#damian insists this is not a valid method

[aro-in-danyl]

DP X DC Prompt

Damian, who’s never seen danny before this moment: we’re twins.

Danny, choosing chaos: triplets, actually. I have an identical sister. 

Damian: what.

Bruce, listening in from a roof: Talia hid THREE children from me?!

Talia, on a different roof: Father stole one of my children?! >:(

OR ALTERNATIVELY

Danny: Quadruplets actually. You owe so much child support

Bruce: what-

Dani & Dan: pay up bitch

[red-jaebyrd]

Perfection at a Cost

Whumptober #25 Blurred Vision

Whatever had been sprayed into Damian’s eyes, somehow got through the lenses of his domino. Damian couldn’t see a thing, but blurred shadows. Anyone else would have been panicked that their vision had been compromised; overwhelmed that they had to compensate for a lost sense. Instead, Damian was angry. Fury surged through him at letting his guard down for a split second. He was better than this; he had been trained by the League of Assassins.

It was hard to keep his eyes opened. They stung and burned from whatever solution was sprayed in his face; and while pepper spray made the eyes swell, this substance made his eyes burn and his vision blurry. Still, Damian didn’t move, instead he closed his eyes concentrating on all his other senses. He used the acoustics of the warehouse to help him. He could feel the vibrations of clunky footfalls and hear heavy breathing. As well as smell cheap cologne and alcohol.

It was just like training.

‘You cannot rely on all your senses to be available to you in times of battle, Damian. There will come a time when you must compensate for the loss such as your sight. Concentrate.’

He couldn’t believe his Mother’s advice would actually help him in the field. But she was right…at least at this moment.

Damian had been trained to fight blindfolded. His mother had insisted upon it as part of his training. At least in this situation, instead of complete darkness, he could still see blurred cloudy shapes. However, the straining on his eyes was giving him a migraine. He took deep breaths through his nose to block out the pain.

Fighting blind had been a hard skill to maintain now that he was living with his father. No one in the family would spar with him while he wore a blindfold. Father had refused, even though he was the optimal opponent and teacher. Grayson and Todd refused on principle. On rare occasions Damian had bullied Drake into sparring with him, but that had been only when Cain was unavailable.

Cain had been the only one amongst the family that had agreed with Damian that it was a worthy skill to maintain and therefore had agreed to help him preserve his muscle memory. However, she set the terms of the blindfold sparring sessions with him. She would not push him beyond his capabilities; the session would not go passed half an hour, and the first sign of injury or exhaustion they would stop.

But this wasn’t training, or sparring with Cain. Damian wasn’t fighting to hone a skill, he was fighting to stay alive and avoid capture.

He could hear Nightwing fighting three guys of his own in his periphery.

Damian stood his ground. If he concentrated enough he could see the blurred shape of a big guy in front of him. He continued to stay silent, yet maintained a fighting stance.

“Got nothin’ to say now that you can’t see, huh?” Big Guy taunted.

He heard someone snicker behind him to his left.

“Quit teasin’ him and be done with it, will ya! I wanna get this over with!” someone yelled behind him to his right.

Damian waited for Big Guy to come at him and sure enough the guy charged him with a punch. Damian was able to duck in time and connect a hit to his gut. He could hear him gasping for air. The second guy grabbed him from behind pinning his arms to the side, but his hold was sloppy. Damian knocked his head back hitting the guy square in the nose. The guy let go of him screaming in agony. Luckily the third guy coming at him was loud enough that Damian was able to land a punch and a kick to his face to finish him.

Amongst the din of the fighting, Damian wasn’t fast enough to move away from a sharp blow to the back of his head. Big Guy had come back for more. Damian fell to the ground seeing stars. His eyes and now his head were killing him. For the second time tonight, Damian had let his guard down. His Mother would be furious.

Failure is not an option, Damian.

You’ll never be good enough to serve in the League if you keep allowing your guard to fall.

Your incompetence is shameful of an al Ghul.

Get up. Stop crying. Pick up your sword.

Before the idiot could land another punch, he heard the familiar sound of escrima sticks hitting flesh; followed closely by the whistling sound of zip-ties.

Damian sat up, but did not stand. There was ringing in his ears and the light from the warehouse was hurting his eyes.  Not to mention, the room was still spinning. He knew the familiar feeling of a concussion. He was going to be benched for at least two weeks. He was not looking forward to it.  

“Robin, are you alright?” Nightwing asked, bracing to help Damian stand. “That was a nasty hit you took to the head.”

He got up too quickly and swayed as his blurry vision filled with spots. “I’m fine.”

Damian kept his head down and his eyes closed. His eyes were properly burning now and the blow to his head ached making his muscles feel sluggish. The shame of allowing himself to be compromised was starting to take over as the adrenaline of the fight was fading.

“You sure?”

“I’m fine,” he answered again.

He followed Grayson’s black blur until they were outside the warehouse. Once outside everything changed. There was no light to help differentiate moving shapes from stationary objects.

Damian’s shame seeped away into panic. There were too many sounds of the city to help him navigate where to go. Too many smells to help ground him. Damian stopped moving at the doorway. He was not fine. He was exhausted and in pain.

“Robin?” Nightwing asked, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

It wasn’t a request. It was a demand. The tone in Grayson’s voice commanded the truth, no excuses. It was his ‘Batman’ voice. Damian was too tired to lie.

“I can’t see. They sprayed something in my face and it got through my domino,” Damian answered. “It was different in the warehouse. I could distinguish between the blurry shapes with the light and use the acoustics to my advantage. Out here there is no light and there are too many sounds and smells…and my head hurts.”

It was humiliating admitting the pain he was in, but he knew Grayson wouldn’t ridicule him for his honesty. In fact, Grayson would be concerned that he had kept his condition from him.

“We can fix that,” Nightwing said, bending down in front of him and tapping his shoulder. “Hop on, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”

“T-T,” Damian replied, yet he wrapped his arms around Grayson’s neck as Grayson hooked his arms under Damian’s knees and stood up.

Damian rested his head on Grayson’s shoulder and his body finally started to relax.

“Don’t fall asleep. We still have to double check you for a concussion and flush your eyes out.” Nightwing reminded.

“I know concussion protocol, Nightwing,” Damian yawned, not moving his head from Dick’s shoulder.

He closed his eyes against the night air as they walked to where Grayson had parked his motorcycle.

“So the entire time we were fighting, you couldn’t see anything but blurred shapes and shadows?” Dick asked. “Dames we’ve talked about this, you have to tell me when you get hurt.”

“I was trained by the best to fight under any and all circumstances…including blindness. Saying something to you would not have changed the fact that I could not see properly or that we needed to contain the situation.”

“All valid points, but I still needed to know that your vision had been impaired.”

Damian said nothing in response. There was nothing for him to say to make this situation better. Voicing injuries was something Damian was still not used to actively doing in or outside the field. The more Damian thought about it, Grayson was one to talk. He had hid a stab wound for a solid week before Alfred noticed that he kept favoring his right side. Hypocrite.

“Do I even want to know the types of methods your mother used to train you to fight blind?” Dick asked, breaking the silence.

“No.”

“Tell me anyway…please.”

The exhaustion Damian felt in his bones wasn’t enough to filter all the words that came spilling out. The disorientation from the concussion was like a truth serum. He told Grayson everything.

“Most of the time it was a blindfold, sometimes Mother used…other means; that was how I knew to use the blurred shapes to my advantage. It took me two years to master the skill. I was finally able to do it the summer before I moved in with Father.”

Dick sighed. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Lil’ D. What she did to you was wrong.”

Damian and Grayson had faced enough situations with his mother in the past to get the gist of her mentality for perfection where Damian was concerned. This however, was the first time he had spoken of her methodology in regards to his combat training.

“Her methods, though unsatisfactory in a conventional sense, did achieve the desired result. Mother demanded perfection in every capacity and used every scenario to her advantage to make me a better fighter. However, my actions tonight did not reflect her training.”

“No, don’t do that to yourself. You are one of the best fighters I know and you did awesome tonight,” Dick praised.

“Do not patronize me, Grayson. I did poorly. I allowed myself to be compromised putting you and myself in further danger. I was trained to be perfect.”

“Nobody’s perfect and I’m not patronizing you. You fought three guys twice your size relying on shadows and blurred shapes; that takes skill. A skill you mastered at the age of nine. You did great. I don’t think I could have done what you did.”

“Probably not. Mother would still have been disappointed in me.”

“Well, she isn’t here. I think Bruce will be impressed.”

Damian wasn’t so sure.

888

They got back to the Cave and Damian allowed Alfred and his father to make a fuss over him. They flushed out his eyes, but since he also had a concussion it left no change with the blurred vision, but the burning subsided.

Damian gave a full report of the nights events. When it came to retelling his fight with the three criminals in the warehouse he hesitated.  Dick sat next to him on the bed in the med bay encouraging him to continue his story. Damian was thankful that he couldn’t see his father’s face as he didn’t wish to see his disappointment. Once he was finished he turned his head away expecting to be admonished for his shortcomings on patrol.

“Wait, am I hearing this correctly that you fought three guys twice your size with your vision impaired and essentially used a form of echolocation to defeat them?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, it was part of my training with the League.”

“Son, I’m very impressed with what you did tonight.”

“But I failed.”

“No, you didn’t. Something like this could have happened to any one of us. I’m very proud of you.” Bruce praised, stroking Damian’s hair. “We will need to reinforce your domino and make sure that the lenses protect your eyes so this doesn’t happen again.”

A warm feeling washed over Damian as his father held him. There was no criticism laced in his words. No passive aggressive instructions on what he could improve upon next time. No tearing down of his capabilities and skills. There was only praise and most important of all, his father was proud of him.

“You are not angry with me?”

“Oh course not. I’m impressed with how you handled yourself and the situation. You did good, tonight, son. Now let’s get you to bed.”

He stood and swayed shutting his eyes tightly as his head started to pound at the sudden motion. The pain brought tears to his eyes.

Bruce moved swiftly to steady him and then picked him up gently pressing Damian’s head to his shoulder.

“I’m not a child. I can walk,” Damian sniffed, wrapping his arms tightly around his father’s neck and keeping his head on his Father’s shoulder.

“I know,” Bruce answered, rubbing light circles on his back.

Damian tried to keep his eyes open, but somewhere between getting into the elevator and into his room, Damian fell asleep.

[wesavegotham]

I think what a lot of people who didn't pay attention to Teen Titans since Glass took over don't know is that all those terrible things that have happened to Damian in the last 2-3 years that should have had a strong impact on Damian are not actually adressed as being triggers for Damian's behaviour in Teen Titans.

Damian feeling devastated after Dick got shot by KGBeast?

Nightwing annual 2

Damian feeling sad after discovering that Jon is almost an adult now and things are definitely not the same anymore?

Superman 16

Damian feeling neglected by Bruce?

Detective Comics 1017

Damian blaming himself for Alfred's death (even though he was just following Bruce's orders)?

Batman: Pennyworth RIP

So yeah, we have canon evidence that Damian does care about these things...none of it is used to explain his actions in Teen Titans though.

The official reason Damian gives to us in Teen Titans for why he acts the way he does is that he's sick of the villains escaping Gotham's prisons all the time and killing innocent people over and over again after witnessing the owner of his favourite restaurant getting murdered (guy was never mentioned before and was never mentioned again), which is why he builds his own secret prison where he plans to lock up criminals for all eternity under inhumane circumstances. That's pretty much it.

The prison fails because of course it does. Criminals escaping prison to fight Batman or in this case Damian again is necessary for how comics work. Damian was doomed to fail.

So after the prison failed Damian and Djinn start mind wiping criminals to make them forget about their previous life and manipulate them into peaceful members of society, but rob them of their free will in the process.

After Djinn's departure from the team (and her accusing Damian of having used her, which isn't what actually happened, but the story suddenly acted like it is at the end of #41) the mind control is also lifted, meaning that approach also failed.

Dick, Jon, Alfred, none of this matters in Glass's run. It's only about Damian being unhappy with Batman's methods.

Which brings us to Teen Titans 42. This is the first issue written by Robbie Thompson alone after taking over completely from the previous writer Adam Glass. At this point in time I can only talk about the preview for issue 42:

Together with the solicitations for the next few issues and Glass' confirmation that Damian will definitely lose the robin mantle in the annual we have to assume that Damian's insistence on not going far enough (already stated by him at the end of #41) in his war against crime probably means he wants to hunt down criminals to kill them, breaking Batman's sacred no kill rule.

I guess I appreciate Thompson finally adressing Damian's grief for Alfred in this and that he's alone, but the way he does it is rather peculiar.

Instead of making Damian angry at Bruce for being the one at fault Damian had to watch Alfred die and finally adressing that Bruce hasn't taken care of Damian in months the book chooses weird things for Damian to complain about.

The lack of guidance is attributed to Alfred's death in this preview, not to Bruce's neglect, even though Alfred was very much alive during most of the events of Teen Titans and didn't try to guide Damian either. He also didn't pressure Bruce into taking care of his estranged son at any point in time. Alfred is actually pretty useless in this storyline.

Thompson also makes Damian accuse Bruce of only reacting to crime and not fighting against the cause of crime, which is kinda ridiculous when you consider the amount of contingency plans Bruce has for everything and the fact that he's currently rebuilding Gotham from the ground up in hopes of lowering Gotham's crime rate permanently. Bruce is very much proactive in his war against crime.

So why doesn't the book use valid points of criticism against Bruce and why doesn't it use the recent terrible events in Damian's life to explain his actions?

My personal impression of this storyline and how it treats Damian is that we are not supposed to sympathize with him, we are not supposed to feel like he has a point. Damian is not the tragic protagonist of this story, Damian feels like the antagonist.

He's the person on the team who lead the others astray and he's the only one of them who refuses to learn and see that this path is wrong. The official reasons Damian has for leaving Bruce's side are not valid because this isn't really about Damian proving Bruce wrong and finding a more effective way to combat crime, this story is just a tool for DC to justify Damian getting kicked out of his position. Bruce isn't supposed to be the bad guy in this, Damian is.

DC isn't interested in making Damian actions feel reasonable and they're also not interested in making Bruce the true antagonist of the story. We fans might look at this differently, but DC tries to paint a different picture.

[izzythehutt]

Orion and Walburga for the trad meme pls and thx

Only for you would I attempt to answer this meme, Catie...💕

Who grew up in a trad family and who became a trad in spite of their lib/normie family?

They literally grew up in the same family, and it was extremely trad. The Blacks are recusant wizard Catholics. Don’t worry, second cousins once removed marrying is canonically valid!

Who wants lace on surplices and who wants pleats?

Walburga thinks lace is effeminate, Orion thinks even concerning oneself with such things is ‘womanish fancy.’ 

Who likes baroque choral arrangements and who prefers chant?  

As a matter of taste, they both prefer baroque.

Which one went through a “women shouldn’t wear pants” phase?  

Nobody should wear trousers, thank you very much, least of all a woman. The number of times they’ve had to explain this to their eldest son...

Which NFP method they will use?  

Using any NFP method would involve talking about sex, which they would never bring themselves to do, so they just settle for the method of ‘Orion coming to her bed chamber every night at the exact same time to perform his marital duties.’ I think the idea of spacing out or preventing pregnancy repulses them. It is one’s duty to produce as many children as God grants you. 

Who wants to name all the kids after doctors of the church and who wants to use family names?

Orion is very set on family names for the boys, if they had had a girl Walburga would have possibly pushed for an obscure female saint name (like her own) as long as it fit the general spirit of family names.

Who argues with other trads on twitter and who just posts trad memes?

Orion reads whatever is the conservative Catholic wizard paper is in Britain (Magical Catholic Herald?) and just has a few reactionary journalists (Lol Wizard Damian Thompson and Wizard  Charles A. Coulombe ) he default agrees with the hot takes of. He will never post on twitter, he will however retweet articles which Sirius then replies to, pointing out whatever about he thinks is offensive or retrograde, which Orion will never DM or reply to publicly, but will argue with Sirius about the next time he sees him in person. Walburga literally just has twitter to stalk Sirius. 

Neither of them know what a meme is and do not want you to explain it to them. 

Who discerned out of religious life?  

Lucretia used to joke that Orion was actually meant to be a Dominican priest, and this is yet more evidence she should have been a boy and the heir instead of her little bookish brother. Because of his position as the only son, though, religious life was never open to him as an option so he didn’t consider it. Walburga told her parents she was going to become a nun when they first informed her she was to marry Orion as an act of defiance. 

Orion is definitely a Knight of Malta, however.

Who is more sympathetic to the SSPX?

Orion respects absolute hierarchy and Walburga is more reactionary, so she is.

Who eats meat on Friday solemnities and who keeps to the fast?

Orion is a strict legalistic so he insists they keep the fast (Meat Friday is not something that exists because it’s not written down in the books.) Walburga defers to him but finds it irritating for their social calendar/entertaining the week of Easter ( “We can’t only serve salmon to Mama for a day, you know how she hates it.”)

And of course, who insists on driving the extra 30 minutes to the TLM parish and who is fine with the reverent novus ordo nearby

Why would they have to floo anywhere? They have a chapel in each and every one of their estate houses and a kept priest to say mass for them, obviously.

[bluboothalassophile]

Stories of the Batfamily + extended family/friend's attempts to get jason and raven together to the point that they have maybe? Group chats , monthly meetups or get togethers to devise plans of attack (matchmaking) without targeted people knowing to the point it turns into a batfamily bonding experience 👪✨ Although its clear that jason and raven are naturally going to be together on their own time when they are ready, i wanna see other methods the batfamily has used before jayrae happened

Hello,

This is sounding like fun antics, to which I should build on… I like the way you think. Expect more of the Batfamily shenanigans to ensue!

Keeping the Peace…

Bruce valiantly tried to stay OUT of meddling in hischildren’s lives. TRIED being the operative word here. There were waymore of them than him, and his wife did not help matters. Selina was easily thebiggest instigator of shenanigans in his house and had been since they werekids. So, aside from being out numbered and out gunned, he was trying harder atbeing a parent and not a meddler. Again, easier said than done.

No matter, Bruce was in a board meeting, with the heads hisnewest acquisition, Jetsons Aviation, which was currently the leadingcompletely earth-based company leading in space exploration. George Jetson andhis daughter Judy, with their lead engineer, Dominique Blake, sat there as theyfinished the contract signing. George was a rather plain, lean, redheaded man;his daughter, Judy had platinum blonde hair and looked about Tim’s age, andDominique Blake was a vivacious redhead. All three were sitting in apprehensionas the contract was handed to him to sign.

“Father!” a voice shouted, and Damian burst into the room. “Idemand that you help us!”

Cass, Tim and Stephanie all peaked around the corner andBruce sighed as he leaned in his seat.

“I told you he was in a meeting!” Tim hissed.

“I tried to stop the gremlin!” Stephanie snapped.

Cass beamed at him and Bruce smiled slightly at his daughteras Damian took up his line of sight. Damian puffed up his chest, put his handson his hips; everything about that just screamed Talia al Ghul as Damian glaredchallengingly at him.

“Damian,” Bruce sighed. “George Jetson, this is my son, Damian,Damian I am in an important meeting.” Bruce saw the bemused look on George’sface.

“This is more important,” Damian stated in a huff.

“Then it will wait, until after I’ve finished my meeting andI take you and your siblings to lunch to discuss this important topic,” Brucecountered.

Damian opened his mouth to protest.

“Bye dad!” Cass smiled as she grabbed the neck of Damian’s shirtand dragged him after her. Bruce sighed as he turned back to the trio who werelooking ready to burst into laughter. Signing the document they finished thediscussion of the merger, and Bruce asked Lucius to d an audit of the companybefore standing and assuring George that he would be back and would like totalk more about the funding needed for the company.

Bruce was bemused to be greeted by Tim, Tammy, Stephanie,Cass and Damian. Damian was scowling at having been dismissed, Tim had his handentwined with Tammy’s while Cass and Stephanie were both having a vibrant conversationabout… waffles?

“What was so important Damian?” Bruce asked as he and his kidsstarted down the street.

“I must insist we buy the Kiss Cam at the Play Offs game!” Damianstated.

“What?”

“He’s been on this since yesterday, sir,” Tammy said.

“And why do we need to buy the KissCam?” Bruce asked drylyas his son walked beside him.

“Jason is being an imbecile, I saw him with that Rose woman.It is not allowed,” Damian huffed. Bruce sighed then.

Jason was a complicated matter still, but it was mostlyamusing when Damian saw Jason with Rose. Which had happened after the weddingwhen Jason had crossed paths with Ravager. Bruce still remember cringing as thetwo toppled off WE Tower, and Jason kissed Rose until last moment when he escapedthe death fall, Rose a step behind him the entire time. That night Bruce andthe family had kind of gotten a front row seat without distractions or interferencewhat Rose and Jason were really like. And it had landed in one of Jason’s safehouses. Bruce remembered because he had come by the next morning mainly to makesure Jason was alive, only to find a naked, pissed off Rose chained to theheater as Jason ducked out the window to escape Rose’s wrath.

“Jason is free to do as he pleases,” Bruce reminded hischild.

“I told him that,” Tim piped up.

“The gremlin thinks we need to save Jason from Rose,” Stephaniegiggled.

“JayRae,” Cass chimed up. “Hot dogs,” Cass pointed at astreet vendor. Bruce pulled out his wallet and handed her the bills as shedragged Tim, Tammy and Stephanie after her for hot dogs.

“Jason is a moron,” Damian huffed sourly.

“Jason is also an adult free to make his own decisions,”Bruce reminded his son.

“Bad ones.”

“Damian,” Bruce sighed.

“You are concerned for our well being as your children, andas you are our father, even if Jason is a colossal imbecile. He can no longerbe trusted to make decisions about his love life,” Damian stated.

Okay, those were valid points, but the same could be saidabout Tim or Cass or Duke, and Bruce didn’t interfere with their lives. And hehad seen what meddling did with Barbara and Dick, so he didn’t see how thiscould even end well. However, Damian was persistent, and Jason was no doubt awareof Damian’s incessant pushing for him to get together with Raven, so Brucecould honestly see no harm in amusing Damian. Jason and Raven would sort it out.And it’d be a moment of peace.

“Fine.” Bruce submitted to keep a moment of peace. Hischildren were weird regarding Jason and Raven. But who was he to judge, so longas they weren’t at each other’s throats he’d let them set Jason up with Raven.Honestly, this was the most civil Tim and Damian had been since Damian’s arrival.

Internally Bruce pleaded for Raven and Jason’s forgivenessfor throwing them under the bus.

“You see reason, good.” Damian huffed.

Bruce saw peace. Not reason. But for now he would allow his sonthe delusion that he was in on these antics to keep the peace in his house. Solong as Selina didn’t get in the antics he couldn’t see the harm.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Jason sat up when he felt the hairs on the back of his neckstand up. He didn’t like that feeling, something was up…

“Jay get your paranoid ass down here! I need a shower andLian needs food!” Roy shouted.

“I’m coming! Calm your tits!” Jason shouted back as he stoodand jogged down the steps of his ware house to where Lian was fighting Roy tonot get in her high chair for the mushy greens.

“You take her, I have to be at the site in twenty,” Roy huffedshoving Lian at him before running off.

“You clearly annoyed your daddy, good girl, for that wegonna have peaches for lunch!” Jason smiled as Lian squealed in delight. Kidwas kind of growing on him.