PhD (ao3) - buckybarnesdeservestobehappy (hutchabelle) steve/bucky T, 3k

Summary: PhD student Bucky Barnes loves his research on Thanatos, the Greek god of non-violent death. So wrapped up in his studies that he doesn’t realize someone’s stalking him and his roommate Steve who’s come to mean more to Bucky than only someone who resides in his apartment, he’s forced to find the courage to resist when he comes face-to-face with his stalker.

Education is the key (ao3) - SrebrnaFH G, 1k

Summary: Steve Rogers is rescued from the ice earlier than in the MCU timeline and Army decides he needs to complete his education.

Howard Stark suggests MIT. Guess who is going to be Steve's roommate... Or roommates.

for all of the perfect things that i doubt (ao3) - spoondrifts loki/mobius, valkryie/ravonna T, 6k

Summary: Mobius M. Mobius, age twenty-three, philosophy major, isn't sure what to make of his new roommate. Especially considering that it's three months into the semester and he hasn't even seen the guy yet.

Home (ao3) - Pandagirl86 tony/bruce T, 4k

Summary: It's been a long time since Tony's felt at home.

In This Together (ao3) - i_buchanan bruce/tony E, 62k

Summary: Bruce was pretty sure that he was going to be the youngest person at MIT. He didn't realize that honor actually went to his roommate, the already-infamous Tony Stark. Granted, the child prodigy turns out to be nothing like he expects, for better or worse, and Bruce figures that they just have to make it work. Besides, it should only be for one semester, right?

Or, the fic where they live together, move out together, and eventually get together.

Let Me Love You (ao3) - inclinedtoarson mj/peter M, 3k

Summary: Peter is Michelle's best friend, and Michelle is his. He is always there for her on her worst days, and now that they're roommates she's spent a lot of nights confiding the deepest parts of herself with him. There's no one she trusts more in the world, no one who knows her better. So when her boyfriend just up and leaves, MJ is glad Peter is there to tell her she's beautiful and valuable and that he's there for her. He'll always be there.

Marvel Collegiate University (ao3) - Ultra bucky/natasha, pepper/tony, steve/peggy T, 48k

Summary: What if all the Avengers were ordinary human beings who just attended college together?

Oh where do we begin (ao3) - steveandbucky steve/buckt M, 24k

Summary: Halfway through his third year of college, Steve Rogers rents out the spare room in his apartment to make living close to campus more affordable. At first sight his new roommate, Bucky Barnes, seems to be the stuff dreams are made of, but living together turns out to be a nightmare, and the academic year is a lot more adventurous than either of them expected, as they slowly turn from enemies to friends to lovers.

Painterly (ao3) - avintagekiss24 steve/bucky E, 8k

Summary: Steve's entire semester hinges on the art project that Bucky just kinda, sorta put a hole in.

save, saving, saved (ao3) - firebrands steve/tony G, 1k

Summary: simple joys, or: tony exhausting himself trying to help literally everyone and steve tutting and making him noodles

Smart Enough (ao3) - AuroraWest loki/stephen T, 3k

Summary: Loki has never been smart enough to keep his mouth shut around people who don't like him. When he gets beat up by the university rowing team (seriously?), his roommate insists on helping with the injuries.

At least Loki is smart enough not to fall for his roommate, despite Stephen's crooked smile and floppy hair. Right?

some days i'm lonely (and some days i'm not) (ao3) - wittepain peter/harley T, 77k

Summary: Harley turns eighteen in a day, graduates in two weeks, and despite all of the questions now being thrown at his head, he has absolutely no direction in life.

-

or, it takes leaving everything he's ever known for harley keener to finally learn how to love and be loved.

Surprise! (ao3) - Ray_Day peter/harley T, 2k

Summary: Harley and Peter are dating and are roommates in college. Neither of them knows that they know Tony Stark (Though on Harley's end, he just doesn't connect the dots).

So when Tony shows up for a surprise lecture for their shared class, neither of them know what to do.

The Loveliness of Loving You (ao3) - ElisabethMonroe sam/bucky E, 4k

Summary: Staring SamBucky, featuring: Valentine's Day ✔️ Baking Cookies ✔️ Lingerie ✔️ Mutual Pining By Friends With Benefits ✔️ And They Were Roommates ✔️

The One With The Haus Party (ao3) - neversaydie steve/bucky, natasha/sam, past steve/tony, bucky/pietro M, 8k

Summary: Sam ends up giving Mr Five-Feet-Five of Cock-Deprived Fury a piggyback home, mainly because he's too drunk to protest being carried and Sam would like to get home before the sun comes up this time.

"I hate Bucky." He's been grumbling about Barnes for the entire walk. There's a thin line between love and hate, Sam supposes, and apparently that line is someone else's dick in Bucky's mouth. "Fucking… gonna call him Fucky from now on."

"He'll like that." Sam points out, shifting Steve's weight to get the bony knees out of his ribs. He'd better get some good karma for this shit, he wishes he didn't have such a strong conscience that he can't knowingly let this guy sleep on a sticky frat house floor for the night. He's way nicer than his messy friends deserve.

"Gonna call him fuckface then. Fuckface fucking Barnes. Sucking all the dicks. S'not fair, where's the dicks left for everyone else?!"

[the gang go to a house party at a hockey frat, mistaken identities and inadvisable drunken behaviour abound, and Steve is a Hot Mess]

The Rift (ao3) - seapigeon steve/bucky M, 53k

Summary: Steve Rogers is used to things going wrong. He's had poor health and bad luck his entire life. He's not really sure why he thought witchcraft would be any different. Maybe because he didn't believe it was real...?

Turns out, it's all kinds of real, and now he has a ghost in the attic, a mystery to solve, and a huge crush on his roommate.

[mzminola]

Bat Brat Age & Role Shuffle AU:

Once upon a time there was a young Gothamite who went to the circus to see the Flying Graysons, a pair of acrobats of world acclaim. The mafias hadn’t started paying attention to Haly’s as a potential squeeze in the protection racket yet, so absolutely nothing went wrong.

Several years later Jack and Janet Drake get divorced, but that’s unrelated.

Also unrelated, Bruce Wayne eventually debuts as Batman. Not too long after that, Crystal Brown overdoses while Stephanie is at school and Cluemaster is busy with two-bit supervillainy.

Blaming both herself and Arthur for not being there, Spoiler sets out to kill her abusive dad, running into Batman along the way. They get along as well as you’d expect two people who are similar in all the worst ways, but Bruce can’t stop Stephanie despite her being, like, ten. He’s new at the vigilante thing and she saw his face (there may have been a brick involved), so they have a mutually assured destruction thing going on.

Spoiler bargains to only beat up Cluemaster, not kill, if Batman teaches her to be the best possible crime fighter ever. He agrees. Once Arthur is in jail, Bruce steps up to officially foster Stephanie.

Spoiler keeps flying at Batman’s side, continuing her extensive training. They both lean into the Brooding Loner theme, so Stephanie is only an associate of the Teen Titans, not a full member. They make her feel awkward, and her intense Bat-training makes them feel judged.

Meanwhile, Tim Drake started college at about the same time most people start High School, having gone super hard on academics to drown out his parents’ fighting before their divorce. A big fan of both the Flying Graysons and Batman, he takes the plunge on maybe not actually being he by handcrafting a costume for her Original Herosona Do-Not-Steal, Batgirl! to attend a convention.

Tim being an overachiever, and also a Gothamite who’s lived this long, the costume is fully functional for crime fighting, which comes in handy when a Rogue crashes the con.

Stephanie is younger and Tim a less experienced crime fighter, so Spoiler and Batgirl butt heads a lot once Batgirl starts flying through the night, but they’re always down to team up to dunk on Batman (Tim loses some of the hero worship once actually doing the hero job).

Tim has to pretend to be a perfect heterosexual cisgender young man for her parents by day (or at least for Jack, Tim’s more hopeful about Janet) and so uses Batgirl time as a chance to experiment and as an outlet for a lot of things. She flirts with Batman all the time, which makes Spoiler mime barfing because ew that’s her dadmentor, gross.

Spoiler is even more obnoxious when Bruce flirts with Catwoman and gets along even worse than canon!Dick does with Talia.

Bruce and Stephanie’s too-similar personality clashes get worse the older and more confident Stephanie gets, culminating in an explosive fight when she turns eighteen and ages out of the foster system. She spends a few weeks living with Arthur (out on parole again) out of spite, and then hightails it to New York to prove she can be a team player and join the Titans for real.

Sick of the extreme uptick in brooding, Alfred badgers Bruce to get the fuck out of the manor for something other than crime and tormenting the Wayne enterprises Board of Directors.

Bruce goes to Haly’s Circus.

You can guess how that ends.

It doesn’t even occur to Tim that twelve year old acrobatics prodigy Dickie Grayson wouldn’t stay with Haly’s Circus, surely John and Mary had some kind of preferential guardianship documentation. So while Tim is now done with her LIS degree, has a job, and presumably could be an eligible foster parent, Bruce already has custody by the time Batgirl encounters Robin in the field.

Batgirl makes sure Tony Zucco’s entire organization comes crumbling down while Batman and Robin deal with the man himself.

Stephanie finds out about Batman’s new sidekick from Tim instead of Bruce and reacts…

Badly.

Canon!Stephanie has some pretty damn strong jealousy issues. She hasn’t even been gone two months yet and Bruce already has a new partner? A new kid? Who does Bruce think he is, replacing her like that? Who does the kid think he is, stealing her dadmentor?

God, and he’s so much peppier than she is, in a brighter costume, Spoiler could always make Batman smile but Robin makes him laugh. He’s got the murdered parents thing in common with Bruce too, parents who never did any crime, unlike hers. This isn’t fair.

Tim thinks Stephanie needs to get over herself and not be a jerk to the kid on the rare occasion she visits Gotham, if she can’t handle being nice. Stephanie accuses Tim of being a kiss-ass to Batman, says Tim must be so thrilled to finally be the more experienced crime fighter for once, and oh, isn’t it a dream come true to work with one of the famous Flying Graysons? Tim throws a book at her head.

Two or three years later, when Tim has already been going out in the field less frequently, doing more casework from the computer, considering retiring Batgirl and working up the nerve to come out as a woman in her civilian life, her parents arrive earlier than they’re supposed to for dinner just as she’s getting back from patrol. In costume.

There’s a lot of shouting. Accusations. Assumptions. Hurtful things said. Some supportive things said, too. Jack blames Janet for Tim “dressing in drag to run around with lunatics!” Janet blames Jack for Tim never talking to them about all this. It doesn’t help that Tim got a small laceration on her temple which is bleeding like a motherfucker when she comes through the window; their baby could have been killed!

Eventually everyone calms down; Tim agrees to put her vigilante work on hold while they all attend family counseling (which she’s tried to get them to do before). Jack admits Grandpa Charlie would be proud of Tim’s heroism. Janet asks what name Tim prefers to be called, and starts listing notable women from ancient history when Tim admits ‘Batgirl’ is the only girl name she’s chosen so far.

Unfortunately, just a few weeks later, the Joker and his henchmen break into a Drake Industries medical manufacturing facility to steal something while Jack is there, on the day Tim came to meet her dad for lunch.

Tim takes a bullet to the spine, instead of Jack taking it to the gut.

While Tim is in the hospital, fifteen year old Dick Grayson is dealing with complicated feelings about family. The Gotham socialite sphere and media keeps gossiping about his status as a foster kid; Bruce’s first still had a living father, a criminal, of course she was in the system, but Richard is an orphan, why hasn’t Bruce adopted him? None of them think to ask Dick how he feels about that; his father is John Grayson, he doesn’t want a new dad…

But he would like more reassurance than he’s getting that Bruce wants him around as himself, not just a crime fighting partner.

Bruce is not good at other people’s feelings; his attempts to not impinge on the Graysons’ memory or make Dick feel pressured about adoption come across poorly.

Then Dick gets a letter from someone claiming to be his half-sister. Since when has he had a half-sister? Is this for real? Does he really have more family out there?

Melinda doesn’t betray Dick, but they both still end up dead at the Joker’s hands in a warehouse on the other side of the world anyway.

Stephanie was in space when it happened. She misses the funeral. It sits hollowly in her chest; she was never there for the kid, never acted as a big sister, now he’s dead and she missed the fucking funeral.

She never wanted a little brother. But she had one anyway. And now he’s dead.

Spoiler gets nearly as self-destructive as Batman.

A few months later the Gotham police commissioner’s thirteen year old daughter Barbara Gordon knocks on the door of Stephanie Brown’s apartment in New York, demanding she come back and pull Batman’s head out of his butt.

“He’s come close to killing people,” Babs says severely, photos taken with a ‘borrowed’ crime scene camera documenting Batman’s self-and-others destructive spiral spread out on the coffee table. “He wasn’t like this when working with the Spoiler.”

Along with the photos, there’s a methodically constructed timeline of Batman’s crime fighting partners lining up with Bruce Wayne’s fostering history. The extreme prejudice Spoiler uses whenever Cluemaster gets out of jail and the similarities between Robin and the Flying Graysons’ costumes is noted in the margins.

“Trust me, kid, if I could pull B’s head out of his ass, I would,” Stephanie says, sarcasm covering up her nerves at their secret identities being blown. “Now why are you here, instead of showing all this to Daddy?”

Babs rolls her eyes. “Because Dad would have to arrest him.” There is an implied duh.

“Well, then, you should be familiar with dads not doing what we want.”

Stephanie drives Babs back to Gotham because she’s thirteen and traveled all the way to New York by herself. Stephanie may be a bit paranoid about kids traveling alone right now.

Alfred compliments Babs’ detective work and makes her cocoa. Bruce reads the margins of the timeline and remembers trying to get Dickie into a subtler costume; the grief and guilt make him say unkind things to Babs. This does not sway her from the conviction that Batman needs a partner again.

Some more unkind words and an altercation with a Rogue later, Babs is that partner.

“The hell are you even gonna call yourself?” Stephanie asks, visiting while Babs is in training. Babs lives with her dad. Bruce isn’t fostering her. Stephanie is gonna be this kid’s big sister anyway. She’s gonna do it right this time, dammit.

“Sparrow,” Babs says. “I thought…” For the first time Stephanie’s ever heard, Barbara Gordon sounds less than 100% confident. “A songbird, in Robin’s honor. And ‘Sparrow’ starts with the same letters as ‘Spoiler’ so it’s...it’s after both of you.”

Stephanie is going to blame the Batcave training mats stench for how her eyes water. “Good name. Dickie’d like it.” She never knew him well enough to know that, but what can it hurt to say?

(On Halloween, the ripples of Superboy Prime’s punch reach back in time, righting what should never have gone so wrong, and Dick Grayson crawls out of his own grave. Unfortunately for everyone, Deathstroke is the first to find him.)

Tim is busy with physical therapy, family counseling, her library job, her new vigilante idea, and getting her name legally changed to Timothea Jacqueline Drake. She doesn’t find out about Sparrow until Babs is back from her misadventures in Paris and Hong Kong with Lady Shiva, and takes down King Snake’s gang at the docks.

Batman’s very first message from Oracle is IF YOU DON’T DO RIGHT BY THE NEW KID I’M STEALING HER TO BE THE NEXT BATGIRL.

Meanwhile, young teenager Jason Todd is stealing tires to pay for his mom’s medicine while his dad is in jail again. Two-Face, Willis’s most recent boss, won’t even bother to pay for his arrested henchmen’s bail, let alone lawyers, and the Gotham court appointed ones are a crapshoot.

Willis never wanted Jason doing crime, but Jason never wanted his dad doing it either, so tough fucking shit all around. Before getting arrested, Willis shared just enough information about his henching gigs to keep Jason away from them. Don’t go to that part of town tonight, avoid the docks next week, never buy anything from Scarecrow’s ex-goons even if they’re working for someone else now.

So when Jason sees the Batmobile just fucking sitting in Crime Alley, he steals two tires and leaves a note on the dashboard with everything he knows about Two-Face’s latest plans.

The snarling photo of that coin-flipping fucker’s arrest in the papers two days later is the most satisfying thing Jason’s seen in his life. It doesn’t get him his dad back, but it sure feels damn good.

So maybe Jason listens in harder on other Rogues’ henchmen and mafia goons chatting with each other in bars and trying to impress the working girls with how much they know, and maybe when the Batmobile shows up a few blocks away from Crime Alley, it loses another couple tires and gets an even longer note.

The third time Jason does it, a hand lands on his shoulder and a voice says “Dude—” from behind him; he swings out with his tire iron, clocking Sparrow in the face.

“Oh, shit,” Jason says, stumbling back. He just whacked Batman’s sidekick! Everyone knows Batman is super fucking protective after the second one died! Oh shit, he is so fucked.

“Dude, ow,” Sparrow says, hand to her jaw. “Nice reflexes, but ow.”

“No shit, nice reflexes,” Jason says. “This is Gotham. Do people just love being snuck up on wherever you’re from?”

“I’m from Gotham too, jerk,” Sparrow says.

“Don’t sound like it,” Jason points out. She has an accent. It’s subtle, but there. Guessing by how her eyes widen, not many people notice. “What do you want?”

“Uh, for you to not steal my boss’s tires?” Sparrow says. She rubs her jaw. “Like, we appreciate the tips, but could you leave the Batmobile in one piece?”

“You can afford to replace them,” Jason says, rolling his eyes. “I gotta eat.”

“Is that so.” Sparrow narrows the lenses of her mask. It’s freaky. She reaches for her belt; Jason jumps back, raising the tire iron higher. Sparrow huffs. “Chill. I’m giving you stool pigeon money. It’s not as much as the tires cost, but it’s better than nothing.”

Jason eyes the money when she holds it out. He doesn’t like thinking of myself as a snitch; this is revenge, it’s getting back at the fuckers who won’t help their own people out. But he does need the money, and what is he gonna do, fight Sparrow for the tires?

“Fine.” Jason snatches the cash out of Sparrow’s hand, eyeing the numbers in the corners quickly before hiding it in his hoodie. “I gotta worry about the big bad Bat coming after me for fucking up your face?”

“Oh, god, no, it’s embarrassing enough a civilian got a hit on me, I’m not telling him it was a teenager.”

She’s definitely a teenager too, but Jason decides discretion is the better part of valor and keeps his mouth shut.

Within a week, the Todds qualify for a health insurance plan Jason’s never heard of before. A pilot program by the Martha Wayne Foundation.

Next time, instead of jacking tires, Jason asks Sparrow to teach him how to use those nifty grappling hooks in exchange for information on a Mr. Freeze scheme.

~

Leaving off here because there are a LOT of moving parts to figure out for the ensuing canon plotlines, and how they'd change. Also, if any other teams ages and roles outside Gotham have been shuffled around too, or if they're all as per canon.

[skylarmoon71]

Timeless Wells (Flash) - Speedster Chapter 18

“A movie night?”

“Yes. It gets a bit boring having a great big mansion. I haven’t had a chance to relax. Neither have you. We should take advantage of the opportunity. “

It doesn’t sound too bad honestly.

“Alright.”

“Great, I‘ll pick you up at nine.”

He looks awfully excited.

“Just so you know I hate horror movies.”

“Noted.”

“I also like comedies and crime.”

“Got it.”

“No hallmark movies.”

“But they are the best!” He protested.

You figured that aspect of your earth in comparison to his stayed the same.

“Too predictable and unrealistic. All of them start the same. Girl meets a guy in a small town, they fall in love and discover they were meant to be. I’d rather watch a bunch of FBI solve a crime.”

“I suppose it was hoping too much to expect you to be up for a romantic comedy.”

“Yes..” You state.

He merely smiles.

“I’ll find a balance between the two.”

That’s what he said.

You were still skeptical. But he looked so excited just at the fact that you accepted his invitation.

Work in the lab is a bit slow. Something that you appreciate. Given all the excitement that you’ve experienced, you’re grateful for the down time.

“You’re going to watch a movie with him?” Avery asks.

You nod.

Evan snorts.

“I think he’s just bored. Typical for rich people.” You laugh at the statement.

“I can’t speak to that. But it might actually be fun. He’s been dealing with a lot. I can’t imagine what it’s like running an entire laboratory. I don’t envy this job.”

Evan nods. “Me either. I’ve always loved technology, but running this place would drive me crazy.”

Avery’s eyes are focused on her lunch and you’re a bit curious. She’s gotten a bit quiet.

“Everything okay Avery?”

She doesn’t respond, not until she feels your eyes on her. Her eyes grow wide and you’re about to question it, but her gaze turns on Evan, determination clear from her expression.

“D-Do you wanna watch a movie tonight!!”

You’re pretty sure the three tables down heard the statement. Evan looks a bit shocked, but he nods slowly.

“Y-Yeah I’d love to..” He mumbles.

“Really?!”

He nods a bit more confidently.

“Realy.”

Her cheeks are flushed and she returns the smile.

“Okay.”

They both looked so foolishly happy and you grinned.

“You guys are so hopeless.”

Evan nudges you playfully and Avery just laughs bashfully.

The rest of the day is very calm.

You grab a few snacks as you head over to Harrison’s place.

He was right about the place being huge.

“Geez, this is massive..”

He chuckles, taking your coat as he guides you inside.

“Make yourself at home, I’ll take these.”

You hand him the items as you move towards the living room.

Everything is pretty much set up.

“Just give me a few minutes.”

He calls.

“Take your time.” You respond, as your eyes look at the movie that he’s chosen.

“Red.”

It’s not one that you’ve seen, but Bruce Willis is in it, so you’re ecstatic.

Harrison walks back in with two bowls of popcorn.

You’ve already made yourself comfortable.

“I take it you’re ready.”

You smile.

“Ready!”

He returns the smile, setting the bowls down. He searches for the remote and when it’s in his hand he sits. He’s a lot closer than you expected and you blush despite yourself, looking ahead.

He starts the movie and you do your best to keep your eyes forward, if nothing but to distract you from his closeness.

~

Harrison nudges you at one point when you begin to doze off. He laughed at your attempt to look casual.

By the time the credits roll around you’re fully asleep.

“I’m sure that wasn’t what you expected.”

He gets no response.

It takes him a moment to realize that you’ve fallen asleep. Your body is leaned against the cushions of the couch. Harrison smiles.

He never thought he would see the day such a relaxed expression would cross your face. So often you’re plagued with fear, doubt or hurt. He knows that you have a lot of scars that still haunt you. He understands. Because he feels all the trials that his counterparts have gone through. All those conflicting emotions. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy for him to help you. Because he’s lived somewhat multiple lives.

He reaches over, brushing the hair that has fallen in front of your face. For a brief moment, his fingers linger right there.

“You’re one of a kind Harrison Wells.”

It plays back in his head, the look you wore. Smile you embraced.

It’s a memory he’ll never let go of.

His fingers drift a bit lower, and when it brushes your lips, his body turns just a little. He swallows, a bit confused about the thought that runs through his head. You shift and it startles him. He means to move back, but you fall right into his shoulder. His body goes a bit stiff. You lean into him further. You mumble something, and sigh almost happily. You take in a deep breath and a smile graces your lips. If he didn’t know any better he would have assumed that you could tell it was him you’re pressed up against.

He takes in your steady breaths in hopes that it will level his heart rate. Your face is so much closer now. He turns his head and your lips are almost calling to him.

“I..shouldn’t..”

It’s wrong to even entertain the thought.

“Harrison..”

It’s words that are uttered from your mouth and his brows furrow.

“(Y/N)..”

He has no idea where it’s even coming from. Unconsciously, he finds himself moving closer.

Harrison gulps, eyelids lowering as you release another soft breath and he closes the distance between the both of you.  

[boyfridged]

A common reframe is that Stephanie reminded Bruce a ton of Jason and while there are some thematic and background similarities in the broad sense, a lot of that only works with the retcons regarding Jason's behavior and history.

With that in mind, what would you say the similarities, contrasts and differences are between Stephanie (When she was Spoiler/Robin, IE pre Batgirl) and Robin!Jason?

ah i'm so happy to be back on the topic of steph & jay. definitely, the only way such a flat 1:1 comparison between them can arise is when we talk about retconned versions of robin jay from flashbacks... but when it comes to 80s jay & pre-batgirl steph? the similarities are so so scarce...

of course, there's a matter of their background and very surface-level similarities in their family structures. the east end as the place of origin. a criminal for a father, and an addict for a mother. except, steph's family has never been written as especially kind or truly caring; her mother seemed at times to be very much complicit in abuse by the virtue of disregarding it. when it comes to the 80s, there's no evidence of jay ever being abused by his parents; the most we can say is that he was neglected due to the circumstances.

subsequently, i think lots of jay's attitude at this point stems from the fact that he was loved. that he has seen people at least trying. that while he was a child, he was a victim of the same system that his guardians were, rather than a victim of them. because of that, he is much more likely to forgive the neglect. i think in his robin run he very much looks for the best in people first as well, as is still guided by compassion first and foremost.

steph's upbringing, while similar in some ways, did not make her develop that outlook; perhaps because she could not afford it. because she rarely saw people trying and was more exposed to the calculated malicious intent of her father. and so, her main motivation is her rightful anger.

another thing; pre-robin jay, while he does stand up against injustice when faced with it, does not seem to have any incentive to become a vigilante himself. steph, on the other hand, is very much a self-made vigilante.

in terms of similarities; i think they both have a pretty natural distrust toward authority and are sensitive to the power imbalance.

i'd also say that both of them do want some kind of parental figure in their lives. the difference is that jay, maybe because he was just 11/12, or because of the already mentioned general attitude, was much more ready to compromise on his own idea of morality and to simply accept batman's way (at least up until starlin's run) without questioning it much. and jay in general, when in safety environment, was much more compliant. steph's personality has always been stronger, and she was much more self-assured than jay ever was at the beginning of his vigilante career.

+ the most important similarity, i think...? i'd say both of their moral stances is built on a very relational and intuitive point of view. they're not ones to dabble in deontology nor utilitarianism (at least not at this point.) except robin jay's ways were still, in some ways, mediated by bruce's methods, which means his intuitions were sometimes filtred through an additional set of batman rules and that he (a bit ironically? despite actually having training of maybe because of that?) trusted himself less. but that lack of complete self-confidence in the field also implored him to be more careful and to plan more.

to sum up, if i were to put them in a simple dichotomy, i'd say robin jay was very much an idealist, while steph was more cynical in her attitude. which might seem reductive, but i think both idealists and cynics share the same sensitivity; they just prioritise different sides of the same coin in their goals.

[robo-drake09]

Brawl Stars Dragon AU dump 💃 on my main account for a change! Extra content/rambles under the cut

(Reminder I usually post rough sketches like this over on @brawlstars-dragon-au ! All content for this au is reblogged there as well!

First drawing is Penny:

I was tossing up designs for her, and I feel like I wanna change her from a wyvern to a western dragon (2 legs, 2 wings > 4 legs, 2 wings).

Tossing around with the idea that her feathered wings were clipped after the incident that made her lose her eye. What was this incident, you may ask? No idea!

Second drawing is Sandy:

As before, I kept the lung dragon appearance with the long body.

I also played with the idea that if he was fully awake (not as his sleeping self now), he'd be extremely powerful 👀 (ty to a mutual friend for idea <3) In quotes are possible names for this form he has.

More often than not, you'll find Sandy floating around while he naps. Sometimes, he'll accidentally float away, and either Tara or Gene will have to reel him back in.

Third drawing is Colt:

Just a pretty boy! He hasn't changed much apart from generally fitting my style more now. I want to lessen his dual...features though. Maybe the double sets of wings and split tail was a bit much, but I still really like it 🥹

Colt sings. My GOSH he sings very well, but sometimes he gets too confident and butchers a note heh

Also preens quite frequently to keep his feathers in tip-top condition. Can't go out without making sure he looks his absolute best!

Fourth drawing is Nita:

Definitely changing her from a wyvern to the 4 legged dragon. She shares the same general build as Leon, but her wings are very small and entirely incapable of flight. She does do happy flaps when she's excited tho!

She doesn't have any fire breath, but her innate magic and pendant allow her to stomp the ground to create shockwaves and tremors. A little bundle of power!

Bruce is gonna stay a big bear rather than a dragon bear :) This was also thanks to some input from a mutual, but it seems to fit better. If anything, perhaps he'll be like a slightly realistic bear? Not sure yet!

And yeah! That's all :) These were lots of fun hehe, so if you read this far, just drop a brawler you want me to make into a dragon, or even one I've already done that you want a sketch page for, just comment/reply to this post hehe

[canidfeline]

Thomas Wayne's Journal - Page 118

I cannot be formal about my feelings with her anymore.

I've been watching her more than recently which was already every day. It is now every day and night.

I mean, I still do my Robin patrols and that stuff, it's just the time when I'd usually mess about on my phone or do exercise in between, I'm now watching and keeping tabs on Linnet.

I may or may not have picked her door lock. Also, may or may not have gone in to check out her place. It smells nice, but potent. A lot of smells at once because of the amount of plants in there. I didn't see any dye anywhere, so I suppose the white streaks are trauma. Or, her genetics are just very strange.

Her living room was messy, but her bedroom was tidier. I'm really just writing down what I remember here.

Today, she went around some stores. She was mostly window-shopping, though, and whatever stores she DID go into, she just stole one or two things. But she did it so confidently, like it was a normal thing to do that no one even spotted it.

I think I now know why Dad likes Selina.

But the real thing I noticed today is how... delicate she is, I suppose. The way she waters her plants with a gentle smile, the way she tilts her head whenever she sees something she didn't know existed or happened on TV.

It's been a while since Scarecrow's associated with her, at least at her place, I suppose it's after the humiliation from when Bruce and I took him down last time. He's escaped Arkham, so I'm assuming he'll probably get her to come back to him after he's thought a plan up. I hope she doesn't.

I know he has the drugs she wants, the fear toxin, but I...

I suppose I don't want her to keep doing bad things so I don't feel ashamed in my love for her.

Linnet Marrow will be the death of me.

[worthless-weight-in-gold]

Pride Headcanons!!

Jim: extremely very certain he's gay, 100%. getting crushed under mountains of internalized homophobia that presents in wild ways, and also sitting on top of being bigoted to the whole entire rest of the community this man is a piece of shit--

Thew: she's in the "probably bi, might be a lesbian" category. she's gone on dates with men, she's gone on dates with women. she only has one proper ex which is a woman. she's not 100% sure what her sexuality is but kinda just lets things happen and doesn't worry about it too much

Min-Jee: 100% knows she's bi, 100% knows she's trans. she's known both since she was very young and kept her mouth shut to all but her closest friends about both until she felt she was in a safe and stable enough place to come out publicly

Porter: hey, he's literally just sitting. just chilling. he does not even have the desire to look for a label. he likes people. he sleeps around with all genders. he feels fine with he/him pronouns, but also feels fine when other pronouns are used. vibes only

Sanjit: he only feels romantic attraction to men, or the closest of what he feels that could be considered romantic attraction is only to men. he's also like, neither cis nor trans. his species dont really have a concept of gender but he did actively chose to be a man when making his human form, and now would be uncomfortable if he got misgendered in either form

Riah: genderfluid, bisexual, actively identifies confidently as both although doesn't talk about either unless directly asked. she has a preference for men, though, when it comes to hookups. she is very, VERY slow to and honestly just unlikely to develop romantic feelings for someone, but when she does its equally likely to be for a man or a woman or nonbinary

Bruce: gay! he also knew from very young that he was gay, and he was one of the "there's a lot of signs here that stereotypically point to a child being gay..." types. he never officially really came out, because he just went on dates with men and those who hadn't already assumed he was gay got the hint then

Noa: queer of some kind. she sometimes gets stressed about finding a more specific label but isn't always the best at telling what she's feeling, and also she's kinda a bit too busy for romance anyway which makes it harder. honestly she has a freakout about what her sexuality is every year like clockwork

Eun Yoo: she thinks she's straight and she's never really considered otherwise because pretty much everyone she's been close with has been straight and all the characters in the shows she watched or comics she read or games she played were straight and she's gotten crushes on boys before. it is totally normal to be a little in love with female friends, anyway. like, if you were a man, obviously you'd confess to them immediately and settle down together and get married and have a beautiful family but she's a woman so she doesn't ask out women so she's straight. (she's bi. she hasn't worked that out yet)

Thespian: thespian does not understand human conceptualizations of either sexuality or gender. thespian has a fringe angel sexuality and a normal angel gender. aka, thespian likes more than just those who it is appropriate to like (can develop feelings for people in different societal status than them), and their gender is mostly neutral but slightly feminine because they are the eldest (more on that here if u wanna know more)