#don't ask me where steph and cass are i don't know enough about them to do them justice

[allthegothihopgirls]

the mariokart characters the batfamily play as (100% canon my words are gospel)

dick: waluigi. he doesn't even like him all that much, but he played him one time and has felt obliged to play him ever since. he's grown fond of him though. if they're matching and jason's playing as wario, they make a truce pact, tim hates it.

jason: i think he's partial to donkey kong, but he's a gremlin and doesn't play as one character consistently (literally the only person ever who does this). he'll flip between wario (matching with dick), bowser, dry bones, donkey kong etc. he has the tendency to play as characters which he 'connects to on a spiritual level'.

tim: baby peach, he thinks it's funny. especially when jason's playing as big old donkey kong and he gets flung off the map by. baby peach. he played regular peach once and hated it, it doesn't have the same feel to it.

damian: yoshi, he'll act like he doesn't care what character he plays as, but every. time. he grabs up yoshi as quick as he can. he just really likes him, no logistical explanation, which is refreshing.

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and hero of cookies part 6

All work words count: 14 643

Words in this part: 2 686

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay

Or

Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: Batman wants an explanation. His kids however, wouldn't be themselves if they did add some chaos

Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

First part, Previous part

“Signal.”

Duke bit back a sigh as his last hope to leave Cave undiscovered disappeared. He shot Steph message of:

Having The Talk. Come as moral support

and turned around to face Bruce.

“Yes?”

B grunted in disapproving and ‘Signal report’ way but Duke decided to buy some time and answer only questions that were actually asked. He slowly sat at the briefing table and looked at the man expectantly.

Lift chimed and moments later Tim and Cass went to Batcomputer and training mats respectively. Duke was, like, 80% sure they were there to eavesdrop. He knew them well enough. He knew them well enough.

“The girl”

“Izzy?” Was Duke annoying on purpose? Yes. He really didn’t want to have this talk. Like, at all. Psychological warfare it was “I mean, I know she is civilian and you don’t approve but at least she isn’t doing anything illegal, right? Like, you know, robbing museums or killing people?”

Bruce looked repulsed and Tim snorted.

“Low blow Narrows, low blow” Jason announced through speakers. He was slightly winded as if he just finished a fight “Good job kid”

“So you’re listening too, great” Duke muttered under his breath before louder he added “Is everyone who wants in on a show, here already?”

“Give me a sec- here Dick you’re going live now”

“Thanks Babs, you’re the best”

“I know. Donuts, you know which one”

“Of course. Glad we’re finally going to talk about Duke’s kid”

“Shut up, she is not my kid!”

“Steph ETA 2 minutes” Cass interrupted.

At least Damian didn’t show up- as if summoned by this thought Damian stomped down the stares, Alfred the Cat curled in his arms. Maybe others had a point, calling him Demon kid and stuff.

“What is an emergency?” he demanded and Duke decided to take what little relief he could from the fact that Bruce seemed equally defeated by sheer number of people around for this talk. 

“It seems like… oh, literally everyone lost an adoption bet” Babs explained. Huh, so Steph didn’t change her stance.

Damian looked genuinely terrified as he muttered “No” eyes darting between everyone present in silent calculation.

“Oh, shut up” Duke whined knowing all too well his stalling had to come to the end. Maybe it was wishful thinking but he almost heard roar of engine of Steph’s motorcycle. Her presence would be double edged sword but she would help him advocate for Dani and that was more important.

“Thomas, what have you done?!” if it was anyone other than Damian, Duke would call sound he made a whine. As it was, he preferred his entrails to stay inside and since the boy showed up, called by thought, the older boy preferred not to take risks.

“Nothing, Babs is overreacting”

“Don’t deny it. She went about it kinda Tim Lite style but it worked”

“I don’t even know her surname, where she stays or really, anything about her life outside of our patrols, how do you expect me to go about adoption?!”

“B knew even less about me when he decided, yes this tire thief is my new son!” Jason chimed in and Duke knew he was grinning despite voice modulator.

“What from my origin story was lost to make Lite version?”

“Identities weren't breached as far as we're aware. Just ‘came one day and refuses to leave’ part and some light stalking. She was smart about it, invisible, keeping out of sight and to the hot spots. Wouldn't find her if I didn't know she was there”

“She could still just not tell, I mean I knew for years before telling anyone…”

“There is no way. Believe me, she has no brain-mouth filter, I swear”

“But-”

“She introduced herself by her first name,” Duke deadpanned ”She told me civilian names of heroes from her hometown, in context that didn't require me to do any actual research to clue me. I did anyway. I don't think she even realized she did it. If she knew our identities we would know already”

There was a moment of silence as everyone digested the thought of just how gigantic breach Dani accidentally caused.

“Well, it's as good of a proof as we can get for now,” Babs bristled. 

“Who let her in on such secrets then?!” Damian sounded genuinely appalled and Duke wasn't too surprised.

Like on a cue, Steph stormed inside on her Spoiler in civies. Bruce looked about ready to get aneurysm. Duke was a bit glad that everyone was doing such good job in distraction department.

“IT’S OKAY, WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!” Steph yelled, jumping from before her vehicle fully stopped. She threw something small in general direction of Batcomputer “Timmy plug it in, I made a PowerPoint!”

Duke felt blood leave his face. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what Steph put together but he probably didn't. Tim opened it anyways.

WHY HOOPOE IS ADORABLE&CHAOTIC BEAN AND SHOULD BE PART OF THE TEAM

The title slide said, one of the clearest photos of Dani from before she started wearing mask in the background. It was close-up of girl smiling, bits of brownie on her cheeks.

“Was this photo taken with a goddamn calculator?” Tim asked with disgust so clear Duke could taste it. Metaphorically of course.

“Nah, just body-cam. Her powers mess with technology a bit”

Tim still looked displeased at the craftsmanship.

“Don't worry, it's not  a bad photo. Baby Bird is just being perfectionist,” Dick placated.

Duke didn't realize that Damian froze until he unfroze and made his way to the screen, stopping less than one foot away from it. His movements were rigid, his face scrunched with distress. Alfred the Cat escaped its master probably due to hoe tense he was. Everyone in Cave quietened as soon as boy took first step and expecting mood had to run through microphones because nobody from the on-line crowd quipped in.

“This is the green of Lazarus” he whispered finally, sounding actually scared. Jason swore. Bruce and Cass visibly stiffened. Tim choked and he wasn't even drinking. Dick did his whinny breezy name saying thing when he wanted explanation and felt lightly betrayed. 

It was Duke's turn to freeze because… it wasn't. Of course he wasn't all that well versed in the Pit, less alone its color but he did bust quite a few trafficking rings with Jason and he saw his eyes afterwards all raging, toxic, neon green glory and it wasn't the same as Dani’s. As much as he liked English and how good he was at it, it failed him at simple task of describing the obvious difference between each other. He'd have more luck describing tastes with set of color samples from IKEA or something. And really, even if he tried he would lose the fight of competence with Damian. Who wouldn't.  But-

“There is no way she has any connection with LOA”

“Why is that?” Damian seemed to misinterpret it as challenge like he always did when emotions were running high. Duke took a deep breath. Well, it was a moment to use all of his diplomatic skills and speak in the language of the demons.

“I've seen her fight. She would be utter disgrace”

“It does not prove-”

“It does” Duke interrupted with the tone and mimic of person who saw too much because he did ”None of you have any say until you watch a tiny and I mean tiny ten year old tackle five Joker goons like it's a joke, by sheer virtue of super strength and intangibility-means-I-can-ignore-bullets-Signal-don’t-be-such-worrywart. She should get shot, like, three times at least. And she kept laughing!” he was low key wheezing at the end because even after all this time (a week) it was fucking horrifying. Bruce made a huff that meant he was laughing and put a hand on his shoulder as a sign of support. Dick's lighthearted laugh sang from the speakers.

“Don't worry Duke, it never gets better” B said with mirth.

He refused to elaborate whether he meant ‘kids keep jumping into danger like there is no tomorrow‘ or ‘it's equally terrifying every time’ and Duke decided to reflect on that sentiment later. It put some things into perspective. A lot of things if he was being honest.

Also, he was not ready for stuff like that to become even semi-normal occurrence. He was ready to give her all of his Alfred cookies if it could change anything. He knew it wouldn't. 

“Do you have any other evidence that your new acquaintance does not just fake being less experienced to make you lower your guard?” Damian asked warily.

“I had to teach her out of putting her thumb in her fist,” he deadpanned. Several people hissed in empathetic pain. Steph coughed to bring attention to where she stood in front of Batcomputer, other slide of her Power Point open. Duke recognised video from his body-cam.

“Exhibit A” she announced. She played a video with Dani’s first mugging attempt he witnessed. Let it be said, it was a disaster.

“Exhibit B '' One of Dani’s most epic fails at side-kick that ended with her falling face first to the ground.

“Exhibit C” Dani fumbled with zip-ties, looking at him utterly at loss.

“Exhibit D” the talk about her prior training.

“What’s was that sound?” Dick obviously on the verge of cooing when girl on video growled. Steph stopped video.

“Very angry kitten” Tim stated with soft smile.

“Honestly, furious girl” Cass corrected “She was really mad at you”

“Yeah, I know but promise of Alfred’s cookies was enough to placate her”

“You gave her Alfred’s cookies?!”

“She started by giving me a lot of food on a really shitty patrol, had to repay somehow”

“Was it from your share or-” Dick asked like it was most important thing in the world.

“Miss Hoopoe was added to my plans after she picked her new name” Alfred explained and shit, Duke really should get used to how man just appeared sometimes. Jumpscare the original.

“Alfred, you knew?” Bruce sounded so utterly betrayed.

“I have yet to meet her but I was informed about her presence about two weeks ago”

“He caught me printing mask for her”

“About that” Steph clapped and skipped her slide show “Look at thi clueless child with such horrible disguises and codename ideas” There was whole list of every name Dani wanted to try out and photo of her bare face.  Duke kinda repressed his memories of it. It was worse than he remembered.

“Did she really tried kenting that?”

“Got it after her cousin. He used his first name as part of his alias for almost half a year” Duke admitted in carefree tone, knowing it would cause a mess.

“Cousin?!” several people yelled in surprise.

“Caped cousin?!”

“Yup. Small time hero from Illinois. As far as I’m aware she’s alone in Gotham but they’re in regular contact and she has strong believe that he can and will help her if she used her panic button”

“Who in their right mind let’s kid alone in Gotham?!” Jason sounded about ready to strangle Phantom.

“He seems to be fifteen himself. And has anti-meta parents if I’m picking things up correctly. She didn’t mention them much. I highly doubt she has present parents at all, so…”

“What the hell Narrows.”

“I don’t know, it’s just a wild guess”

“Does it call for the rescue?” Steph asked eagerly.

“We’re not going to Illinois to rescue Phantom if he doesn’t ask for it. He has means to it” Bruce interrupted with bone deep sigh.

“How do you know I meant Phantom?” Duke perked up because he never mentioned this name.

“He is from Illinois, looks almost the same as far as I can tell from the photos and they share a lot of powers”

“I didn’t know you knew about random kid hero from other state?”

“He dropped by on few Justice League’s mission. There is still dispute whether we should approach him in his city or not. He was very clear on his opinion that we should stay away. I think we really shouldn’t”

“How you haven’t gone or sent anyone there yet?” Tim teased.

Bruce just stared at him then gestured at mountain of cases they were currently working on. Yes, they were printed. Apparently for man it made it easier to work on them like that.

“Can we focus back on untrained child you let join you on patrol, Duke?”

“You act like I could stop her from doing her own thing if I didn’t  let her. Plus, even though she doesn’t have combat training, she can handle herself well enough. And has this damn intangibility that makes her really hard to punch”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t tell anyone other than Alfred and Steph and I wanted to wait a bit before leaving her to the wolfs”

“The bet”

“Shut up Steph”

“When did you plan on letting us know?” Bruce ignored what blonde insinuated. Duke was utterly grateful for that, he knew he would get lecture for that later but he was more than happy to leave it be for now.

“Somewhen next week. I hoped to introduce her gradually but apparently everyone knew already?”

“Kids tell me things. Hoopoe made a good impression on them” Jason explained.

“Hero sightings on Twitter” Dick admitted without a shadow of shame.

“What he said” Tim agreed “This person from crochet dolls made one for your kid too, so in public eyes she’s our already”

“For the last time, she isn’t my kid!” Duke groaned but as always went ignored.

“Nobody expected old man’s tendencies to rub on you so fast, Narrows”

“Shut up and this is half a reason I didn’t let you meet her. All of you”

“With all due respect Duke” Babs started teasingly “You gave us ammo yourself. You improved her diet, you brought her to The Food Track Of Mental Breakdowns, you teach her stuff, you check in on her almost as often as her cousin and their friends do…”

“How did you hack her pho- No, wrong question, why?!”

“We’re all paranoid bastards, I needed to check out the newest bird. She legally doesn’t exist btw so I suspect some shady stuff with her birth but otherwise nothing sus about her. Comms and trackers for her are waiting in drawer C19. You will give it to her tomorrow”

“Aye, aye captain Oracle ma’am” he joked.

“Wait, you showed her The Food Track?”

“She deserved it” he gritted out.

Before this could turn into a fight or something, Alfred demanded:

“Since we are all on the same page now, I would like to extend an invitation for family dinner to miss Hoopoe”

“We’ll eat it down here in full costumes”

“As you wish master Bruce. Master Duke make sure to let her know”

“Of course Alfred”

And he planned to do that but Dani didn’t show up. He hadn’t thought much of it because she was unpredictable like that. She tended to disappear from the face of the Earth for a day or two and return with tales of her “autograph hunting trips”

But then she didn’t show up on the next patrol too. It was unprecedented. And she hadn’t responded to the check in. Three times in the row. He was getting kinda sick from the stress.

He knew Dani well enough, she wouldn’t ghost him like that and in Gotham disappearing meant three things: getting kidnapped, trafficked or six feet under. To their knowledge, Dani didn’t have anyone who would pay ransom for her other than Signal and no demands were made so the first option was out.

Bats launched full fledged search.

Duke himself found and busted two trafficking rings in three weeks which was around how much he did in two months on a daily basis.

Thanks to Oracle, they found Dani’s utterly crashed phone in the dead end in the Narrows. It didn’t look any better.

Duke really hoped they wouldn’t be too late.

With each day it seemed more likely.

********

Bruce: *wants to have private conversation with his son about unknown child he's been working with*

All of the Batfam: Hello there

Duke: I managed to keep Dani secret my family of detectives!

Everyone other than Bruce: I knew for past two weeks, but goood job kid

Random o Twitter: I'm sooo disappointed with Signal for letting Hoopoe fight crime. She is just a little child, she shouldn't have to witness Gotham's worst

Other Random: Have you heard about Robin????? Have you seen teories that Signal is teenager???? With proofs????? Are you mad at child for not taking proper care of the other child????? That's messed up my dude/gal

Yell at Batman

Signal: You act like she isn't personification of feral cat I try to coax home so I can prevent her from getting in trouble. I dare you to try and stop her

Phantom: I do too, 100$ if you manage. It would save me from so much stress

Random: Now, who the f*ck are you?!

(Guess who never touched Twitter with 20 meters stick in her life)

Next part

Tag list: @pickleking8 @mynameisnotlaura

[damianbugs]

Hi!! First I just wanted to say your fics have been an inspo for me to write my own fics and I enjoy them immensely. Second, I’ve been wandering something and I want to ask something about how Jason Todd is portrayed after his death.

I don’t really understand why so many just kind of lie? Or exasperate who Jason Todd is and isn’t. Like the Cass and Bruce scene in front of Jason’s grave, or that scene in Gotham Knights where Alfred tells Bruce “Jason was determined to disobey him.” I know out of universe it just has to do with the mischaracterization of Jason but I’m having a hard time on finding an in universe explanation. Is it out of guilt? Out of misplaced love? It’s confusing me a bit

first of all, thank you!! i'm so glad i could inspire you that is truly the highest complement i could receive <3

secondly, this is a really interesting discussion! you're right about how in a meta way it's the deeply routed classism in jasons writing, as well as many writers (example: grant morrison) just really hating jason for some reason and doing everything they can to make him absolutely insufferable. not even in a cool evil villain way, but in an embarrassment point and laugh kind of way.

for the purpose of this discussion lets (with much difficulty) ignore the writers predispositions and implications and just focus entirely on what this means for the characters. it's good you mention the cass and bruce at jason's grave scene, because i think that example alone is a good way to deconstruct some of character's (for this post: bruce's) perspective of jason's death.

to summarise before dumping a billion paragraphs developing the point; let's not dance around it and accept that much of people's understanding of jason's death falls into the victim blaming variety, but in such way that the characters don't seem to realise that's how they perceive him, which is almost worse than them purposely retelling it in such a way. as well as that, aside from this indenial misunderstanding of jason, i think this shows the sort of flaws the other characters have.

Detective Comics #790

at first glance this seems like a really touching and emotional moment where bruce is sharing his grief with cass (especially when the entirety of #790 is about bruce struggling to do just that), but then you really read it and you're like what the fuck... why are we standing in front of this kids grave slagging him off? not only are we hearing all of bruce's regrets about how he raised jason as opposed to his son's actual death, but we are dragging steph into this too.

to bruce, jason's death is an accumulation of everything he let the boy get away with finally reaching it's tipping point. that jason's ambition to "prove something" lead to his seemingly inevitable demise.

now i do think it's important to note that WE (the readers) know jason died saving sheila. that despite being beaten, betrayed and left for dead, he tried to save someone and paid the price for it. no one else knows that, because the two people that did are dead. as a result, bruce is left with the facts that;

prior to his death, jason was acting uncharacteristically (<- important point) violent and aggressive towards himself, borderline passively suicidal. bruce himself acknowledges this.

that jason ran away from home in search of someone who may or may not be his mother. this is because losing his parents is a hurt jason has still not healed from and a topic bruce has handled badly in the past (example: willis todd). jason does not trust bruce enough to tell him about this.

once they find his mother, jason is instructed to not get involved in the joker related problem. to the extent of bruces knowledge, jason reveals himself as robin, and decides to get involved despite the instruction not to. either because he again, didn't trust bruce to believe he would handle it, or that jason was trying to prove something to bruce, to sheila, or to himself.

sheila dies, jason dies and bruce is the only one alive from the tragedy with only half the story.

All of this can be found in A Death In The Family, but I don't feel comfortable sharing panels of it given where the story takes place right now.

bruce spends the next few years blaming himself at any given point, but the blame is misplaced. bruce feels as though HIS negligence of JASON'S personality and HIS allowance of JASON'S freedom as robin is what allowed JASON to go and die. instead of seeing what he knows to be true about jason (his empathy, his kindness, his grief and loneliness) bruce can now only see how his allowance of all these things played a part in JASON disobeying him (whether maliciously or not) and dying.

in short, bruce is projecting big time onto his dead kid.

bruce is, as per usual, coping with loss by antagonising it. he did the same with babs, with steph and later on with damian. for a character like batman, who upon failing immediately turns these losses into lessons (for himself and all those forced to comply), it's the only way he seems to 'move on'. if he can understand that jason died because of all the things bruce let him do wrong, then he can convince himself that the guilt he feels for it is necessary. that jasons death is on him and that it mattered.

unfortunately, in order to do that, bruce is indenial about what he LITERALLY KNOWS ABOUT JASON! it's not like he was an absent father to jason in the slightest. but hey, if he can vitiate jason's enthusiasm to help people as jason's impulsiveness to fight (two things that can be true but not in accordance to the context he describes them in), then the blame is on jason for being brash, and on bruce for being lenient.

he shoots jason in the foot and himself in the knee to keep them both down. because, well, jason's dead anyway, and bruce unfortunately isn't. this is the closest thing they'll get to sharing the truth bruce knows he's missing and he knows it's his fault for favouring the mission of his son — so at the expense of jason, bruce lets them both be the lesson to learn from.

it is why jason is used as a cautionary tale, and why bruce is so unstable on allowing people (especially children) into his life emotionally. the second robin is a lesson for any young vigilante eager to join the mission, and batman's part in the death is a lesson for bruce wayne to... be even more emotionally untrustworthy? instructions unclear.

the final part of the grave scene is also important, because bruce is admitting that he is not so different to jason. that "for some of us [Bruce and Cass] there is no turning back". he is projecting these flaws about jason not only because that's the only way he can cope with jason's death, but he is projecting these flaws because regardless of what actually happened, he (and cass) are destined to meet the same fate. jason died for a multitude of reason that bruce may or may not have caused knowingly, and these reasons only exist because bruce knows them to be true in himself and anyone else damaged enough to find themselves on his side of the blurry line.

so, now looking a bit less zoomed in, i think it's unfortunate that jason's time as robin is often perversed by the people who should know better (bruce & alfred), and while it is bad writing on jason's character, it is great writing to show the flaws in the characters around him.

especially how it shows that grief is not always something that can become healed. bruce's guilt about his parents death amounts to something hopeful (batman), but his guilt about jason's death makes bruce cruel and childish.

tldr: no one knows the true story, so they compensate from what they do know — but by doing so they project and misinform existing characteristics of jason in order to compartmentalise the gravity of his tragic death. bruce is unable to cope normally and everyone is forced to follow the same fate, because batman's lessons are rarely wrong, even if they cause ten other problems and misunderstandings to understand.

[kuromitos]

May the best hero win!

[Dick Grayson x GN!Reader x Jason Todd]

Plot: what happens when two batboys have a crush on the same person? Chaos. Petty Chaos.

Note: more storyline based on my OC that I'm too nervous to share with. The reader has a hero name called 'incognito'

It was supposed to be a regular night. A typical run down of the latest mission in Gotham. But we are talking about the Wayne Family here, or should I say the batfamily, there is nothing 'normal' or 'typical' about them.

Instead of going to collect the Intel from their reliable source, like they are supposed to do, Nightwing(Dick) and Red Hood(Jason) are fighting each other on top of a rooftop. With Red Robin(Tim), the signal(Duke), Spoiler(Steph), and Robin(Damian) watching them from another rooftop and taking bets on who will win the fight. While the black bat(Cass) goes off and completes the mission.

How did we get to these events? Well, things first started earlier in the night. Batman contacted the members of his family to gather inside the Batcave for their briefing before patrol, "we have received Intel earlier in the month that shipment of a new drug is coming to Gotham in the coming week." Batman stated while pulling up the required information on the back computer.

"A new drug?" Nightwing asked, "I ain't heard anything about no new drug." Red hood said with a mad tone, his regular tone. "That's because it's technically not new." Red Robin pulled up articles and reports from his wrist computer to the bat computer for everyone to see. "It's originally a chemical used in medicine but somebody decided to use it as a base for a new drug. There have been huge reports of it in Chicago, Detroit, and Baltimore. Recently, there's been rumors of it spreading to Gotham and now it's have been confirmed."

"The problem now is we don't know where the shipments is being dropped off." Batman said, changing the info on the screen to a photo of three men. "That has only been shared privately with these men only. But we have a double agent that was able to get the location for us and going to give it to us at the usual location on top of the Lincoln bank building. " He concluded his small speech with his back to the group because he doesn't want to see their faces of annoyance from them.

"The agent is . . . . Incognito. " "UUGGGGHHHH!"

Now hearing those groans you would think that they hate or can't stand the person called 'incognito'. Quite the contrary, they love them and consider them as an extended family member. What actually causes those groans were the two guys that like incognito some much more than everyone else. So much they turned it into a petty competition.

"I'll go" "I'll go"

They both turned toward each other when hearing each other voices and glare at each other. Those glares were signs to everyone around them that this was going to all night. Especially when Duke uttered the words "not this again."

"Don't you have to be bludhaven right now? Dick. " "Don't worry about that, Jay. I settled things before coming over. What about you, huh? Shouldn't you be covering crime alley or hanging out with the outlaws?" Dick smirks at his brother's poor attempt at jabs. "Just got done with a mission, dick head. " "Then you must be tired. I'll do this little info collecting-" Jason interrupted dick with a finger shoved in his face. " Don't give me that crap. You talked to them last time. Im going this time!" " Come on Jason. I'm just looking out for you. You don't think straight when you're around them." "Better than you. At least I think with my brain here" He points at his head, "and not the one down here." Jason grabbed his private part in a vulgar manner, which got a reaction out of dick. Pissed off. He was about to retort back but he was stopped by hearing Bruce scream at them both, "Enough! " which grabbed their attention. Jason still grabbing his. . . Little hood.

"Both of you going to the meeting point, then. Whoever gets there first can collect the information. I don't care who does it, just go!" Bruce yelled at them. They both stood there for awhile before Jason run towards his motorcycle screaming 'I'm getting there first!' With Dick on his tail also screaming, 'No you won't. '

~~☆~~

That's how we got to where we started. They raced thru the city using their personal own shortcuts until they bump into each other on top of an apartment building. Both felt they won't get their private moment they wanted with the double agent of their dreams, they decided to fight the other. First one down on their back, wins.

At first simple sparring quickly turns into a full-on brawl. Going at each other for at least an hour. Neither holding back on the other. While throw petty insults at each other too.

"Dickhead"

"Blowhard"

"Man slut"

"Zombie"

They took so long on this fight the other kids stop their patrol to watch and place bets. Jason was getting the winning votes.

It looks like the fight could go on forever since neither one looks like stopping anytime soon but a certain stop them in their tracks.

"Got it." They both turns towards the voice to see black bat with a piece of paper in her hand. "Got what exactly? " Dick asked with his hand on Jason's jacket, tight in his fist. "The location. It's the docks." She jump away from the two and probably back to the big bat. Everyone else follows her, forgetting the other two men.

Hearing they lose their chance, they let each other go and awkwardly stand beside each other. Their stupid fight got in the way. They missed the person who stole their affection. All because of their petty fighting. Hopefully this would be a lesson for them both to stop this -

"First one back, can meet them on the next meet up"

"You're on. Don't blame me when you lose. "

*sigh* nevermind. They're hopeless

Sorry if they are ooc here. I hope to improve my skills soon.

I'm also might do a part two if you guys like it enough.

That's all I got. Bye for now ( ≧∀≦)ノ

[nothing-personal-posts]

"I'm The Crazy One?" (Batfam x Batsis) pt 1

Summary: You got hit with fear gas. But something isn't right. And it takes your family a while to relize it might be too late.

CW: Death, mental health issues, hallucinations, violence, mention of blood, guns, angst ect.

You don't usually go onto the field, you help Barbra most of the times. You can fight, no doubt about it. But Bruce knows you have a past about you comitting violence, so he never calls you for help on the field.

But one mission, you needed to be with them. Bruce didn't call you to come, even if they needed your help, he didn't want to put you in a uncomfortable position like that.

You knew he would do that, so you rolled in without notice. Good thing you did, because Tim and Steph looked like they were having a hard time.

So you helped get the goons off their backs

"Y/n? What are you doing here!" Steph looked at you in the suite you had on. She almost forgot how you looked in your suite.

"Heard you guys were having a hard time. Thought I could drop in." You played with the blade in your hand.

"Batman isn't going to be happy with this." Tim mumbled. You frown and throw the knife past Tim, knocking out a goon in the process.

"I don't expect him too"

The mission had ended, Batman scolded you but thanked you for the help. Right before you all were leave, you were hit with fear gas.

When you came to, it had been 3 days for everyone else. When the fear gas took over your mind, you had injured Tim and Duke through your hallucinations. You felt horrbile about it.

But Bruce and the others were there to reassure you, it was not your fault.

It took awhile for you to get back on your feet, but everyone was there to support you. You acted weird a lot, but they assumed it was due to side effects from the gas. Like, when you would space out, be out in the manor at late hours when you should have been in bed. Just wondering, and forgetting what time you were in.

Dick was searching for you, wanting to know if you wanted to it some sweets Cass bought. He asked Alfred where you were, and claimed that you might be in either the library or the screen room. Dick checked both locations and couldn't find you. So he decided to go for your room. But on his way, he passes Damian's room. The door wide open, and you in the middle.

"Why would you say that. . . .? I would never let anything happen to you. I promise." You were talking, but to who? Damian was in the batcave training with Jason.

Dick spoke your name. You snapped out of whatever trance you were in and turned to look at Dick. You then looked around the room in confusion. Dick aproched you slowly

"Y/n. . .look at me." Dick held you by your shoulders. You looked at Dick with teary eyes.

"I. . . where is Damian?" You question. "He's with Bruce"

Dick's reply had you give out a shaky sigh of relief. "I-Im sorry." You chuckled "I've been out of it, so know. Just havn't gotten enough sleep."

Dick frowns and held your arm "Come on, let's get you to bed now. Alright?" He said with a small smile. You agree and have him lead you to bed.

Your behavior had gotten. . .worse? Worse was not the words for it at the moment.

Bruce was deep in sleep, woken up by Alfred.

"Master Bruce. There is a problem down in foyor."

Bruce groans as he sat up from his bed "What is it?"

"It is Miss Y/n." Alfred replied.

Bruce sighed " Sleep walking again?" Bruce began to walk with Alfred down the hall.

"Yes."

Once the two got down to the foyor, they see you walking against the door repeatedly.

The words "I did it" coming from your mouth in a small whisper.

"Alright, let's get you back to bed." Bruce grabbed you by your shoulder. You were quick to suprise Bruce by gripping the wrist to the hand he had on you.

Your eyes were open, a look of desperation in those eyes "I did it! I did- I did it. . ." You spoke breathlessly, cold sweat on you as if you had awoken from a nightmare.

Bruce frowns and glances a look of concern to Alfred, who shared the same look of worry.

Your eyes closed once more, your head layed on the older mans chest. Bruce sighed and picked you up as you mumbled words to him.

"I'm sorry daddy. . .im sorry" Those words came out almost as a whine. Bruce's grip tightend as he walked up the stairs, "It's alright. . . your alright." Bruce avoided your room and took you to his own. And watched you sleep. Already taking note to look deeper into the fear gas you were hit with.

Tim and Barbra got to researching whilst Jason and Cass helped Bruce and Damian seek out information about that fear gas.

It was late into the night, Duke had watched over you the whole day. He was worried himself of what was going on with you. Alfred helped him escort you whereever you wanted to go.

Now, the boy layed in bed. Dreading his upcoming exams.

He then was awoken by something weighing on him. When he opend his eyes. There he saw you, on top of him, eyes closed shut with a screw driver against his throat.

He panicked, his hand wondered to his nightstand where a batarang was. His hand hovered over it, then looked back at you.

Shaking as you whispered words he didn't understand.

He then used one hand to take ahold of your arm, and shake you gently. Saying your name, hoping you would snap out of it.

And when you did. You just stared at the boy. Confusion as to why you were there.

"Y/n, what the hell!" Duke scooted away from you. You dropped the screw driver. Your mind still seemed far away before you looked at Duke, and smiled.

"Duke. . .hi."

"Y/n, what's going on." Duke wasn't the serious type. So seeing him so stern, worried you. Because you didn't see what was wrong. Refused to see what was wrong.

"I don't, know what your say?" You truly looked confused. But your eyes. . . your eyes looked crazed.

It scared him.

"You held a screw driver, to my throat." Duke held his throat. You gave him a look, and shook your head. "No I didn't" you let out a small chuckle.

"Yes, you did! Y/n--"

"No! No I didn't. I wouldn't do that--" Y/n cupped Duke's face. Tears threatening to fall, shaking her head "I wouldn't do that! Id never hurt you I promise!"

Duke held you firmly by your arms. "Y/n look at me."

You stopped talking and stared into the boys eyes. And he saw it, you need help.

Bruce decided that you needed time alone. So you agreed to go to a place Damian was sent to a while ago.

There, you were taken in by the monks. Meditate for as long as needed. Tale the time you need to rid yourself of whatever thoughts that spoiled you.

You were gone for a good month. That was until you received a letter. Saying you were needed back at Gotham. You didn't think to much of it, so you left. And head back to Gotham.

Joker, was a cruel man. When that cruel cought sight of you for the first time. His plans, began.

Joining with a lowly gang to cause enough trouble to force you out and help. And making a fear gas that would drive you insane. That was all him.

And bringing you back to Gotham. . .that was him.

And you fell for it. He has you now, tied up to an operation table. He used a special something he used on Jason way back them, on you.

He put you in a robin suit. Painted a mask over your eyes, spread listick on your lips to form a big smile.

Now before he could present you to dear old bats. He wanted you to do something that will brake you.

You woke up and felt pain all over your body. The floor, you were laying on the floor. That's what you could tell. It was cold and hard.

Your vision was still blurred, even when you sat up. You could feel something on the ground. It was wet. Was it water?

You started to see more clearly. And thats when you realized, that it wasn't water. It was blood

You stared at your hands, the blood. There was so much of it. It was on your cloths too! Wait. . .why are you wearing a robin suit. . .

Your eyes began to wonder further apart from yourself. That's when your heart dropped to your stomach.

"No. . ."

You crawled to a the body in front of you.

"No no no no no no. Wake up! Please!"

You held the body. Tears already falling from your eyes. It was a friend from school. A good friend who you cared for.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

Your head whiped to the direction of where the voice came. And there, you saw Joker.

"Joker! You bastred what did you do!" You shouted in anger. The man paused and dramaticly had his hands on his chest

"Me? Oh, that wasn't me. The one who did that. Who made this art. . .was you." The Joker gave his sickly smile. You shook your head.

"No. . .I would never--"

You looked down to your friend. Something had finally come to you. It was, daja vu

"Has it come to you now? Have you relized it." Joker chuckled and walked around you in cricals.

"No. . ." You whispered. Everything was coming back. The things you feared, were forcing it's way back into your mind.

"Those nightmares you would have. . .those hallucinations. Fearing of hurting the ones close to you in the worst ways possible. It's all true!" The Joker couldn't help but laugh at your face. The way you looked when you took in his words.

The look of utter terror and dispare in your eyes was hilarious to him. And he can't wait for the bats to have that same look.

The Joker left you in the room.

You held your dear friends body. Rocking back and forth as you repeted the words "I didn't do it"

Over and over again.

It must be true then. . .all those hallucinations you had, the nightmares of hurting everyone, one by one. It was the future?

You were going to hurt them. Just like you hurt your dear friend that layed lifeless in your arms. Telling from the defense marks she had, along with the scratches you had on your neck and arms.

Your friend tried to fight you back. But failed. Even with this knowledge. You still refused to believe it was you that had done this.

Bruce along with the others stared at you in horror. Under Joker's control again.

Blood still on your little Robin costum. Your painted mask was ruined by the tears you had shed earlier.

"No. . ."

"Oh my God."

". . . ."

Everyone wanted to go in and save you. But Joker stood by your side, he gave the group a sadistic smile.

"Look! It's your Daddy!" The Joker chuckled out. Meaning those words twards Batman himself.

"Come on sweetie. Say Daddy. Go on, say it."

You giggled with a dazed smile and held up the gun you had, pointing to Batman.

"Daddy. . .hehehe, Daddy~" Your movements were sloppy, like a drunken person. Giggling between your words.

"That fucker." Steph growled. Wanting to bash Joker's head in. Anger coursing through the whole group. But mainly fear.

Jason was close to hyperventilating. Past was repeating itself for a lot of them. It was bad enough to experience what you were going through, but to watch it happen again to someone else?

A nightmare the man never thought would come true nor even existed.

Joker's grin widened by seeing the expression on everyone. Especially Bruce. And it was fear. Pure fear.

Joker burst out in laughter "Yes! This, is what I wanted!"

Joker calmed down from his fit of laughter and held you by your shoulders from behind. "Now little one. Listen to me. Your Daddy over there is hurting real bad right now. How about we help him out? Yeah?"

You understood those words and shot at Batman repeatedly. Damian and Dick were quick to deflect the bullets as Bruce stood in place. Staring at you. Staring at whatever the Joker turned you into.

Joker broke out laughing again. Yoir small giggles mixing in. Damian was quick to try and run twards the two of you. But Joker was quick to make the boy stop in his tracks.

"Ah! Get any closer. Little birdy here gets a bullet to her head!" Joker pulled out a gun and held it to your head.

Seeing Damian stop caused Joker a lot of satisfaction. The Joker leaned in and whispered.

"Change of plans. Help little Robin first before helping dear old Dad."

Tears poured out from your eyes as you giggled and held the gun with two hands. Pointing right at Damian, who was ready to defend himself.

But suddenly, you elbowed the Joker in the chin and shot yourself. Joker cursed at the pain. Steph and Cass took the opportunity to get Joker before he starts shooting.

Your groan in the pain. You felt someon take you up into their eyes. You weakly look up to see Batman.

He was carring you like he did before.

"I'm sorry Daddy. . . I'm sorry."

Your words hit deeper this time around. Bruce held you tight. "It's alright. Your alright."

You hummed at his familiar reply and leaned onto his chest. Closing your eyes as the last tear drops fell from your eyes before falling unconscious.

[niphredil-14]

Hello Renza, I hope you are feeling very well and the day is treating you well! Look that the applications are open and encourage me to ask for something, from Jason Todd who has a partner (if possible they are married but they never said anything) who is GirlBoss, and the batfamily does not know of his existence and they discover it by his own account, from then on I leave it to your imagination. If you don't like this request, ignore it since you are more important 🖤✨

Jason was, in his family's eyes, the least likely person to ever get married. So, when he showed up to family dinner one night, with a gorgeous woman at his side, they were surprised enough. When he introduced her as his wife, they figured it must be some kind of joke.

Throughout the evening, however, the were amazed to see just how serious Jason was about her. It was as if he completely dropped his cold-walled-off act with her, worshipping the ground she walked on. It was her that really surprised them though. They all loved Jason, but it was no secret what an ass he could be, how he was able to get a girl like her to put up with his shenanigans was beyond them.

They were all obsessed with her. Who was she? Where was she from? How the fuck did she get past Jason's defenses?

It's safe to say that Steph will swarm her. Congrats, Girlboss, you've got a new best friend. Honestly Cass and Babs would probably be close behind too, but I definitely see Steph getting along with her particularly well.

Damian would understand her the least, I think, just being his usual brat self.

Dick would love her!! They're both girlbosses to be honest, except Dick is less of one because he is a cop.

Tim would probably be fairly neutral. He thinks they're cool, but isn't overly obsessed.

Bruce would just be happy that Jason found love.

Alfred feels the same as Bruce c:

[missbluesunflowersstuff]

(Kinda) Reverse Robin AU but in a Time Travel way

During a mission Damian it is thrown in the past. It's took a few minutes to undestend what happen, and now we have a little babybat run around the old Gotham trying to figure out how he come back to his time.

He and Batman don't get a long in the first; Damian tried very hard avoid the bat and Bruce chases him wanting to know if he is an enemy or a friend. But everything change when Grayson incident ocorred.

Damian, who tried being invisible, can't ignore that inciddent and fight together with Bruce for the first time since he got there. Obviously they both meet little Dick and Bruce, seeing that there is kindness in Robin (Damian's hero name) and that Damian also wants to help Gotham, decides to take those two boys home (Dick 8 and Damian 16)

Damian don't allow Dick patrol at first, because he is a little kid and stuff. Dick disagree but can't win for now.

"Why you dress yourself like that?" - little Dick

"My hero name is Robin and this is Robin bird colors" - Damian

"Why do Gotham heroes have such bad fashion style? When I'm a hero I'll dress in different colors" - Dick

"Wait..." Damian realize why Robin dress themself like that

Dick still get training but Damian keep saying no patrol. But one night Damian get hurt and Bruce is busy in the other side of the city, then Dick runs for help the young hero. Knowing that there is no way to stop Dick from becoming a hero, Damian makes him promise that he will always patrol alongside Bruce until Dick is ready enough to go alone.

"You turn me a babysister?" - Bruce

"I think the voices in your head will enjoy Grayson's company more than I do, Mister Wayne" - Damian will call Bruce Mister Wayne forever in this timeline

This where Batman and Robin is born. In the same time, Damian start call himlsef Nightwing.

Several months pass and now Damian have a new target, a little boy from the crime gallery. Damian is following this boy for days now, where he's live, where he getting his food and everything. The babybat is collection information about Catherine Todd and Jason Todd.

Damian plan to introduce himself properly, but the whole plan goes sideways when he sees little Jason surrounded by a group of older men, who were very angry with Jason because the boy was stealing from them all the time.

Then now Jason is ready to get hurt, he knows he can't win that fight and those men will hurt him badly until the unexpected happen and Damian save Jason. In the first the little redhood just run away from the Gotham protector. But Damian is in Jason door next day with a bag full of food (Damian decide goes at supermarket and buy stuff for Jason).

Damian start spend time at Crime Gallery and help the people there and also Todd family. He actually move Jason and his mother for a better place and help Catherine stop using drugs, and also keep both save from Jason's father.

Catherine becomes Alfred's assistant (Damian just wants an excuse to keep the eyer on her while take a care of Jason). They're happy after that for a while.

Also, Damian decide call the little stalker to play with his younger bothers. Damian know that in the past he and his sibilings don't go all well, but now Damian just want to make those kids happy because only him can bully his brother and Damian also have a lot of compasion inside him (you can see that in the way he saves Goliath and he desire to create a space for the others kids in that tournament).

Tim start play with Jason, who see Tim as a baby (Jason is protector, he is a child from the crime gallery, he knows how cruel and terrible the world is and he doesn't want another child to be traumatized the same way he was). Somehow Damian maneges to bring Steph and Cass to home (no one dare to ask).

Also, Damian incentive Dick to leave Batman and give him the Nightwing name. Bruce and Damian have the most funny relantionship in all timeline, sometimes they're brothers, sometimes they're friends and sometimes Damian just distance himself for everything and stay in silence.

Everyone can see the boy had problems. Damian have a lot of nightmares, like a lot. He can't spend one night without nightmares. And sometimes Damian wake up scream and crying. Damian has scar for all his body, one makes illusion that he was impaled by a sword once (this one is the worst, Dick and Bruce still don't know how react to its after all those years).

Unfortunately, the bats can't live happily for long and Catherine dies while Jason is patrolling alongside Bruce. Canon events happen after that and Jason almost dies this time, but Damian saves Jason because he knows magic well enough to heal Jason body.

Things just go downhill after that. Jason doens't undestend why Damian wants save him, him after all the boys! Jason never brings joy for anymore. He never did something good in his past, he never deserver this, he should die longside with him biologic mother, this would be the best. Why Damian kill the joker in that way?

And now Bruce and Damian are yelling with each other in the hall. All the other kids hear their fight. Damian then decide go away from Gotham and Bruce closed himself. Jason then decide go away as well. Travel around the world. Jason still keep send letters to Alfred and occasionally to Tim.

Tim doesn't like to see his family fight like that (his own parents do this occasionally and he doesn't want the batfam end like his own house). Tim actually tries to get Dick back home, but fails unfortunately.

Tim turn Robin and fight alongside with Batman, while Steph and Cass goes after Damian (they and Tim made this plan because they're worry about this two idiots). When every plan fails, Steph use then her screat weapon, Tim's fake tears.

This boy just start ugly sob for Damian come back and this work!

"Why do I let you manipulate me this way, Drake?" - Damian after his come back

Damian is no a hero anymore at moment, he just vibes and sometimes work as mercenary (Bruce hates it btw but but he never controlled damian’s actions anyway), Damian also have long hair (He tries to distance himself from Bruce's image so no one suspects anything, surprisingly he became more like Talia and his grandfather as an adult. Taller and slim, with the same elegant walk)

Some time after Cass plays as Orphan, Jason come back and want be an antihero, protect the crime galery people and others. The family actually fight because "Batman doesn't kill". Bruce try to be the hero, "kill a villian don't make you better than them" but Jason doesn't want to hear (again this boy see a lot in that place, he travel the world and when he comes back that place just became worse! WTF)

All of them start fight until Alfred called everyone out.

Damian decide reunite his brothers and tell them his story. He was just a child soldier and how this affected him the wrong way, he had a big family but all his older brothers are dead now, and he also died one time, but he was brings back because Lazaru pit.

"The problem here, Jason, isn't 'kill a killer and the numbers will stay the same', the problem here is: Will you be able to live with yourself after committing this crime? Because one moment you'll stop to react the murders, and when this happen you'll die. I'll not try to stop you, I just want that you don't push yourself so hard like this" - Damian to Jason

Redhood is there anyway. Bruce is a little annoyed but he allow Jason to use the bat symbol because Bruce also miss the boy together with Alfred.

More time pass and Damian knows that everything will end soon. Then he rent an apartment near Thomas's family and start give the boy combat and management skill lessons (yeah this is because the gang).

One day a big bad stuff happen and Damian sacrifice himself to save Gotham. He die happy because this time he became the brother his brothers deserved, someone who would help them and not screw them up. He die happy for his family.

Some random thought about this AU:

Damian just turn himself in the weird cryptid he truly is in this timeline. He constantly explains things with Arabic and Chinese fables to his brothers. Is Dick in trouble on the Titans? A Chinese fable about how a warrior overcame an obstacle. Tim fell and broke his tooth? An Arabic fable about a rabi and a king. Damian doesn't care if this make sense or not, he just wants to annoy his brothers with his knowledge

Also Damian taught them to speak Chinese and Arabic

Ras and Talia find out about Damian when he and Bruce fight. The boy manages to change Ras' heart during this time (don't ask how), Al Ghul family keep like that but less evil and bloody.

All member of Justice League think in Damian as Bruce's annoy young brother. Thomas Wayne was the worsted husband at this point and they refuse to believe outside.

Damian isn't a Justice League member and refuse all the invitation.

He also fight with Oliver Queen after the green arrow kicks Roy out. (he and Ollie doesn't spoken with each other since then)

Damian also yells with Clark about the Kon situation

Damian stopped using a mask to cover his face a long time ago, he doesn't bother to protect his identity because no one is looking for him there and then this becomes a habit of him, so he never uses a mask (he doesn't care for what Bruce says)

Also after Damian got hurt and Dick saves him (in Dick first night as Robin), Damian wake up in the cave with Alfed take a care of him, and:

"Don't worry, master Damian, I put the right blood in you" - Alfred

"How?" - Damian

"I don't know how you did this, or why you're here, but I recognize Mister Martha's smile on your face. So when you're ready to explain, I'll listen to you" - Alfred

[soleminisanction]

Just saw an impossibly bad take, so to balance that out: in the past you mentioned a story where Tim comes out as a trans woman, what would that look like for you? Do you have any thoughts on making that into a fic?

I've had a lot of scattered thoughts about it but never been able to pin down any scenes concrete enough to turn them into an actual fic. But I love trans!Tim stories whether he's trans fem or trans masc so I've tossed the idea around here and there. Gonna be a little fluid with the pronouns here as Tim's thought process evolves but the basic idea here was:

The seed of the idea would get planted in Tim's mind just before War Games, specifically the one and only time he sees a picture of Steph as Robin. Along with the hurt and anger he expected, there's emotions he doesn't understand, a feeling of longing, jealousy, and desire; not for Steph herself, but for the way she looks in her new costume. For months he's been asking himself, "What do I want, for me?" and now the answer is staring him in the face: This.

But he keeps pushing it aside because there's always something "more important" going on. Worse, as things start to fall apart around him and he loses first Steph, then his dad, and then Kon, the musings about his gender keep getting mixed up in his feelings for other people, especially Kon.

Basically, take all the angst and pain of that era and make it even worse with disphoria and Tim being deep in both denial and the closet and feeling completely unable to open up to anyone about it because of how much it scares him to want something, something she feels like she can't have. Things like him not knowing if he's attracted to Cassie or if he wants to be Cassie, wishes his body looked and moved like that while still having so much strength and power. Fantasizing about how things might've been different between him and Kon, or him and Dick, or him and Damian, if only he'd been born a girl. Falling asleep in the cloning lab and having a nightmare about miscarrying Kon's child, then waking up to find the most recent clone has failed.

Through all that, the only person who has even a hint of what's going on is Cass. She reads it in Tim's body language while they're in Bludhaven together, but understands his fears and lets him keep his confidence. Even after things go to shit for her, she keeps that secret; even brainwashing couldn't get it out of her.

Then Final Crisis happens. Bruce "dies," Dick becomes Batman, Damian becomes Robin. Tim finds himself adrift, with nothing but this crazy-sounding notion of Bruce's survival to his name, and runs away from the Manor...

And this is part of where I stumble because I don't know if it'd be better for Tim to run into Cass at this point or for her to leave him her Batgirl costume and a letter. One way or another, Cass leaves Tim Batgirl, and that's the push she finally needs to crack her egg and start pursing a transition, socially and medically.

She avoids Babs for a few weeks out of shyness and embarrassment until Oracle manages to track this mysterious new Batgirl down, but once confronted she comes clean and Babs is instantly onboard to support her and also keep Dick and Damian out of the loop.

Dick thinks his little brother skipped town and is both confused and a little hurt that Babs won't trust him with the new Batgirl's identity. Damian takes it as a personal insult and starts going out of his way to find and harass said new Batgirl but then she kicks his ass and it turns out Damian shares Bruce's taste in women so now whoops he's got a puppy crush, which everyone who knows the truth about Tim finds hilarious.

Cass one way or another winds up being the one who goes on Brucequest instead of Tim and follows similar beats as Red Robin, minus Tam Fox or losing her spleen. Speaking of Tam, she has a much easier time finding Tim because while her dad does call her home from Russia to help with the investigation at least she doesn't have to globe-trot or get kidnapped by ninjas, she just has to hunt him down in Gotham, possibly while accidentally allied with Vicki Vale.

Tim enrolls in college under Caroline Hill's name and mostly attends to practice passing in public and live out some normal girl fantasies. Kon, Cassie, and Bart all learn what's up even though she's still taking a break from the Titans and of course they're on board and supportive.

And... yeah, that's pretty much the extent of my ideas so far. Broad scope but not a lot concrete to latch onto, which makes it difficult to convert into a fic, but I do love the concept.

[cluescorner]

Re: your randomized robins

What about Cass, Babs, and Duke?

IDK I literally came up with this idea yesterday evening and have given no thought to it since then

I have a few ideas:

Randomize the non-robins. Problem with this idea: I have both platonic and romantic pairings that I am biased towards (most importantly to how this AU would work, Stephcass) and if I randomize the ages I will not be able to write them together due to chance. I'm not Harvey Dent, I have already left enough up to chance in terms of the core of this AU. Additionally, I then have to ask myself where I draw the line. If Cass is included, should Helena be? How about Luke and the rest of the Foxes? What about Scarlet and Knight/Squire? I don't like the idea of needing to choose who to include in the randomizer, ESPECIALLY because I know full well that I don't know every Batman character who ever existed nor would I be able to write them in a way that's interesting.

Leave them as is. Problem with this idea: It's boring and kinda misses the thematic points of their characters. A massive part of Cass's character is her learning to bond with people she is nothing like, people she could never hope to understand without growing as a person. Sticking her with Damian, who is more similar to her than most of the other Robins, takes away a big portion of that.

Stick them in the order that the 'Robin' they are most closely introduced with goes in (ie Cass with Steph, Barbara with Dick, Duke with Damian). Problem: These are unique characters with their own identities and should be treated as such. To tie them so closely to another character kinda takes away from that.

TBH I'll probably go with option 3. It's the easiest for me to write, I feel confident enough in the few ideas I've got going thus far that I think I can make them stand out from just being tied to their 'Robin' (BTW they will not be called Robins in this AU. That is Dick's thing and Spoiler has a bunch of potential spin-off names that I like), and tbh this shit is challenging enough on its own. I've already run into a wall with Tim because his characterization is pretty inconsistent in the comics I own and now I have to take away many of my FAVORITE characterizing moments of his (I rolled 'Tim cannot go on Bruce-quest' so the majority of Red Robin's moments are kinda gone) because of the challenge.

[nerdybirdboy]

"You can be as vain as you want, my honeybirb, but the pudges are a testament of how far you came and of your decision of changing things." Lio kisses his forehead and smiles. "We can reduce them if you want, but please, don't get rid of them? I... like what they mean to you and to us." He cups Tim's face between his hands and gently brushes his thumbs on both sides. "You're perfect no matter how you look. I love you no matter what come to pass or how your appearance may come to change overtime. It's just... I don't want to fail the only thing you ever asked from me." Lio cares, it may seem superficial when he's speaking of looks, specially when he's always so pristine, good looking and loves fashion, but his feelings and words to Tim have always been sincere. He always kept things real, clear and honest between them. "I've been with you for little more than a decade now and... I dare say I know how some of the dominos fall in your head. When you start going too hard, soon you lose track and go all the way... and I know you've been looking at your old uniform."

"You have many questions. I do too. It's still too early to know if your decision was right or wrong... too soon to measure possible consequences, but we need to have faith in those we left behind and trusted to keep our jobs. Dick, Steph, Duke, Cass, Damian, Bruce... they'll continue and there will be others after them too — and just like you were inspired by Jason and Dick, you'll see others follow in your steps too." Lio give him a soft and confident smile. "You'll see. Red Robin certainly left a trail of his own and, soon enough, someone else will pick up from where you left and continue the amazing work you've done."

Continuing from this ask || @goldentemplariumcrow

Tim sighed. "I know looks and beauty are important to you and I want to look good for your sake." If he was going to be honest, he kind of liked not having to spend hours each day training and meticulously thinking about what nutrients he ate. He also liked the way Lio liked to spoon him and squeeze him gently and their hugs were a little nicer with his added pudge. Most importantly, he was more relaxed than he had ever been, even Dick had commented on it. How retirement from Red Robin suited him, which had led to Dick once again talking about retiring himself. Tim wanted him too, fearing he might lose his brother otherwise, but he'd never try and pressure him into anything. Thankfully, Bruce was retired, which had only happened after he'd had a heart attack.

When Lio cupped his face, Tim closed his eyes. His husband's thumbs felt warm and gentle against his cheeks. "So you really don't mind that I'm a bit chubby now? To be honest, part of it is your fault since you cook too well," Tim teased, even if it was partly true. "I think you know me better than I do sometimes. I don't want to do a comeback, my body aches enough as it is, but you're right, if I got fully in shape I probably would out of duty." And he wasn't sure how many more beatings his body could take before it gave up completely. "I guess I could've inspired someone and I do trust my siblings, but Dick might retire himself soon and Bruce has retired from the physical part of the job, just like me." Cass, Damian and Duke were still going though and he knew they were very capable.

"Okay, I'll let the pudge be. It makes hugging nicer anyway," Tim said with a soft smile before stealing a kiss. "Though you'll have to continue to feed it delicious food or it might disappear anyway." Like Lio would ever stop cooking for and with him.

[incoherentbabblings]

I was wondering. Has Steph ever interacted with Conner, Bart or Cassie or any of the YJ in general? If so what do they think about each other and vice versa?

There isn't too much because - tell me if you've heard this one before - Stephanie isn't allowed to have meaningful relationships outside of Gotham, but you can extrapolate a few things to say yes they are friendly. It's just never really shown in any meaningful way in the panels. She's friendliest with Cassie and Conner, but it's not hard to assume Bart too because honestly they're a pack animal and you can't have two without the third. So like... brief overview of Steph with YJ/Titans:

She was an extended member of the original YJ team, popping up in the last arc as a member called by Cassie to aid the team. She's seen dancing with Conner at a party. That's all very good. Shallow, but sweet (side note: don't ask what Courtney is talking about in this panel I'm just assuming nothing good).

2004-2008 DC really had it in for Steph, so the only two instances of interaction we have is 1) Conner being violent to her and threatening her because she has the audacity to not want to speak to him. I cut Conner some slack because he's going through a life crisis and is about to die in a few months but at the same time... none of that was Steph's problem. Like damn Conner you can't just go shaking girls off 13 storey buildings and yell at them even if you are feeling lonely.

When Steph comes round with Tim to help him resign from the Titans, Cassie assumes she's there as part of a recruitment drive the Titans are undertaking, and has no problem with her joining. They do have two very awkward non-conversations but honestly Stephanie is just a really awkward person in general who isn't very good at making friends on the best of days, so the whole 'my teammate brought his suddenly not dead ex with him who I haven't spoken to in two years to a meeting' is a supremely awkward set up I'd say.

Steph apparently had a good enough relationship, perhaps through Kara, for other Titans and JSA girls like M'gann or Courtney to pop up and help her right at the end of her Batgirl run. We never see this develop. So, a cool moment. Earned? Ehhhhhh.

Because Steph is not present for most of the New 52, we dodged that bullet, however Cassie is shown mourning for Steph after Tim goes kaboom in early Rebirth. But it's not exactly the words of a close friend. 'That Spoiler girl,' she says.

In YJ, clearly we missed some character relationship stuff, because Kon, Bart and Cass are all delighted to see Steph (or Earth 3 version of her), which... I don't know where that came from, but eh. Who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. Cassie in particular seems over the moon to see her. Blondies stick together hehe.

The fact that Kelli is smiling too like she has never met Steph once which just makes me think Tim was running his mouth whilst YJ were reality hopping big time.

Finally, in Urban Legends, we get confirmation that apparently Kon and Steph text and call each other independently. Maybe all they do is talk about Tim, maybe they have a relationship outside of their pathetic little meow meow pal, who knows, but it's something.

So! Current status is: they're casual friends, but fuck you if you want to see it develop on panel. Just take our word for it. They like each other.

Honestly I'll take it. Anything for Steph to have some kind of relationship with her peers that isn't Tim or Cass.

[redjaybathood]

Ummm... Sorry if bother but I left prompts on notes for your post about them, just wanted to make sure you have seen them.

(Sorry again if it's bothering, have a good day)

Sorry, no, I saw it, I'm just not always reply to things in the chronological order I got them. Though sending an ask is always an easier way for me to respond - I can save things to drafts.

I really liked this one!

wonderwondered: 2. Talia and Jason have monthly meetings and on one of them run into some of Bats and pretend that they don't know them.

Imagine. They're just chilling on those chairs that cafes sometimes put on the street. Their outfits are flipped. Talia is in something comfy, low-key street fashion; Jason wears deep green with gold accents, his shirt has cleavage to his navel, there are heels, though it's those sensible low heels because he's tall enough. Oh, and he has eyeliner.

So, Tim gets himself a coffee to go from the very same cafe. And he is passing them, thinking his own thoughts, when he stops short. In the middle of sidewalk.

And backtracks.

"Jason?!"

Please note that he is yet to recognise Talia, who also has her hair in a artfully messy bun. And no cleavage. (I appreciate the gorgeous art and unique outfits Talia wears but, you know, I really don't like it when all of them have cleavage except one time she was wearing sweatpants)

So no, that plus sunglasses, and he doesn't recognize her at all.

Jason looks at him as though seeing a stranger.

"Do you know this boy?" Talia says in a horrendous Russian accent.

Jason looks Tim dead in the eye and just shakes his head. Doubt creeps up into Tim. He says sorry and moves along with his coffee, thinking he should have asked for one more shot of espresso.

Next time, it's Gotham Academy art exhibition. Talia is in a sharp business suit, with wide trousers and jacket, and a wide hat. Jason is in a tracksuit and has a golden chain.

Damian already ran away with his friends, something about a case of art fraud. Dick just notices the pair. They've been staring at Damian's painting for ages. He decides to get closer, strike up a conversation, just in case. But when he just says:

"Hi, I'm Dick, this is my brother's work. Where's..."

And then he notices just who this is.

"Talia? Did Damian know you will be here? And... Is this Jason?"

Now it's Jason's turn to bring on the thick Eastern European accent.

"Ha! You're mistaken, my friend. I am here for my daughter."

He points at the girl in a leather jacket with very bright blue hair and a permanent scowl, despite being surrounded by a lot of people her age who are trying to get her attention. The expression on her is so familiar, Dick would believe it's his daughter, except for how he would need to become a dad at ten.

"You're not looking old enough to be her father, Jason," Dick says in exasperation.

"Thank you!" Jason beams. "Clara always calling me too old. I had to promise to never talk to her in public because how old I am. And uncool. Hey, I say her, I am cool. I know memes!" He proceeds to show Dick Pepe the Frog. "Though I don't know why the frog is sad. I asked Clara, but that's when she forbid to talk to her. It hurts, you know, when they grow up. But I wouldn't trade it for..."

Dick stops listening, walks away. Whatever Jason playing at? He doesn't care, it's his day off.

The next ones are Steph and Cass. They follow Talia and Jason through the mall. Jason is carrying all the bags and looks like he wants someone to start shooting at them right now, Talia looks like she's having a time of her life.

The girls bring this up the next time everyone gathered together for a debrief.

"So what's up with the League in Gotham?" Steph asks Jason.

Jason blinks at her.

"What are you talking about?"

Bruce zeroes in on this.

"Hood, are you looking for the League of Assassins again?"

"No, and for the record, I never did," Jason says.

At the same time, Stephanie says "Yeah, we saw them on a shopping spree."

"Me?" Jason asks and points at himself to boot. "Shopping? Never."

"As if my mother would take him as the companion," Damian scoffs from where he's sitting. "Or would choose Gotham for a shopping spree."

"See?"

"She did take you to Damian's art show though," Dick remembers.

"No she didn't," Jason furrows his brow as if he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Bruce presses down on the bridge of the nose, trying to stave off a headache.

"Red Hood, if the League of Assassins is planning something..."

"May I remind you all," Jason says slowly, looking at everyone in turn. "That I've never been a part of the League? Because Ra's hates me with a passion of thousands of suns and thinks I'm going to end the world, probably?"

"No," Damian tells him. "You just annoy him."

"Potayto, potahto," Jason murmurs.

And so it goes. They are seen around town, all in different places, always wearing a different look. There's never any follow-up re: nefarious plans of the League of Assassins, so the Batfam just lets them do whatever the hell they want. Watch the opera where Jason spends the intermission ranting to everyone in the vicinity about how modern interpretation by Gotham's troupe completely missed the point of characters - Talia looks very bored and even yawns. Show up for a baseball game which Talia spends, mostly standing around and shouting at players and Jason trying to seem non-existing. Get their nails done at a spa salon, which, surprisingly, both enjoy. All while still pretending they don't know Batfam members, even if they fully know their disguises not fooling anybody.

The only time Talia breaks the character is when Damian is there.

"Mother," he seethes. "You are visiting Gotham every month, and spend the day with Todd, of all people. Why have you never invited Father and me?"

"Damian," she says, sitting down so they would be on the same level. "Do you want to spend time with me?"

Damian sputters.

"I did not say that," he denies, being, like, 11-years old and too cool to hang out with his mother.

But then Talia gets out a small (Damian-sized) letter jacket, a copy of what she's wearing, but in red; she snaps her fingers at Jason, without looking, and he takes a pair of sunglasses out from his front pocket and gives it to her.

Talia offers it to Damian.

"Well," Damian said. "If you went to all this trouble. But," he points a finger. "I'm choosing where we go the next time. I will not have my nails done by a random mall person."

"Don't worry," Jason says. "We don't repeat our outings. Would make it too easy for any of the Bats to come to crash it."

That's it. There's no punchline, no sudden reveal, or a twist. Just Talia hanging out with one of her sons and quietly hoping that Damian sees that it's not uncool to hang out with your mother. And it works.

[carrotkicks]

I feel like I don’t have any sense of Tim’s relationship to the other Robins. Is it something that’s been actually neglected or am I just not looking in the right places?

hmm okay. It's totally understandable to not really know anything of Tim's relationship with all the other Batkids, since for the past decade(?) dc hasn't really teamed him up with the other Batman characters (let alone let him be one). But I'm going to assume you're talking PREboot, in which case, he's actually got a lot of interesting - and messy bc he's a Bat lbh - relationships with the rest of the fam.

Now you asked about the Robins specifically (god the fact that theres more than one is a headache and a half and i'm talking about the 3rd one lmao) and ii kinda lost patience so im talking about Jason, Damian and Steph, (ask me for Dick another time plz it’s too much with him and plus theres a million really good metas on him and Tim). I’m not including Bruce+Cass bc thats a completley different can of worms, or Duke bc they honestly don't really have a dynamic? they need to team up more

OK BABY IT'S STORY TIME WITH MEEEEE

uhh also this got wayyyyy long so checkout the "Read More" if you actually care

Duck Boy and Fire Hydrant Man

Starting with Tim's relationship with Jason since that probably has the least meat to it. And it's actually very linear In short: Tim and Jason Do NOT Like Each Other. Jason has actively tried to murder Tim multiple times with no real closure on most of those situations. Sooo pretty testy between these two. I don't understand how they work together happily during reboot and i don't want to understand tbh. it's migraine inducing.

Before he came back, Tim viewed Jason as more of a martyr figure or a cautionary tale, rather than an actual child who died. It's a bit insensitive sure, but the kid didn't know Jason, and all that he heard form Bruce - and the writers - OF Jason was that he was reckless and got himself killed. we as the readers know this isn't really how it went down but during that era there was a reframing of the narrative to make Jason seem not good enough so they could justify his death and the new Robin. It's not great but it's understandable, and nothing to detract from Tim's character but rather Bruce (but again, different rabbit hole)

It's not until the infamous encounter Teen Titans (2003) #29 where we really see an actual person-person relationship between them kick off. And its not really pretty haha. Jason comes back from the dead understandably hurt that he's been replaced, and upset about the idea that he "meant nothing" to either the Titans or Batman, so he goes to prove his superiority and take out his rage in an absolutly PSYCHO move that involved beating up a literal child while wearing an adult sized Robin costume. (good on the fans for forgetting about the yellow tights because I Did Not.) On Jason's side Tim represents the idea that he wasn't good enough, and fighting him was both to test Tim's ability AND to justify his own self worth. In Tim Drake- Town every preconcieved notion of Jason Todd being the tragic hero he's always heard about was destroyed with only Jason Todd is Dangerous - Stay Away.

Sooo they don't really interact much after that except for a few other times. One weird one that ended in Tim kicking Jay in the balls. One somewhere at the end of Robin (1993) (around Batman RIP and Bruce's death for a timeline ref) where it was JASON that approached Tim in hopes for a team-up that went with varying degrees of success. Tim was not excited about the team up at all, but he helped Jay escape from prison at the end and the two actually had A Moment in the batcave that looked like theye actually got along a bit and cared about each other just a little.

Their final interaction was in Battle for the Cowl (which also ended in a murder attempt) So Jason went on a grief induced/ manic killing spree dressed as the Batman. Tim shows up to stop him (also dressed as batman) and Jason says something about how he actually does respect Tim and he shoud (and i quote) "be HIS Robin" lmao. Tim declines as respectfully as he could after that bombshell of a line, and then Jason stabs him. That's about where things end with them in Preboot. cheerful innit?

TL;DR: Jason and Tim are not very friendly with each other- actively hostile i'd wager BUT, Jason has mad respect for the kid, and Tim is shown to keep wanting to give the guy more chances (maybe bc part of him still believe Jason to be some fallen hero thing). Regardless of a lot of their outward violence to each other they just might have maybe a tiny bit of love for one another

Sibling Rivalry on CRACK

Tim and Damian is one of the more misunderstood relationships. Most people either demonize young Damian for his not so pleasant everything (to which i say eff you) or not acknowledge how their relationship has evolved. Unsurprisingly, this one's also full of murder attempts.

So Damian shows up to Gotham to learn from his dad and y'know do the whole "take his place at his father's side" thing, which also means eliminating the competition (read: Tim). Tim is actually pretty friendly -outwardly anyways- to Damian when they first meet, but quickly becomes wary of the kid.

See what's soooo interesting about these two is that both of their hostility to the other is deeply rooted in their OWN insecurities. Damain sees Tim as an obstacle to his father's love. He see's Tim and Bruce being partner's and sees Bruce loving this outsider as his own son and he want that for himself. He doens't yet realize that love isn't a competition. Meanwhile Tim sees Damian as a threat to his own life stability. Here's this random child gunnin for the Robin spot - his life's purpose at this point- oh and turns out that this sassy lost child is actually his stepbrother. oh actually it's Bruce's bio kid. how's he gonna beat that? Tim's animosity towards Damian is also heavily based in his own fear that he's going to become obselete. So he also doesn't realize that he doesn't need to EARN Bruces love bc it's actually unconditional.

See, the parallels between these two is mind blowing to me. I like these kids very much.

Um... but to acknowledge the murder attempts thing: Damian does do it first, because he was raised to beleive that you need to kill your competition, but it's totally understandable that Tim doesn't really like the child very much. But Tim DOES actually throw hands a couple of times at Damian. I think in Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul Tim gives Damian a beatdown for a bit and also decks him in RR#1. I think it was to show that Tim is becoming increasingly unhinged, and i'm pretty sure Damian was being a mega jerk in the RR issue but like... NOT COOL BRO! jfc Tim stop indulging ur psycho tendencies omg.

BUT by that same token, those murder attempts are actually kinda funny in retrospect bc It just feels like like a sibling fight gone bananas.

Tim and Damian's relationship reallly mellowed out drastically after Tim came back from the BruceQuest. They actually seemed like real sibs(kinda like me and my sisters) where they were completley rude and bickered all the time but they also worked together and actually seemed to care about and respect each other. I rec Gates of Gotham it really shows how their relationship evolved from being hostile and violent with genuine hatred to hostile and violent with love. Tim calls Dami out on his jackassery and Dami is rude back but they also protect each other n stuff. it's nice.

TL;DR: Tim and Damian have a testy relationship but at it's core their animosity is based in their own fears of inadequacy and they see each other as threat to their own places in the family. Over time I think they really managed to move past that and care for each other a lot. It's just hidden under a lot of bonkers brother-fights. I actually think Tim and Damian might get along relativley well as reboot comics. no idea about pre-n52 wish we got more.

OTP Feels

I'm a lil worried about this section cuz it might be a bit controversial? Tim and Steph are very flawed people and i wanna point that out for BOTH of them, but also i love them <3

Steph is a really important person to Tim. which is to be expected since she's his girlfiend i guess... Okay, so it's all started with Steph smacking Tim in the face with a brick. After that it was a series of encounters that eventually led to them dating. (mostly cuz Steph was thirsty as hell and Tim was Definitly Not Cheating /s)

See, Steph when she first started out in the vigilante thing was quite the cynic whereas Tim was very moralistic. He was the proverbial light to Stephs dark (speaking solely on their morals). Steph however was not accepted by Batman and by extention Batgirl and Robin bc what the big man says goes. But Tim really warms up to Steph and enjoys hanging out with her. And i wanna emphasize Tim doesn't really believe in Steph's abilities- maybe because she's a noob, desire to keep her out of harms way, Batman's opinions, or even underlying sexism? (Chuck Dixon being a dickwad strikes again, not sure on this point)

Steph and Tim start dating eventually with the one condition being Tim not being able to tell her his secret ID. Tim know's Steph's so it's not a fair trade but also it makes sense for many reasons. 1.) relationship drama, 2.) Batman breathing down Tim's back, 3.) superhero romances tend to have the double life trope used a lot, id reveals being some sort of magical moment.

So timsteph's a smooth sailing druing pregnancy arc, and NML, and it's sometime during the Brentwood arc in Robin 1993 that we get some serious drama between the two of them. Tim's trapped in boarding school and Steph is beginning to get pretty upset about her end of the deal. In some dumb move she thinks Robin might be cheating on her? so starts trying to stalk him and crack his id herself. Some innocent civilians get hurt in the process actually, it's Not Cool on Steph's part but her perspective is very understandable. Tim is REALLY BAD at peopling and his defensiveness about his work-life balance only escalates the tension between them.

Ummm Sometime Later Tim goes MIA bc he's busy fighting a giant fish with Lagoon boy in Gotham Harbor, and Batman approaches Steph asking for her help to find Tim. Bruce reveals Tim's secret ID to her (which is Not Cool, B. You ruined the Magical Moment) and actually takes her in under his wing in Tim's absence and trains her for once. When Tim comes back he has a bit of a meltdown cuz he compartementalizes too much but he's ultimately more mad at Bruce for breaking his trust and pretty chill with Steph. OTP wins this round!

The next big turing point moment for them is the Robin!Steph arc which was VERY testy for them however! So Tim quits being Robin bc his dad finds out and Jack Drake being the nutjob that he is, threatened Bruce at gunpoint to make that happen. So Tim’s back to being a civvie (for reals?) and one day at school this chick Darla randomly kisses him without his permission and Steph CONVENIENTLY witnesses it and thinks Tim is cheating on her and decides to do him one better and steal his old job. Bruce takes her in as Robin no questions asked. (i don’t really get his motives here? was he trying to make Tim jelaous and lure him back in? he definiltly didn’t want Steph as a partner. that’s for certain) Bruce didn't giver a fair shot at all in this arc and it makes me kinda uncomfy how in this era Steph just gets the shit from everywhere it's sooo not fair to her.

The thing about the Robin!Steph saga really pulled into question what Steph’s true ambitions were. In the arc, the timsteph romance really fell apart. Steph kidna totally ghosted Tim, and Tim was feeling hurt/betrayed by B and Steph. he was probably not expecting to be replaced so easily, and it definitly shows in his rather cold attitude to both of them in the last time they spoke. It’s evidnet later in the final arc of Robin too that really more than anything Steph wants self validation. It’s not a bad thing but it’s interesting how it’s kinda a central part of her character arc but also a major flaw of hers. The Robin Experience was ultimatley Not Good for Steph, and really put strain of the romance and relationship in general. OTP loses this round :(...

Anyways. Steph “dies” Tim is sad. But she comes back and Tim has mixed feelings on that. they never really got closure for the mess their relationship became before War Games so things are once again pretty tense. Behind Tim’s back, Steph is busy carrying out some secret agenda thing Bruce left behind (which surpise surprise involved a murder attempt on Tim) Steph betrays Tim’s trust and in a really heated stressed moment ( i think some innocent kids just died like moments before?) Tim tells Steph to stop being Spoiler and essentially get out of his life. It was a REALLY BAD WRITING MOVE OKAY THIS ARC IS JUST BADLY WRITTEN. but since it is canon,  you gotta acknowledge that Steph messed up badly AND Tim was being a complete jerk for valid reasons. I know they did get a reconcilliation in a crossover event and we get an apology from Tim’s side and a kinda something? form Stephs. (Her Batgirl run is VERY good but Tim is pretty demonized in her perspective and we don’t get much acknowledgement of he mistakes leading to the falling out/ or much of the gang war thing she started? just want to point it out) But despite that Steph grows a lot since the whole thing anf her goals become a lot less self oriented I think.

TL;DR: Tim and Stephanie Brown probably have the least outwardly violent but equally messy. They love each other a lot and it’s very apparent, BUT they also have a lot of their own individual needs that get in the way of the relationship. Steph want’s validation and Tim wants someone who understands him.  Also they have pretty interesting parallels where Tim starts as hopeful and bright and Steph was cynical, but it switched by the end of preboot.  Despite everything they are probably one of the closest people to each other. (Tim wanted to ressurect her during his crazy phase lol)

***

Okay i’m done. Tim’s relationship with Dick is very long and complicated and I’m still kinda  not totally informed. I’ll come back to ya when i have formed a consensus. BUT there’s some pretty good meta’s already written i think

@silverwhittlingknife i know comes to mind. they have some pretty good ones on them

[miraculous-trinity-leo]

Whacky Gotham, Goofy New York, and Chaotic Paris.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7)

Chapter 5: Then Let The Games Begin

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

Soooo, the Batfam is panicking, Gotham's confused as to why Iron Man is flying over Gotham like a madman, and Maria is with two of Gotham's Sirens (but only Ivy and Harley know this) having a wonderful time playing with Bud and Lou.

Let's start with the Sirens.

Harley is watching over Maria and Tikki as they sleep with Bud and Lou, Ivy walkes over to sit next to Harley, handing her a cup of tea.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" - Ivy

"She has some sort of trauma, has class issues... and handles more than she should, but still does everythin', on top of bein' a hero. She's been through some sh-t Pam." Yeah Harley may have found out Maria's a hero (if the tiny god and magic were anything to go by).

"Is she alone?" - Ivy

"No, thankfully, she has supportive parents, and friends that aren't little sh-ts. I think they're also heroes, she also has a lot, and I a mean A LOT of pent up emotions, she doesn't show anythin' negative, only positive things. She seems to shrink in on herself if she thinks she does somethin' wrong. Pam, we both know there's a limit to how much crap a person can take before they snap, and she's such a sweet kid. There has to be somethin' we can do to help her Ives." Ok she found out alot, but in Marias' defense, they have trustworthy souls, and they were the only other people (besides her friends) that she talked to about it, yes she had her Maman and Uncle to talk about hero stuff, but for the stuff her class does, she only ever vented (without being negative) to her friends.

"Her class is visiting the Botanical Gardens in three days, and it's a 2 part tour, so we can see just what's going on. If it's bad then we scare them a bit, if it's bad bad... they can handle a few slightly poisonous plants right?" - Ivy

"God I love the way ya think Ives, do ya think she can stay with us? I mean look at how cute she is with Bud and Lou... Oh my god, she's cuddlin' dem, and ya gave her a flower crown, how'd I miss that?! Where's the camera?"

Harley took a picture to remind her of this wonderful moment. As Ivy and Harley looked at the picture, they both promised to keep Maria safe, and maybe become sorta kinda-ish parents to her while she's in Gotham.

•—–·Now back to the Bat-Chaos Bat-Cave·–—•

Tim took over the chair and was now searching the possible locations with Jarvis, Damian was sitting on a different chair, trying to act cool, but he wouldn't stop looking over at Tim, to see his progress. Bruce was talking over the comms with Tony. Dick and Jason, weren't helping (they kept feeding each other worse and worse ideas of what could have happened to Maria). Then they heard Jarvis speak.

"I have found the most likely area Ms. Dupain-Cheng would be in. Her phone died about 56 blocks away from her hotel, if we don't count kidnapping, or murder, she would have thought about asking for directions, but may have decided not to considering the city she is in. So that leaves us with a possible 15-25 mile radius from her last known location. I think it best to divide into groups of two, have Oracle stay and update you if anything on security, and or traffic cameras happens. Bruce will be with Tony, Dick will go with Tim, and Jason will go with Damain to search within the area. Stephanie and Cassandra will search around a 5 mile radius near Wayne hotel." as Jarvis continued to explain the other details, the Batfam began to suit up, Batman met up with Iron Man, and they took the North area, Nightwing and Red Robin took the East area, while Red Hood and Robin searched the South. Steph and Cass were on foot in civilian clothes, searching the West area they were assigned.

They searched for the whole day, and came up with nothing. Until Oracle saw a video from a traffic cam around 9pm, 15 blocks away from where her phone died. She called it in and everyone went back to the cave. Once everyone was at the Bat-Computer, Oracle pressed play, the cameras didn't have sound, and it wasn't close enough to see if she was ok.

They watched as she went to an overgrown parking lot and sat down. She was looking down at the ground, and that's when they spotted two figures round the corner and spot her. They watched as the two figures approach Maria, and saw the startled reaction she had. They realized it was Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy that were talking to her, then they saw Maria collapse. They watched as Harley made sure she was ok, looking over to Ivy before looking back to Maria and picking her up. The last thing they saw, was Maria being carried away by two of Gothams' most dangerous rouges, but now they knew where to look next.

•—–· Back to Ivy and Harley ·–—•

Harley continued to take adorable pictures of the children.

"God, they're so f-ckin' cute!" - Harley for the 20th time

As Ivy continued to watch while caring for her plants, Catwoman walked in.

"Hey girls, got the stuff for movie night, so what are we- Holy mother of cats! He adopted another f-cking child didn't he! Where the hell does he keep finding them?! 7 was ment to be the god DAMN LIMIT!!!" - Catwoman

Maria jumped at the sudden shouting and may have accidentally summoned a yo-yo (one made useing creation magic and protection magic) before saying.

"Tikki where's the akuma?! How long was I out?! Forget it Tikki spot-" she then realized she wasn't in Paris, and seeing a new face, she also realized she just spilled her secret to another person within the same day... kinda

"Fffffffffffudge sunday that fell on the pavement!" - Maria shouted in baker profanities

"That's not how ya curse sweetheart. It should go more like-" Harley was cut off by a vine Ivy had summoned.

"Harley, cursing makes the plants sad, you know this." - Ivy said removing the vine

Harley just walked over to Maria and whipsered it in her ear.

"You're supposed to say it more like this, ' ..... .... ... .. ....... .. ... .....' ok?" - Harley ended with a big smile

"... I will never see this world in the same frickin' light ever again." - Maria

"ehh close enough." - Harley

"Can someone please tell me, WTH is going on here, on our special girls day off?!" - Catwoman

"She is a new member of the Sirens as of today, and as a member, she's unda our protection, so effective immediately." - Harley

"Cool." - Maria

"Harley." - Ivy

"Wut... first things first, if she is going to join, she needs to be very flexible, know how to fight, and be incredibly intelligent." - Catwoman

"She beat Ed's @ss with a gun pointed at her, and solved every riddle with ease, so I'm positive she'll be an amazin' addition to the team." - Harley

'God she sounds like a new mother now' "But we don't know how good her flexibility is." - Catwoman

"I know, hey Maria, ya wanna do some tricks with me, of course we need to stretch first, but do ya wanna give it a go?" - Harley

"Sure." - Maria

Ivy and Catwoman sat down on a couch a few feet away from where Maria and Harley stood in the empty part of the building. They started out with stretches, and to Catwoman's surprise (and Harley's delight) Maria copied Harleys streches perfectly.

"Ok, now that that's done, we'll start with some cartwheels, then move on to flips, then handsprings and so on." - Harley

Maria gave Harley a nod... and they were off... literally, Harley did a cartwheel into a handspring, and a few backflips, Maria executed it flawlessly. Harley did some more complicated gymnastics tricks, and Maria did it, Harley did triple backflips going into a cartwheel, into a summersault, and Maria did that perfectly as well. This went on until both Harley and Maria were slightly out of breath, both having massive smiles on their faces.

"Ives, please let her join, she's like a mini me." - Harley then hugged Maria and they somehow both tripled in cuteness as they both did puppy (or Puss In Boots style) eyes at Catwoman and Ivy.

"Sure Harley." - Ivy said walking over to give Harley a small kiss on the cheek.

"Okay... but she doesn't have a costume yet, and she still has to think of a name for herself." - Catwoman

"Is a mouse good, like a mouse themed costume, that or a Turtle themed one. What do you think Harley?" - Maria

"Mmmm, I like that with the mouse you can always toy with Cat, ya know, cat an' mouse stuff, turtle seems... weird even fawh Gotham, so personally I would pick mouse, just because of the cheesy jokes you could do." - Harley

"Very funny, ok then, give me a moment."  Maria then reached out her hand, her eyes then started to glow an icy blue, and a small portal opened in front of her, she reached in and pulled out a small pendant necklace. After she put it on a small mouce appeared and greated itself, Marias' eyes going back to normal after closing the portal.

"Hello I'm Mullo, nice to meet you all."

"Omg omg omg, It's soooo f-ckin' CUTE!" - Harley

"Best to assume all of them are extremely cute Harls." - Ivy

"What the Hell did I miss in the week I was gone?!" - Catwoman

"Ehh, not much, oh but Iron Man did fly aroun' Gotham a few times earlier this mornin' like a madman." - Harley

"Oh sh-t." - Maria

"Maria are ya ok? That was ya first official proper curse in my presence." Harley said looking over to the girl.

"He's gonna kill me." - Maria

"Wait, what do you mean Marigold?" - Ivy

"... He's my Uncle, and I never got to text him I was ok, since my phone died before I met you." - Maria

"Hey, I'm sure he'll understand, now what are we watchin'?" - Harley

"I think we have more important matters other than movies at the moment!" - Catwoman

"Ok, Me Myself and Irene it is." - Harley

"No! You basically kidnapped Iron Mans' NIECE!!!" - Catwoman

"Technically, she fainted and us bein' the good Gothamites we are, decided to take her with us, to make sure she was a-okay." - Harley

"I'm ganna need more than just a six pack of soda to get me through this... Just put the movie on already." - Catwoman

Catwoman sat at the far left end of the couch, next to her sat Ivy, then Maria, and then Harley, Bud and Lou by their feet. All of them sharing one big blanket (Becuase if Iron Man did show up, or any of the birds, then Maria was in a protective burrito and they may not see her right away) and they started the movie.

•—–·–—•

"Oh god, the poor cow." - Maria

.........

"Hahahaha, he stuck a whole f-ckin' chicken head in that guys @ss" - Harley

"The poor chicken." - Maria

"Maria you don't want to see this part." - Ivy then lightly covered her eyes for the ehem, chicken extraction.

.........

"Anyone up for another movie?" - Harley

"That depends." - Ivy

"Any suggestions Cat?" - Harley looked across to the other end of the couch to see Catwoman already sleeping.

"She took her cat-nap already? Seriously?" - Harley

"... What about Pirates of The Caribbean?" - Maria

"I'm good with that." - Ivy

And they started the next movie, Maria was happy, it felt like when her maman and papa would sleep with her when she made a pillow fort. It was a loving atmosphere, it felt safe, and nothing could ruin it. Marias' eyes became heavy, and she leaned her head on Harleys' shoulder, falling asleep after a few minutes.

Ivy paused the move looking over to see both Harley and Maria sleeping, soon Ivy also fell asleep in the comfortable silence.

…………………………

Around an hour later Maria woke up in a panic, she had a nightmare, and kept looking around frantically for someone with tears running down her face.

"What's the matter hun?" - Harley said looking around to see if someone had gotten in. When she looked back at Maria she saw that she was crying.

"What happened?" Harley asked in a kind voice that was filled with motherly love.

"I, just *hic* had a bad dream that's *hic* all, I'm fine." - Maira said trying to wipe the tears away.

"You're ok, I promise nothin's goin' to happen to ya as long as Ivy and I are here, ok hun?" - Harley hugged Maria, and she could feel the girl let out a few more sobs, and quick breathes.

"Thanks Maman." Maria didn't even realize what she had said, it just felt natural for her to say it.

"You're welcome hun." 'Omg I'm gonna cry, she called me maman!' Harley rubbed small circles over Marias' back, and began humming until she fell asleep, she continued to hug Maria until she also fell asleep.

•—–· Back to the Chaos Bat-Cave ·–—•

"What do you mean she's with two of Gotham City's Sirens?!" - Tony

"Tony, calm down, I'll call Selina, she can talk to them and get this all sorted out." - Bruce

"Your fiancee is a Gotham Siren too?! Why didn't you tell me?!" - Tony

"Why isn't she picking up? And unlike some people, this family doesn't like outing our secret identities... on live TV." - Bruce

"Oh well excuse me for not keeping my secret identity a SECRET!" - Tony

"I'll try calling her one more time." - Bruce

"Bruce, it's 3am. Who in their right mind ever stays up this late.... aside from this family." - Tim with a giant coffee mug in hand.

"... I'll just call her one more time." Bruce then connected it to the Bat-Computer so everyone could hear.

•—–· Back to the Sirens ·–—•

Catwoman's phone is ringing like crazy, waking everyone up, including a tired, annoyed, and confused Selina.

"Wth does he want at 3 in the morning?!" - Selina

"Just answer it so we can keep sleepin'." - Harley still hugging Maria

"I'm putting it on speaker, so you lot can testify against his @ss in court, for disturbing the peace."

•—–· Over to Batsy ·–—•

"Selina I need to ask-"

"WHAT THE F-CKING HELL DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT A GOOD NIGHTS REST!" - Selina

"Oooooh, she sounds pissed Bruce." - Jason

"I'm sorry to call you at this hour, but we need to find a girl that looks just like every single one of my other kids." - Bruce

"Bruce... I thought we agreed that 7 kids was. the. f-cking. limit." - Selina

•—–· Back to the Sirens ·–—•

Selina looked over to Maria before muting the speaker.

"Do you want them to know you're here Kitten?" - Selina

"... I'm tired, I haven't had coffee, I have no filter, so f-ck it, act like you never saw me today, and let them drown in chaos. " - Maria

"I think I like filter less Maria." - Harley

"Okay." Selina shrugged her shoulders and then un-muted her phone, putting it back on speaker mode.

"Where was she last seen?" - Selina

"She was last seen with Harley and Poison Ivy, I want you to see if she's still with them." - Bruce

Selina looked over to Maria and Harley, both of them shook their heads with mischievous grins.

"I've been with them all day, and I haven't once seen a girl that looks like your kids. Now can I go back to sleep, and forget this ever happened?" - Selina

"WHERE IS MY NIECE!!!" - Tony

"Oh, hey Tony, didn't know you were there, don't know who, or where your niece is, but good luck trying to find her. Oh and Bruce, I'm shutting my phone off so you don't keep calling till the butt crack of dawn. And congrats it's now 4am. you owe me a lunch date, uh-ba-bye." Selina then hung up her phone and turned it off.

"That went pretty well if you ask me, now I'm going back to sleep." - Selina

•—–· Back to Batsy ·–—•

The room was silent for a few minutes before Jason spoke up.

"Does that mean that Pixiepop ran away and is even more lost now?!" - Jason

"Oh god, what do we do, what if she got hurt?!" - Dick

"What if she got kidnapped?!" - Jason

"What if she's with a big time Gotham Villain?!" - Dick

"... What if she got more coffee?" - Tim

"Oh Hell No" - Jason/Dick

"... Lets all go to sleep, and when we wake up, we'll head over to their base and double check. She could've just said that because I called her at 3am." - Bruce

"But my niece is still out there!" - Tony

"You're going to sleep Tony." - Pepper then dragged Tony to his room.

•—–· Back to Maria ·–—•

Selina went to a different part of the building, where Maria assumed the bedrooms were. Ivy had gone to the greenhouse to be with the plants, and now it was just her and Harley left on the couch, and she couldn't sleep.

"... Harley?" - Maria

"Yeah hun?" - Harley

"I can't sleep." - Maria

"Well, watcha wanna do till ya get tired?" Harley asked sitting up a little straighter to get a better look at Maria.

Maria gave a sly smile, and looked Harley in the eyes "Want to go free-running on the rooftops?"

"... Alright, but lets get some coffee, and a snack in us first." - Harley gave her a side hug, before getting up to go make the coffee, and grab some snacks.

After they had their coffee, they climbed to the roof of the base. Harley was in her outfit, bat in hand and ready to do some bonding.

"So, how does ya outfit work?" - Harley

"Like so, ready Mullo?" - Maria

"Yes Maria" - Mullo

"Ok, Mullo, Get Squeaky!" A bright light flashes, and when Harley could see again, Maria was in a dark gray suit, wearing black knee high boots, with a strip of pink at the knee, and black elbow length gloves with the same pink strip at her elbow. Her mask was a slightly lighter gray on the top part, and pink on the bottom. Her hair was pulled into two buns with pink ribbons that faded to gray, and to black at the very tip. Her jump rope around her waist forming a tail going just below the back of her knees.

"Just when I think ya can't get any more adorable. So what should I call ya?" - Harley

"You can call me Multimouse." - Maria

Soon they were racing and doing tricks off different roofs, they were really enjoying themselves. From one of the roofs they heard a commotion in one of the alleys, when they looked down they saw a man holding a woman at gunpoint.

"Not good, seems like he's got issues, probably lost his lover, most likely has additions to drugs and alcohol, and seems to be a little tipsy." - Harley

"I've got a plan." - Multimouse

…………

Multimouse droped a little way behind the guy, grabbing his attention while Harley got the lady to safety.

"You know there's a help center two blocks from here that would be more than willing to help you." - Multimouse

The crook just raised his gun to her trying to keep it steady as he spoke.

"Give me all your money little girl, or else I'll hurt you."

"1. That's not how you hold a gun. 2. That is no way to treat any girl. and 3. Instead of money, I'll give you my jump rope." - Multimouse

"Why the hell would I want your jump rope, that thing looks worthless." the crook lowered his guard enough as Multimouse pretended to hand over her jump rope, only to use it in a quick motion to dismarm the man, as Harley promptly knocked him out with one swing.

"Lets neva have ya at gunpoint again, okay hun? I'm afraid my heart can't take it." - Harley said while tying the crook to a lamppost.

"Sorry, but it was the best idea I could come up with at the moment, besides, any guy with a gun would feel like they have the upper hand if they're facing a random little girl with a jump rope, rather than Gothams' Harley Quinn with a bat." - Multimouse

"Sadly I'm just too popular with the kiddos on the street." - Harley

…………

They continued to stop a few more muggers on the way back to the base, and when they got back they peaked around the corner to see the whole Batfam plus Iron Man talking with Ivy and Selina.

"How much you want to bet we can get back out before they see us?" - Whispering Multimouse

"... Lets try hidin' in the kitchen." - Whispering Harley

As they tried to sneak by (still in their costumes) Selina just walks over and draggs them to the group.

"Here, now let me sleep!" - Selina

"Dang it Selina we wanted tah see just how long we could hide out in the kitchen!" - Harley

Selina did a double take now realizing they both went out.

"... You didn't." - Selina

"We wanted tah go free-runnin'! So what?" - Harley

"She could've gotten hurt Harls." - Ivy

"My suits magic, I am invulnerable to bullets, normal magic, swords, knifes, anything staby staby, and I can withstand any temperature in it." Multimouse said with a slight pout.

"Hold up, is she a magical girl?" - Red Hood in the background

When Selina let go both Harley and Multimouse went behind Ivy for protection.

"We can still make a run for it." - Harley whispered to Multimouse

"... Ok, I'll meet you on the roof." - Whispering Multimouse

Harley gave a nod as she slowly inched her wasy closer to the door that lead to the roof, as she saw Iron Man approach Multimouse.

"Please get out of your suit, we need to talk about why you're here-" - Iron Man

"Multitute!" - Multimouse

Harley then saw Multimouse shrink into dozens of tiny little versions of herself as her clones spread out in all directions, one of which was heading right for her.

"Wth, you never told us she could use magic!" - Red Robin

Harley picked her up, and slipped through the door without anyone noticing.

"That was great, but how do ya get back tuh normal size?" - Harley

"Simple, I just merge back with my clones." As she said this, all her clones came back, and she merged with herself, becoming normal sized again.

"Where to?" - Multimouse

………… So now The Batfam is trying to find many long gone Mini-Multimouses, and Harley seems to have disappeared with her. Harley and Multimouse are now running over the roofs, heading for Wayne Manor.

"So why are we going to Wayne Manor?" - Multimouse

"Because, Batsy will neva think of lookin' for us at his own home, at least not fawh a little while." - Harley

When they arrived at the Manor, Multimouse de-transformed as Harley knocked on the door.

"Ms. Quinn, Ms. Maria, pleasure to see you here, please come in." - Alfred

"Are any of the bat-birds here?" - Harley

"Ms. Barbara, Ms. Stephanie, and Ms. Cassandra are the only ones here at the moment." - Alfred

"Do ya think you can keep us bein' here a secret from Batsy?" - Harley

"Harley? What are you doing here with Maria?" - Barbara

"It seems that Ms. Harley and Ms. Maria are now playing hide and seek with the rest of the family." - Alfred

"Did someone say hide and seek?" - Steph

"Yes, so could we maybe try and keep this a secret from everyone else, please?" - Maria

"Sure, it was starting to get boring around here. We can all hide in the living room no one ever use. Barbara you show them the way, I'll get the food/drinks and boardgames." - Steph

"Is this alright with you Alfred?" Maria

"It's all right Ms. Maria, you can hide out in the old living room." - Alfred

"Thanks Alfie, ya the best." - Harley

"Thank you Alfred." - Maria

"Ok then, follow me." - Barbara

…………

In the old living room, Harley, Maria, Barbara, Steph, and Cass began to formulate a plan.

"Ok, so the best way for them to never find you is to have your phone off, stay away from any and all cameras, and show your face to no one." - Steph

"So, do you have anything in mind that you might want to do?" - Barbara

"Can we put them on a wild goose chase?" - Maria

Cass nodded to Marias' suggestion approvingly.

"I can hack a few traffic cams to help with that." - Barbara

"We can also throw in some useless hints, to throw dem even further off our scent." - Harley

"Good idea Harley." - Barbara

"Thanks, but how long do ya think we should make it last?" - Harley

"As long as Maria wants it to." - Barbara

"Then let the games begin." - Maria.

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

Chapter 5 complete. Hope everyone is stayin' safe, Rockin' those Positive Vibes, and havin' an absolutely wonderful day. BUG-OUT 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜Tag List〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

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[underthestarlitsky]

9 - 12

oooooh ty for the ask bestie ♡

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

oooooh tough but my most hated...probably tim and babs...sorry chloe

Tim, because ughhh he just rubs me the wrong way. the entitlement around being robin (what was his reason for being robin??? some abstract notion of justice??) the general misogyny and know-it-allness also the fact that there's literally nothing interesting about him. I have very specific ideas about tim should have slotted into the batfamily but the way DC executed it all those years ago is just Not It. he's literally just Some Guy (derogatory) like even my friends who are comics geeks + Tim stans agree that if he really doesn't add value to the story

Babs: I understand why she's well liked, and personally I think she's an excellent representation of a realistic woman. however, I just don't like the way she's written - the casual callousness to dick and steph and sometimes even cass, dick especially in the recent ric grayson arc. And I feel like the bitterness that comes across in her older oracle appearances could be justified even if I dont like them (but then there's stuff like when she blamed dick for being kissed by tarantula, or being extremely condescending to steph) but I especially don't like batgirl babs she's so aggravating to read?? like a h*rmione that never matured you know?? I think she's an interesting concept, but brought to life in the most white-feminist way possible

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Generally bits from batman 2016 because Tom King has no clue what he's doing. like the wedding bit where selina leaves him at the altar (which is annoying because I love me some batcat) or ending bit up until issue #80 (I found all of that really stupid there was just too much going on and it would have made more sense for the wedding to happen in issue #50) I feel like with the artists you had on hand and the creative freedom tom king was afforded we could have had something truly brilliant? instead we got "meow" and a bedtime story about cannibalism and alfred dying and bruce calling only damian his son and beating his other sons and abandoning his eldest and interfering for no reason with jury duty? I feel like we could've gotten so much more out of tom king as a whole tbh

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I'd say YJTV M'gann M'orzz tbh I know she's not technically DC comics per se but I loved her character when she was first introduced on the show. I feel like a lot of what she does comes from either a place of love or misunderstanding or hurt, and it's an interesting and complex story that doesn't really get a lot more exploration/is explored in a way that doesn't come off right. I feel like she has a lot of potential beyond being the first-girl-love-interest-character, and we don't get much of her backstory like we do with artemis so it's hard to build sympathy or context for her actions; but then again, eldest-sister first-girl characters are my bread and butter, so.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

Easy. Forever Evil (and what comes after!)

I know plenty of people DESPISE Forever Evil for the things it did to people's perceptions of the Batfamily and the in-universe cascading events that follow, but I adore it personally for those reasons. Naturally DC doesn't follow through on anything that it writes, and the Bats' reactions to Dick being alive are awful, but I think Forever Evil is integral to canon characterization of the story that DC has been pushing in their depictions of Dick and Bruce and the rest in any kind of media - Dick is expendable, and even when he dies/is hurt for his family he's not good enough (which we see again and again with less and less self-awareness each time, especially with the Ric Grayson arc), Bruce has a clear capital p PROBLEM in how he treats those around him (just think of Stephanie and how her treatment is glossed over every time when people try to bend Bruce into a Good Father Figure in fanon) Jason and Tim have problems with their egos and their relationships with Bruce factor into their treatment of their brother (NEITHER OF THEM STOP TO ASK IF HE'S OKAY???) , and how Barbara (again, made out to be SO MEAN here, she's DISAPPOINTED that he's alive??) is often no better than Bruce himself, but she's framed as being right, again and again.

to me it just makes their characters messier and gives the fandom a chance to really dig into the angst behind all of this -- they aren't real, and therefore their pain is catharsis -- all of a sudden, you have a wellspring of well-written anger and sadness and complex relationships and that's why I LOVE Forever Evil - it produces problems that aren't easily solved. It gives us a chance as an audience to dig deeper into a pretty convenient set of 'happy family members' all through some shitty writing + editorial decisions that were not a good idea in-universe to make Batman or the others Good People, but an excellent way of generating emotional interest from the fans.

it also moves the the angst light away from Tim and Jason and onto Dick, because honestly the amount of fiction I've read where it's Poor Jason or worse, Poor Little Timmy being hurt by his Evil Eldest Brother ! makes me want to hurl. It's just such bad mischaracterization of each of them, and Forever Evil gives us a canon-based chance swing things in the other direction for once.

It's also (in my eyes) incredibly in-character - Bruce is a hard-ass on his emotional support eldest son after trauma (in this case, the ESES's OWN DEATH), Dick sets aside his own hurt and trauma to support his family, Jason and Tim are selfish as all hell without realizing that they are being that way, etc.

I just think it's Interesting. I'm also a Dick Grayson fan, so, that's probably why.

[batfoonery]

Crafty Batkids

Literally. Just batkids doin' crafts. As someone who does..... way too many crafts to list here (I'll send a list if asked but just trust me) I feel like I've gotten a good feel for this.

Dick

My man grew up in a circus, regularly checking ropes and tensions....

Macrame. He's a pro at macrame. Maybe he doesn't do it often, but like. For his friends, he'll sometimes surprise them with lil gifts.

When any of his Titans buds move he makes them those fancy hanging macrame plant holders. Donna and Kori both love them, and have been known to fight over them during white elephant/dirty Santa type gift games.

Probably doesn't have the ability to sit still for long periods of time, so can't do anything that'll unravel if he puts it down. It takes him a long time to finish a project, so he really only buys materials as he starts a new one, and doesn't have any excess stuff lying around his apartment.

Jason

You cannot tell me he doesn't crochet to unwind. Like. Idk if he's any good at it, but he def angry crochets.

Probably has been working on one scarf for like five years

Never has consistent stitches

Likes touching all the yarns at the store

Probably just enjoys squishing the yarn in general tbh. It's slightly more satisfying than ever actually doing anything with the yarn.

Cass

One time Bruce took her to like. Silver Dollar City or somewhere else that had someone with a loom, and she was fascinated. She made him buy her a shawl and then made Tim put together a power point about why she should have a loom.

Bruce ended up caving and buying her one that's skinnier, for like table runners. It's great, because she's mostly fascinated with making gradients in her weaves.

She learned Swedish Weaving (it's a like an embroidery/weaving hybrid) so she could embellish her works.

Mostly gives them out as gifts. She gave one to Selina, who guards it possessively. Harley tried to borrow it once and about lost her fingers.

Probably also learned to make little tassles for the ends

Tim

Attention to detail? Obsession over the minutia? Oh. You know my boy is an epoxy resin artist.

Has a crafting station in his room that's meticulously organized. There's cubbies for pigments, flowers, glitters, bits of ribbons and strings, etc etc

Probably makes all kinds of thing tbh. Phone cases, trinkets, you name it. But pens are his favorites, because they're both simple and practical. There's like a whole army of pens that just... keeps growing in Titans Tower because he always forgets where he's put his.

None of his teammates realize he is the source of the pens. They (Kon, Cassie, Bart) just think the pens are an infestations and/or are pairing up and making baby pens. But Cassie and Bart love them bc ✨aesthetics✨

Probably has a tik tok or an insta where he posts videos of himself de-molding things to soothing lofi tracks. Literally just. All the vibes. It's gorgeous.

Steph

Also all the vibes. She is a bujo/stationary queen.

Her collection is much messier than Tim's, but has a surprising amount of overlap. Sometimes they borrow things from each other, and have collabed on their social accounts (he makes journal covers, she makes them into notebooks, he supplies her with pens, she uses them when making a weekly/monthly set up, etc)

Stickers and glitter everywhere

Probably sponsored.

Canonically draws cute little cartoons in the comics, they absolutely are a regular on her socials and in her bujos.

Duke

For some reason I don't peg him as being as craft-oriented as his closest-in-age sibs? He probably has less expensive coping mechanisms tbh

That being said I can see he would enjoy those stores where you go in and paint pottery and they kiln/glaze it for you? Like he isn't into sculpting it himself, but painting the little kitchenware pieces or statuettes is relaxing.

He paints mugs for all his sibs on their birthdays, and for Alfred.

Alfred probably has a whole army of custom mugs made for him by the kids, now that I'm thinking about it. Like half of them are from Duke, because he doesn't know what else to do with them. There are just so many because it's so simple.....

Kate Kane, Tatsu Yamashiro, and Jeff Pierce also all have mugs. Actually... Lowkey highkey I can see that Tatsu might have introduced Duke to this kind of stuff in the first place? I can see that she would enjoy something simple that you can do while trying to clear out your mind.

Damian

Well. Damian is a gifted artist, but this translates differently into actual crafts. It just does.

He's probably a good printmaker. Not only does this take advantage of his art skills and keen attention to details, but it's one of the oldest artforms still in practice today. Most printmakers develop their techniques by perfecting one of several forms of the art, which have been passed through generations, and have a really firm grip on art history. Those stories would appeal to Damian, in addition to the craft itself.

Damian is the most likely of his siblings to be able to sit still for prolonged periods of time and do a repetitive motion. In fact, it may actually be something he can enjoy if it means he can just zone out for a bit. So, he's probably actually decent at spinning yarn. If the sky is grey and rainy, he drags out a wheel and some pre-sorted rolags and spins yarn, exclusively for Cass, who then weaves it. He enjoys the progression of colors in the fibers as much as she does, and they bond over it.

The feeling of different fibers slipping through his fingers is also really soothing. Bad day? Time to spin some merino, because it slips like water through his touch. Need to feel grounded? Time to spin a cotton blend, because you have to be present enough not to chafe your hands on the rough fibers...

Probably also really good at embroidery, for the same reasons. Plus, it's really satisfying to feel and hear the pbt-psht, pbt-psht of the needle and thread pulling through the taut fabric.

Bruce

Obviously knows how to forge/metalwork. I like to imagine he's also dabbled in lost wax casting.

Probably has little trinkets he made when he was younger scattered around the house. Maybe he donated a few to charity auctions.

Has made rings/jewelry pieces. But doesn't talk about them. (One ring went to Selina, and a pair of earrings went to Talia)

Alfred

The all-talented, all-knowing. There's probably nothing he can't do. He already sews all their outfits. So I mean.

Sometimes it feels really good to have something to stab. I'm not saying he does needle felting, but I'm not saying he wouldn't.

Probably was the one who taught Bruce about lost wax, and the one who helps Damian research about printmakers.

Silently supplies all the kids with all the art things.

Has a chest in his room filled with all the things that he's been gifted with over the years. There's little uneven macrame hanging from when Dick was just getting the hang of it, lumpy scarves that are too short for anyone to realistically wear from Jason, linen sets made by Cass, various trinkets from Tim, handmade cards and notebooks from Steph, mugs from Duke, and old embroidery pieces from Damian in unevenly stained hoops.