#jaytimweek2022

[ragdollnetic]

JTW Day Two:  Summer Storm 

[missbronto]

Early morning rendezvous talkin bout nothing

[yasmindifference]

consequences

For JayTimWeek’s FREE DAY! Actually might come back and add more to this later today, we’ll see ♡

Three weeks into his partnership with Red Hood, Tim gets shot.

Jason kills the culprit.

“That wasn’t necessary,” Tim says later. They’re in their base of operations, Tim hunched over his knees while Jason stitches the wound in his back. His suit’s in pieces on the floor. “That wasn’t—”

He’s silenced by Jason’s sudden, bruising grip on his shoulder.

“No one,” he says, very lowly, “gets away with hurting my Robin.”

His voice is dark, threaded with everything they don’t ever talk about.

Not for the first time, Tim wonders if he’s making a mistake.

“Injuries are part of the job,” he reminds Jason. “You can’t just kill every—every low-level banger that gets a lucky shot at me.”

“Watch me,” Jason says, and returns to his stitching.

“Jay—”

“That’s how this is gonna work,” he says. “Nothin’ you can do about that. Take it or leave it.”

Tim thinks about it—leaving. Going back to the Cave, apologizing to Dick. Moving back into the Manor. Putting more locks on his door to make himself feel safe enough to sleep around Damian. Eating alone to soothe his fear of poison. Watching the little brat wear his colors, putting up with his mocking, watching Dick do nothing about the relentless stream of degradation…

Walking away from Jason.

Tim closes his eyes.

By this point in his life, he’s had more than enough experience with death to know how grief can change a person. His mother’s death made him cautious, closed him off a little. Kon’s and Bart’s and Steph’s (supposed) deaths taught him to cling to what he had left, more and more each time. His father’s death detached him from civilian life, driving him further into the cape.

Apparently, Bruce’s death has made him selfish, because the fact is…he’d rather let Jason kill people for hurting him than go back to being alone.

“So?” Jason asks, tying off the last stitch. “What’s it gonna be?”

“Please don’t kill for me,” Tim tries.

Jason kisses his shoulder where he gripped it before. “Sorry, baby. This part ain’t negotiable.” He pauses, eyes heavy on Tim’s back. “That a deal-breaker?”

Tim has to swallow three times before he can speak.

“No,” he admits. “It’s not.”

He’s just going to have to live with that.

[bulletsxlattes]

Jaytim Week: Wet Clothes/ Stripping down.

Better late than never.

[krizariel]

All the stars are coming out tonight,

They’re lightning up the sky tonight

For you, for you..._ _

Lyrics from Rule the world by Take That - Stardust OST

[the-sky-is-a-lie]

I hadn’t planned to participate, but I started this yesterday so here we are..

For @jaytimweek week - Pirate AU

[crimson--lux]

AAAA I MADE IT IN TIME SJHSJ

this is a piece I did for a day 2: Carnival/Fair as a collab with the amazing @chibinightowl, who was thankfully very patient with me xD I'd update her more often on the progress the closer it got to the posting day, and she always had something nice to say about a detail here and there. What a wonderful person. It was a little hectic considering both our irl circumstances got busy, but we made it.

And if you still haven't read the fic somehow, read it here! It's cute!

[ceranovis-art]

JayTim Week Day 2 - Sun’s Out Guns Out or Carnival/Fair or Monsoon/Summer Storm

[miraculousbatofold]

Day 4 JayTim Week 2022

Day 4: Free Day

Alpha/Beta/Omega Soulmates

Jason grinned as the light on the door lit up green. This was too easy, especially since they hadn’t removed his codes out of Titan’s Tower’s system. Honestly, it was kind of sloppy, but Jason wasn’t going to begrudge his good luck because shutting down the Tower and communications just got a lot easier.

His replacement was here alone. Sixteen year-old Timothy Drake, sent to the Tower by the bat after Jason made a few colorful remarks on what he would do to his replacement. It was a bit annoying having to travel to San Francisco, but it also made things easier since no one would be around to stop him.

Jason stalked through the Tower’s halls looking for Robin. Everything was the same from when he wore the scaly panties and that only served to rile him up more. But he was going to show everyone that you don’t put children into brightly covered costumes to fight another man’s crusade.

Coming up on the door for the replacement’s room, Jason grinned sharply under his hood as he brought up a booted foot and kicked the door in. Robin turned sharply in his desk chair, sweats and a t-shirt at odds with the mask on his face. The mask that was Jason’s until he died, the green in his vision sharpening at that thought pushing him forward with a growl that was haunted through the synths on the helmet.

“Yer a long way from home, replacement.” Jason growled.

“Hood, I could say the same about you. What brings you to San Francisco?” Tim froze, before tilting his head, “Replacement?” He asked, puzzled.

Jason reached up, unlatching the helmet, revealing glowing green eyes as he grinned at the frozen Robin. Dropping the helmet, Jason drawled, “Yeah, replacement. I was here first and you swooped in to take everything once I was gone-”

Tim interrupted frantically, “What? No no no. I only stepped in because Batman was going off the rails. He didn’t-”

But Hood cut him, “Don’t lie to me! Batman replaced me and he’s going to see why you don’t put children in costumes that other children died in.” Jason growled, stalking forward as Tim scrambled back.

Tim reached up tapping on his mask to slide the lenses out of the way, ready to explain and hopefully stop this- miscommunication or misinformation- whatever it was from happening so Jason would know he was missed. That Bruce didn’t replace him. Though looking up, violet-blue eyes met green and the world lurched as Jason and Tim felt something click. Both froze as they stared at each other in shock, Tim watching in amazement as the green in Jason’s eyes faded to jade flecks within turquoise.

Jason blinked, looking at Tim as he seemed to gain his bearings. Because, just fuck, what was he doing. Now that the green had washed away in the wake of his soulbond snapping into place with his repla- Tim, with Tim. Why did he think it was such a good idea to take his anger at Bruce out on Tim? Honestly, who does that? Everything was trying to reboot and make some semblance of sense. Jason had come here to hurt, to kill his soulmate. He really needed to get out of here.

Jason took a step back, just as Tim took a step forward making both of them freeze. “Jason?” Was asked timidly and he had no clue what to do. But Jason nodded, slowly in apprehension which turned to alarm as tears started streaming down Tim’s face. Jason was reaching an arm out before he even thought about it and then had the teenager on him hugging him through the sobs.

“You’re alive! You’re alive and I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. I couldn’t live up to what you were but that's okay because you’re back and that means everyone will stop being sad.”

Jason brought his arms down and around Tim, hugging him back, frowning at how small Tim was even as part of him was glad because Tim being small meant he could protect him better. Jason mentally smacked himself for that thought but continued to hold the little bird whose sobs were petering out when an amazing smell hit him. Roses and petrichor, it smelled like a forest, deep and earthy with floral hints mixed with something that was purely omega. Jason wanted to drown in it, pressing his nose into Tim’s hair. Belatedly he realized that now that their soulbond had been sealed, that meant that he and Tim were going to go through their presentations and if he had to guess, Tim might have gotten the short end of the stick as the omega while he is the alpha.

This was way too much to process at once. First there were the, concerning, things Tim had said about not being enough. Second, he and Tim were soulmates. Third, Tim was beginning his presentation heat if the way he seemed to bury his face further into Jason’s chest and comment on him smelling good were any indication.

You know what, some of those issues were future Jason’s problem. The soulmate thing would need to be talked out, as well as whatever Tim was trying to say about the Waynes. Right now, Jason was going to focus on settling the both of them in to ride out Tim’s heat.

Decided, Jason slowly pulled Tim away even as he whined. “I’m not going anywhere. Imma take my weapons off and then we’re going to lay on the bed and go to sleep, yeah?”

Tim nodded, blinking slowly as he watched Jason shuck his holsters and knives, before kicking off his boots and motioning for Tim to climb on the bed. Jason followed, curling around Tim and tucking his head under his chin. Tim turned so he could put his face in Jason’s throat and they stayed like that. Jason felt the younger boy drift off to sleep, breathes evening out. Sighing Jason laid there wondering if the universe might be laughing at him. It figures that everything was going fine until this moment, but he was glad in a way. But dammit, all of his plans were going down the drain now weren’t they? He’ll have to figure something else out, he supposed, looking down at the sleeping figure of one Tim Drake, his soulmate and matching pair. The omega to his alpha. Maybe it wouldn’t be all bad Jason mused, slipping off to sleep as well.

[koreysays]

My first entry for TimJay week! Mermaid AU, with sea dragon Jason.

[ragdollnetic]

JTW Day One:  Road Trip 

Inspired entirely by a vintage photograph of a roadside motel. ^^’

[roppiepop]

JayTim Week Day 7: Forced Vacation or Night Sky/

Constellations or Deserted Island/Stranded

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 5 | Day 6

[aceofshitposts]

All Roads To The Sea - Chapter One

OKAAAY SO. I CAN'T WAIT!!! can't promise every chapter will be up at midnight pst, or that they'll even be all done on time but at the very least this and chapter two will be.

HAPPY JAYTIM WEEK EVERYONE 💖 i cannot wait to read all the wonderful works everyone's been working on for this week it's going to be a blast!

Jaytim Week Day One - Mermaid/Roadtrip

Ao3 link will be in the replies to prevent tumblr from sending me to the shadow realm

-

It starts, as all things in Tim's life, with a phone call from his parents.

Janet’s voice is pleading and Jack’s is stoic as they tell him about the new contract that they’ve picked up for Drake Industries. How important it would be for the company and his future, since he would definitely be coming back to Gotham someday and why can’t that day be… well, today. Right now, actually.

Tim hates the way his mother pitches her voice, sickly sweet, on the other end of the call, as if he could ever say no. As if he ever had a choice in the matter to begin with.

“It’s the perfect opportunity,” she says in that saccharine tone of voice that’s meant to make Tim feel like this was actually all his idea, “you need to start somewhere if you want to take over the company someday.”

Tim really doesn’t want to do that actually, but try telling his parents that.

Which is how Tim finds himself sitting in a motel later that night, five hours outside of San Francisco, sitting across from one man that looks like he just stepped out of a Terminator casting call and another that looks like he would much rather be conducting lightning into a stitched together corpse.

Sergeant Nicholas Danger clearly took his job too seriously, if you ask Tim. He was in charge of security for this little jaunt to Gotham and acted like that made him “God”. Tim had seen him screaming at three of the other guards, spittle flying from his lips that Tim could almost picture in slow motion. Right now, his smile stretched over his lips like a Cheshire Cat, eyes obscured by dark sunglasses he apparently insists on wearing at all times (even indoors.)

Doctor Luis Hadley, on the other hand, looked about as thrilled as Tim felt to be sitting at a table next to Sergeant Danger. He kept glancing furtively towards the small window that overlooked the motel parking lot as if reassuring himself that the 18 wheel transport truck that was coming with them was still there. Between glances, he busies himself flipping through a tan coloured folder at a rate that either suggests he reads very quickly or that he’s just trying to look busy to avoid Danger saying anything to him.

Tim decides this is the most uncomfortable meeting he’s been in since the time in highschool where the principal tried to have a teleconference with his parents via very spotty satellite phone.

“Alright, kiddo” – Tim is twenty-seven, thanks – “your parents' company is very, very lucky, you know. The government could have chosen any number of companies for this project” – okay, get to the point – “and they want you to have the honour of leading it!”

Tim grimaces through the rest of Danger’s speech, which goes mostly in circles without actually telling Tim anything of substance except that Danger is absolutely full of himself, hot air and not much else. He gestures wildly as he talks about Super Secret Missions that he’s led, the battlefields he’s been on etcetera, etcetera. It all sounds very fantastical, sure, in broad strokes. Apparently, he is unable to elaborate on the finer details of most of his stories or else, “I’d have to kill you.”

“Here is your contract,” Dr. Hadley says, interrupting Danger’s current tangent which Tim thinks has something to do with fighting ninjas. He removes a sheath of paper from the folder, sliding it across the table towards Tim. “You just need to sign the non-disclosure and we can actually begin.”

Danger sputters, clearing his throat in an effort to recover, “right, yes. Time is of the essence, isn’t it, Hadley?”

Hadley does not deign Danger with a response.

Tim meets Hadley’s eyes, one eyebrow raised, before putting his own quick reading skills to use. Predictably, the contract only vaguely alludes to… whatever the fuck his parents have gotten themselves into. There’s several mentions of The Specimen, which is to remain property of the United States of America Government while being loaned to Drake Industries. Any breach of contract would be met with immediate termination and information leaks would be met with “appropriate punishment.” Yikes. That sounded like code for nobody will find your body.

 This… sucks, Tim decides. He would absolutely rather not be doing this. Vaguely he wonders how much trouble he’d be in with his parents if he just walked out. They don’t actually need him for this project, whatever it is, and even if they did it only appears to be at a management level. Sometimes Tim wishes he had an older sibling, maybe they would be more interested in taking over Drake Industries than he is.

Nevertheless, Danger and Hadley are both watching him like hawks and Tim isn’t sure he wants to test Danger’s patience.

Whatever. An NDA wasn’t an assurance that Tim would stay on the project. He could just get to Gotham, spend enough time there to either appease his parents or annoy them into agreeing he isn’t right for the project and hopefully fuck right off back to San Fran.

So. He initials the bottom right corner of every page and then signs Timothy Jackson Drake in his best cursive on the last page.

“Alright, are you going to tell me what we’re transporting now?”

Hadley gathers the contract in front of him, tapping it thrice on the table before placing it precisely back into the file folder. “You may attend the debrief meeting I will be having with the staff tomorrow morning, six AM sharp. I would rather not have to repeat myself multiple times.”

“Don’t be like that, Luis,” Danger laughs, reaching out to clap Hadley, who flinches out of reach, on the back. Unfazed, he continues, “kid’s signed the papers, he deserves to know what all the hubbub is about.”

“You will refer to me as Doctor Hadley and if you wish to take Mr. Drake to the truck, be my guest as long as you don’t touch anything. I will be retiring for the night.” Patience run out, Hadley stands in one fluid motion, nods at Tim and marches himself right out the door.

“Ha. Touchy guy, huh?” Danger chuckles humourlessly. “Well, I can’t explain any of that fancy science they’re doing but what’dya say, kid? You wanna see a monster?”

There are two guards posted outside of the truck, one of which Tim recognizes as being one of Danger’s earlier victims. They both bolt upright from where they had been previously leaning against the back of the truck, snapping their arms up in a salute as Danger approaches. He barely acknowledges them, striding right up and pounding his fist several times against the trailer door.

Tim chokes on a laugh, trying quickly to disguise it as a cough into the crook of his arm, when the door swings open and very nearly nails Danger in the face.

“What?” the young woman standing at the edge of the truck asks, an accusatory eyebrow raised directly at Tim.

“Ah, Chrystina!” Danger exclaims, revealing himself from behind the open door that nearly took his head off. Chrystina’s expression sours considerably. “Have you had a chance to meet with Timothy yet? He’s going to be the supervisor on your little project.”

Chrystina turns her attention back to Tim, eyes raking him up and down. “Is he now?”

Danger either doesn’t hear her or decides to entirely ignore it (probably the latter) and barrels right on, “I told him he could get a little peek at what you science folk have been up to.”

Chrystina’s eyes narrow, still staring at Tim. She doesn’t seem much older than him and yet Tim feels a lot like a bug under a microscope, trying not to squirm under the weight of her gaze. Then she snorts once, moving backwards from the door to let them in. 

“Just don’t touch anything,” she calls, echoing the sentiment Hadley had given them earlier.

The inside of the trailer is… about what Tim was expecting, if he was being honest. A large computer console took up the front half of the left wall, a screen showing different statistics and clearly monitoring various vital signs. In the far back several tanks were set up side by side, pipes running along the walls and into a singular five foot cube with a singular glass front. 

“Get the lights, would ‘ya?” Danger’s voice takes on a slightly manic edge, his weight shifting from left to right and back again as he stands, one foot tapping against the steel flooring.

Chrystina lets out a long suffering sigh but obediently taps something into the computer console that Tim doesn’t quite catch. Light floods the large container, illuminating the water from the inside and.

And.

Tim’s mind stutters to a halt because, hey, that’s a whole person that’s crammed themself into the far left corner of the tank.

“Incredible, isn’t it?” Danger bangs his fist against the glass, causing a low reverberating boom that Tim can feel in his teeth.

“Hey! I said no touching,” Chrystina protests right as the person looks up, glaring balefully up at Danger who just takes that to mean he should definitely bang on the glass more.

“C’mon, you stupid creature, can’t get a good look at you like that!”

Tim’s brain is still playing catch up, trying to reconcile the fact there’s a person, underwater, alive, and… really, that’s not a person at all. Not in the way his mind first thought when he saw them curled up in the corner. No, there’s a long black tail, pock marked by splotches of white that remind Tim of a koi fish, delicate fins fanned out against the bottom of the tank. Most of their torso is blocked from the way they’re hugging the large tail up to their chest, Tim can see tanned skin dotted by black patches of scales that spread over their shoulders and face. The hands and forearms are covered in the same black skin and scales, fingers ending in large deadly looking claws.

“Holy shit,” Tim breathes as the creature half heartedly bares their sharp teeth at Danger.

“Didn’t believe me, did you, kid?” Danger reaches over and claps Tim on the back, further knocking the wind out of him. “Picked it up off the coast of Africa.”

“He,” Chrystina hisses from over by the computer console.

Tim continues staring, even as Danger launches into what he’s sure is only about fifty percent truth on how they captured an honest to god merperson. Electric teal eyes move from Danger to Tim, white fringe floating around his temples like a halo.

Tim breathes in sharply through his teeth, suddenly understanding all those myths about sailors throwing themselves into the sea for beautiful creatures beyond their comprehension.

Danger taunts the merman again, smacking his hand flat against the glass with a loud BANG. The merman startles from the noise, baring his teeth again and Tim can’t help but imagine him hissing like a cat.

“Alright, that’s enough, Sergeant, I have important work to do,” Chrystina intones through clenched teeth, sounding all the world like she was considering murder. Tim doesn’t blame her.

All at once, the lights inside the tank blink out, shrouding it in mystery once more. Even with the inside lights off, now that Tim knows what to look for he can barely make out the muted glint of scale here and there, can see the edge of torn fins pressed up against the bottom edge of the glass.

Tim blinks slowly, dragging his gaze away from the tank. Chrystina is still standing by the console, her expression stormy as Danger laughs, nudging Tim in the ribs with his elbow and making a joke about that time of the month.

Danger talks to him all the way to the door of his motel room, not that Tim truly processes any of it. No, his mind lingers on the merman, on the dark circles beneath his eyes, the flaking scales off his tail. The resigned look on his face as he warily watched Danger taunt him. 

There’s a feeling building in the back of Tim’s mind. An unease that crawls its way up from the pit of his stomach from the way the merman was being treated. Taunted by Danger… tested on by Hadley and his scientists and now being transported to be tested on by his parents’ company.

Tim doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand what his parents would want with a merperson like this, or why the government would agree to let them. But he definitely intends to find out.

Tim pulls back the paltry curtain covering the small window by the door, looking out over the parking lot towards the trailer. Chrystina has to leave eventually, if not to sleep then surely for something to eat. Tim pulls up a chair to the window, figuring he won’t be getting any sleep either, and waits.

Tim’s jolted awake by the sound of the trailer doors closing, barely blinking the sleep from his eyes in time to watch Chrystina nod to the two guards and then make a beeline towards the motel block. Tim scrambles to catch up with her, which culminates in him swinging the motel door shut behind him and starting to run before he’s even looked where he’s going.

In other words: he runs right into her.

“Oh! Uh, hey, sorry about that,” Tim says in a rush, taking a couple steps back out of her space.

“It’s… fine,” Chrystina says warily, dusting off one lab coat sleeve.

She stares at him like a puzzle, the silence stretching out between them like a chasm.

“Uh, so I was wondering,” Tim starts.

“I’m not going to have sex with you,” Chrystina says directly, face unmoved even as Tim begins to sputter.

“No, that’s not- look, the, uh” -Tim flounders, waving a hand vaguely in the air- “specimen?”

“Jason.”

“Cool, yeah, Jason. I had some questions?”

She considers him, head tilted slightly and eyes narrowed, the same way she had at the trailer. Tim isn’t sure what she sees.

“Okay. Come with me.” Chrystina doesn’t wait for a response, marching forward past Tim without so much as a backwards glance.

Tim follows her into another bland motel room, a perfect mirror image to his own: walls painted a muted yellow, floral pattern bed sheets with permanent staining, dingy curtains hanging over a single window looking over the parking lot.

“You better be serious,” Chrystina says over her shoulder, one hand rummaging through a black suitcase, “because I have pepper spray if you’re not.”

“No! I just… Doctor Hadley isn’t very… approachable.” Hadley was the opposite, actually, projecting an aura of Don’t Even Look At Me even when interaction was necessary.

Chrystina snorts, pocketing the small spray bottle before sitting at the small round table. “That’s an understatement. What’d Danger say your name was? Timothy?”

“Just Tim is fine.” The chair makes a god awful screeching noise against the linoleum floor as Tim pulls it out.

“Chrys then. Okay, what is it you want?”

Tim stares at her from across the table. He had all these thoughts spinning through his head before but in the face of a single raised eyebrow he suddenly finds his mind turning up blank.

“You named him?” Tim blurts after the silence has built just long enough for his brain to decide to say whatever the first thing that comes to mind is.

Chrys sighs, rubbing her thumb and forefinger against the bridge of her nose. “No, I didn’t name him. That’s his name. I know it might seem hard to believe but he’s not just some mindless animal like Danger seems to think.

“Everyone out there is so focused on finding out what they can do to him, what they can get out of it! It’s absurd!” Chrys gestures wildly, slapping one hand down on the table as she rants, “we could learn so much from Jason if we just… asked, you know? I love biology and this is… this is important, I know that, but.” She stops short, looking up at Tim with pleading eyes.

“He seems so human?” Tim offers.

Chrys deflates, slumping over the table to rest her head on one arm. “Yeah, that.”

They sit in silence for a while, Chrys staring at a spot on the wall and Tim picking at the hem of his sleeve.

“I would’ve quit when I got the job. Would’ve just walked away,” Chrys says, muffled into the crook of her arm. “When I saw what was happening. This isn’t research for the sake of better understanding the world. But, I saw Jason and I realized… Nobody was doing anything and none of them were going to. Somebody had to stay and protect him. So, here I am.” She opens her hands, waving them around in a mock rendition of jazz hands.

“Okay,” Tim says. His mind buzzes as an idea begins to take shape, fingers drumming against the table while he thinks. Chrys turns her head to look at him, one eyebrow raised. “Okay, then. We protect him until we can get him out.”

“Are you insane? Did you not see all the armoured guards Danger’s in charge of?” Chrys sits bolt upright in alarm, eyes taking on a wild look. “I appreciate where you’re coming from, but we’re going to be driving through the middle of the States for at least the next four days. When and where exactly did you want to do this?”

“River?” Tim supplies hopefully.

“No, even if all rivers flow to the sea he wouldn’t be able to survive in freshwater long enough to get there.” Chrys waves her hand dismissively.

“Well… It doesn’t have to be right now.”

Now Chrys is drumming her fingers against the tabletop too, mind probably similarly buzzing with ideas. They sit together for the next couple hours, ideas and plans being proposed and shot down for numerous logistics reasons. A map is spread out on the table, Chrys plotting out the route the convoy was likely to take and where and when the truck would need to stop to cycle the tanks.

“I know how to hotwire a car,” Tim suppolies while she’s tracing lines onto the map. “Among other things.”

“Among other things?” Chrys repeats incredulously. “Just who are you?”

Tim shrugs, nonchalant. “Just someone who had a lot of time on my hands as a kid and not a lot of supervision. The point is, I could steal a car.”

Well, Tim hasn’t done it in a long time. Long past were the days where the only way into Gotham proper was to hotwire one of his father’s cars. He was pretty confident he could remember the basic steps, though, and Tim had always been a fast thinker when it came to puzzles.

“Next you’re going to tell me you can make a pipe bomb or something,” Chrys snorts. Her face falls when Tim grimaces. “No. No!”

“Listen, are you really gonna complain when something like that could help us here?”

“Yes, because you’re clearly insane! But, you also have a point.” Chrys yawns, scrubbing at her eye with the heel of one hand. “You know what, it is really too late for this right now. Doctor Hadley told you to be ready for debrief at six, right? That’s in three hours.”

Right. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day. They weren’t going to solve this in a single night either.

Tim is late to the debrief, earning a truly impressive stink eye from Doctor Hadley. Chrys stands beside him, arms held behind her back. She makes eye contact with Tim once before her gaze slides away to stare over the motel roof. Two more interns joined them this morning, looking bright eyed and excited about the opportunity. Considering the way Hadley talks about them getting the chance of a lifetime to work on this project, he’s not sure they’ll be any help.

Getting “The Specimen” to Gotham safely is to be their number one priority. He explains the use of the water cycling tanks, how they will need to be refilled every 24 hours, how to check the salinity and when and what to feed him when the times come.

It’s overall not a particularly illuminating debrief, though Tim supposes that most of the actual research was in his and Chrys’ hands.

With a sharp nod, Hadley dismisses them to join the rest of the guards and Danger in packing up the remaining cars and trucks before leaving. Chrys sidles up to Tim, bumping shoulders while whispering, “when we stop tonight, come to the trailer after we’ve done the cycling. After nine should be good.”

Tim nods and Chrys splits off, climbing into the back of the trailer with the two new interns.

“Got yourself a girlfriend for the trip, huh?” Danger claps Tim hard on the back, mouth stretched wide in a fully toothed grin. “I was thinking of making a move on her myself but good on ya, kid!”

Tim looks down pointedly at Danger’s hand, where a wedding band rests on his finger.

“Ah, what the missus don’t know never hurt her. Besides, she knows us men have got needs!” Danger positively howls with laughter while Tim grimaces. Just when he thought this guy couldn’t get any worse, he wraps one arm around Tim’s shoulders and steers him towards a black SUV with dark windows. “You’re riding with me, kid! We’ll have ourselves a ball.”

Oh, wonderful. Trapped for the next twelve or so hours with a man who made Saturday morning cartoon villains look reasonable. Tim couldn’t wait.

[next chapter]

[yasmindifference]

consequences expansion snippet

no time for a real fic or even drabble this morning, gotta hit the road, but may I interest you in a little snippet of the expansion I’m working on for yesterday’s drabble? one that even works with today’s stripping down prompt for jaytimweek!

"Oh, yeah?” Jason laughs. “You gonna pull a Lysistrata on me, baby? Stop putting out until I agree to stop killing?”

“Maybe,” he says, and strips out of his tunic, armor, and underlayer in quick succession. “Would it work?”

Jason smiles, but his eyes are hard. “No.”

“No?” Tim makes a show of rubbing his own chest, letting his touch linger on the hickeys Jason’s left scattered all over him. “These are fading fast. You really think you’ll be okay with not replacing them?”

“You know I won’t,” Jason says, “but I’m not the only one with self-control on the line, am I?” He reaches out, letting his hand hover a fraction of an inch from Tim’s torso---close enough to feel his warmth, but too far to make contact. “You’ve been starving for this since before I met you. How long can you go without?”

...Fuck. He’s got a point.

[themandylion]

Sharks Are So Smooth

Happy JayTim Week 2022! This is for the prompt “Mermaid” and is a prequel to my other story, There Are Many Advantages.

Tim is dispensing hot takes on sharks as learned from the internet. He may or may not be right because he's not a marine biologist. Jason is taking the sharks' side on things. Read it on AO3.

—

The third day the human paddled out to the research buoy, T'm was waiting for him.

While the human bobbed in place, downloading data and doing complicated things with test tubes and colored solutions, T'm swam up slowly from below. He knew from experience that this was the best way to approach humans undetected. The little hairs on human legs behaved much like the whickers on a seal or an otter, allowing them to detect movements in the water—though they didn't seem capable of using them in quite as sophisticated a manner as those animals.

In the two weeks the human had been coming out, T'm had had more than enough time to decide on the best way to approach this. He'd considered and discarded various complicated schemes that involved no direct interaction before finally concluding that confrontation would be the best way to get the message across. Confrontation and maybe a little bit of shock and fear.

So he swam up from below, waited for the exact right moment—when the human had restoppered his vials and stowed them away—and grabbed onto an ankle.

That was his first mistake.

Namely, he should have grabbed both ankles. The human's immediate response to being grabbed was to kick with the captured foot—not much of an issue, since T'm was far stronger—and then with the free one. It missed T'm's head, but by the barest of margins, and only because of how the human's legs were kept spread apart by the board he was on.

Clearly, scaring the human into changing his behavior wasn't going to work. T'm was going to have to resort to an actual conversation, much as it was against all the Rules to do so. With a sigh, he let go of the ankle, quickly swimming out of the way as it began kicking freely. Steeling himself for a bad reaction, he breached the surface of the water, making sure to put the buoy between them.

"Holy fuck," the human exlaimed, grabbing the front of the board he was floating on to stare at T'm. "You aren't seaweed."

"No. I'm T'm."

"You're a fucking mermaid. Wait, shit, no tits—merman? Merperson."

"Just mer works." They had always called themselves 'the People,' which wasn't the best practice when trying to communicate with people of other species. "Look, it's wonderful that you're out here doing, uh, things with colored liquid, but you need to wise up and stop paddling out on a board. Some shark is going to mistake you for a seal and attack you."

"I'm checking toxicity levels and recording tide information," the human explained. "There are corporations—err, groups of people—who are dumping toxic materials—uh poison? In the bay."

T'm rolled his eyes at the human's poor attempt to dumb down his words. "I know what corporations and toxic substances are. I'm not an idiot."

"And yet you actually believe the stupid propaganda that sharks go after surfers because they're mistaking them for seals," the human snapped back. "Surfers swim into areas where sharks are used to being top dogs a lot of the time and get hurt because they act like idiots. People make up shit about sharks 'mistaking' people for seals when your average shark is just trying to get a meal and really couldn't care less if they're eating a human or a seal. Point me to an article in a reputable scientific journal that actually supports that bullshit."

"I—"

"You can't, can you? Because it's pure speciesist anti-shark propaganda." The human stopped, his face turning a frankly adorable pink. "And you're a literal mythological creature that lives in the ocean and probably knows all kinds of shit to refute everything I just said. Fuck."

"More otherworldly than mythological," T'm admitted, even though that was against the Rules as well. "I don't know that much about sharks, actually. I'm much better versed on terrestrial avians; I'm doing my dissertation work on puffin migration. And I can't point you to any articles, but that could be because they're all behind paywalls and it's hard enough using the aquarium's free public internet—I wouldn't even know how to go about getting JSTOR access."

"Otherworldly?"

"From outer space," T'm helpfully elaborated. He pointed up at the sky. "We've lived here for a few thousand years now, so we do show up in human mythology, but so do humans." He tried to punctuate this with a smile, like the characters did on the television shows he watched. It didn't appear to reassure the human, which wasn't all that surprising. His terrestrial biology classes had always made it clear that humans were prone to feeling uneasy around too many sharp teeth.

"An alien merman—sorry, mer—that knows about JSTOR and studies puffins. Sorry, this is. A lot to take in." The human took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. "Well, uh. Thanks for your concern?"

"It's mostly self-interest," T'm admitted. "You keep bumping my antenna when you're up here taking readings, which interrupts the signal from the aquarium in the middle of downloads, so I have to start all over again."

"Oh, that's fair." Clearing his throat, the human leaned forward around the buoy and held out a hand. "Hi? I'm Dr. Jason Todd. I work at the aquarium you're mooching wi-fi off of." Looking more than a little nervous, he smiled.

T'm returned the smile and took the human's hand in his, shaking it like he'd seen on television. "Hello, Jason. I'm T'm Dr'k, a research fellow in terrestrial biology at Centralwestern Atlantic University." He returned the smile, though this time he kept his teeth covered. They could work up to toothy grins—something told T'm they would be seeing plenty of each other in the future.

[krizariel]

Day .... _ but it is Time Travel prompt, I know that much!_

_ _

Collab with @glaciya for her story “Robin in the house”. This was a bit out of the blue and I think I want to color it but I don’t know how I want to go about it yet. Doing lineart is my favorite part and honestly I’m always feeling like I screw it up when I color it lol. I really like how this one turned out. When Glaci gave me a snippet of this story I just figured hell why not let’s scrunch this in! I have done baby Tim but I hadn’t done baby Jay and I love him very much <3... and this is the last one from me! (I still have 3 more but, I did all my pieces out of order lol). Anyway, go read and hope you enjoy Glaci’s story.