#if you ask why dna tests arent done on either side

[uncharted-constellations]

Also I dont know why but in my head the dcau/btas version of bruce is fucking huge. 6’5 at minimum, meanwhile canon bruce cannot exceed 6’3 in any capacity, including boots. He’s tall sure but not Huge like btas bruce.

Like there’s a reason old man bruce is still intimidating as hell and it’s not just the cane and Ace. At the same time there’s probably a good dozen or so videos from back in the day of Brucie Wayne smacking his forehead on the frame of a car door while getting in and out of a lambo and on low door frame’s in the manor. He did it exactly once walking through a crime scene by accident in the early days as Batman and Jim remembered it forever, even if he never brought it up.

Old man bruce is still taller than canon bruce even with a cane. Terry complains about being tiny even though he’s average height, and noone from the canon batfam understands why until they finally meet old man bruce. Its another check on the “Terry is NOT Bruce’s Bio-Son” list that they’ve been working on.

[reconnecting]

been thinking about being disconnected lately.

its mostly a rambling vent, i kind of lost what i was saying for a bit.

years ago, we did this almost same thing. we tried, for years, to reconnect with our Breton people, because the body is part that.

its a dying culture? okay, well lets see what i can find. mostly christianized things, but some other stuff, so lets focus on that. its all in french or breton, okay, let me try to learn some of that so i can read. how do the dances work, what are the instruments, who did we worship before, wheres our music, whats our culture, who am i who am i who am i?? can i learn? can i join? how does it work tell me tell me tell me who i am even though you cant.

the information is almost all gone. the older generations are pretty much the only ones to know about it, and i cant talk to them because they speak breton and nobody speaks breton. okay where can i find out more, how do i find out more? traditional clothes? music? the music is almost only in france because celtic festivals dont include breton normally.

and now?

i work up the courage to work past an abusive grandfather and find out about the other side. puerto rico, okay. things dont fit let me keep looking this doesnt match what we know. taino, okay. that matches things better, but... orphaned family means we were cut off. who knows things? nobody. ill keep asking, new questions, different questions. check a dna test, find relatives on that side, ask them. what do they know? finally find someone who does, has family the same age, same generation as the one we got cut off at, and they look so similar in photos.

okay lets go off this what do you know what can you tell me im sorry to ask im so sorry i have nothing to give you but can you help??

they will, they do. they tell me our tribe doesnt exist anymore, that so few do. that they still practice. they have the clothes, the names, the dances, the music. they have the traditions still and no tribe name because there werent enough to be a tribe a few generations back. i ask if they ever knew the name, they say theyll ask, i hope for the best. their family has dementia in it too. what else can even be done about that? nothing. im sorry for asking, thank you for answering. i have so many more questions.

the elders i speak to have no answers. i ask them the questions and they respond until i say what i know, and they have no answers either. how can they? i hope they still help, i hope theyll teach me, but they cant have all the answers either. i know this. hopefully they have some. hopefully its not too much, too much asking.

i look on my own. i ask others. they offer to help, to find my familys tribe if they can, but if theyre gone... what then? the family says theyre gone. been nameless for too long, will there be anything else to find? i cant ask the person who offered to help, the language barrier confuses both of us, and this issue is too complicated for me to explain to him. i look up information. the things weve been saying for years, the same things, theyre things my ancestors did, things connected to my culture.

i wonder how it is that i got these things, if its coincidence, if a coincidence like that is even possible with how many similarities there are.

i feel like im eating my own tail.

i ask my friends what to do, they have no answers except to learn, hope that itll work out. they tell me it should, its not that uncommon a situation. it should be fine, keep up hope, im not alone, we arent alone, were family, theyll teach us what they know. theyre right but it doesnt stop the knowledge that their nations aren’t mine. ill learn. ill learn whatever im taught but its not Mine to learn, to pass on.

i ask my friends about my grandfather, the other one, if its polite to try and learn about his culture as well if i dont claim it. they say yes, yes, i Should know, I should learn Something about it. i ask, his grandmother was cherokee, they dont know the tribe, the family is all dead already. i dont ask why. the dementia hits hard, he doesnt remember, there are happier things to remember, dont trigger an episode.

connected on so many sides to different cultures, what should be recently. just a few generations away. i met my great great grandmother, i could have met the others, they could have been alive, they could have taught me. it wasnt that long ago and i didnt meet them, i didnt know. nobody knew. nobody connected though.

why did nobody connect? i cant understand that but i have to. i understand one grandfather, he is racist, is abusive. its a tactic. i understand that, even if i hate him. i understand another grandfather, the generational gap, the timing, the ages of them all. i understand that it was probably for safety. i understand my grandmother. it wasnt her interest to ask, past what she grew up with. nobody asked past what they grew up with.

i cant understand why they didnt ask. why do i have to be the one to ask, to do this legwork? it would have been easier for my mother, for my grandparents, to do this. it would have been easier. more recent, more connected, more resources. and they didnt. should i be upset? am i allowed to be?

my friends say i am. ‘youve just found out your family is almost all gone, youre allowed to be upset.’ “its a hard thing to know your culture and not be able to grasp it. its okay.”

my mother doesnt. when i bring it up she looks disappointed. i get it. the family that she connects to it is abusive, ruined her life. i understand. but this isnt them, theres more beyond it. she looks with those eyes. “why would you want to know? you grew up without it, isnt this enough? arent we enough?”

i have no response. how can i explain the feeling of someone standing behind me, shoving, pushing, saying i have to? how can i explain the feeling like if i dont, something will go horribly wrong, that i need to connect now or itll be gone forever? how do i explain that im the last chance we have to connect, to learn? im the last generation that could do this? how do i explain that to people who dont care, who gave that chance up?

my sister doesnt understand. i ask if she wants to learn, wants to try, and she sounds interested until i explain it will take work. shes interested in the claim, but when i say that shed have to study, have to catch up with the knowledge of the people who lived their lives in it, she drops it, stops asking questions. what do i do with that? she should be interested, shouldnt she? why would you not want to know, or only want to know up until i say it takes work? ive put in over a full days worth of work this week alone, just on this topic, on finding out the little that i know now, and could never regret it, but i say it takes works and she leaves the room with a polite dismissal.

i want to connect. i want to know, what are the cultures that should be in my family like? how do i find them? how do i learn, what do i do, who will teach me, will anyone? why is nobody interested in connecting except for me?

why is it only something they care about when its convenient?