#long-lost relative

[thewanderingpotato]

Seventh Daughter

Rating: Gen

Category: Gen, Angst, Long-Lost Relative Summary: Keqing investigates an ancestral secret, and in the process, uncovers family she never knew she had. https://archiveofourown.org/works/40580337        

[girlkisserr]

heres my piece from the Hallowhome Zine! thank you to the mods for giving me this opportunity

Bonus drafts below

first piece + laid out idea: i wasnt satisfied with it seeing as it felt. empty

second draft: idea was there but i couldnt make the 3d aspect look nice at all

final is whats posted, and i actually took the palette from here! milk candy specifically, so thank you to OP for that

[silverwhittlingknife]

How do you feel about Jack Drake?? What are your thoughts on him and Tim’s relationship?

Anon, I hope you were interested in a novel, because look, I am fascinated by Jack Drake.  He’s key to a whole lot of what I find compelling about Tim as a character, and if I were in charge of DC, I’d bring him back to life.  This would make Tim unhappy but would IMO make for good plotlines.

Jack and Tim’s relationship is Complicated (TM)...

Jack and Tim hug in Nightwing 20 / Jack impulsively yanks a TV out of the wall in Robin 45 / Tim grieves in Identity Crisis

“I could tell the truth.  But I don’t.” - Robin 66

...and it involves a whole lot of Tim lying, and feeling guilty about lying, and thinking about telling the truth, and choosing again and again to keep lying.

And I think that’s great.

Below the cut:

Shorter version - key points about Jack

Really long version - my gentler take (vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports) vs. my harsher take (Jack has some major flaws)

Final thoughts

Shorter version - key points about Jack:

He’s a bad parent.  He’s self-centered, he consistently prioritizes his own comfort and interests over his son’s, and when upset, he does things like order Tim off to boarding school.

But he’s never a bad parent in an actionable way.  He’s not like David Cain or Arthur Brown, who are abusive monsters.  Jack’s not a monster!  He just...kinda sucks.

He genuinely loves Tim. If Jack’s aware that Tim’s disappeared or is in trouble, he’s always worried and upset.  He periodically resolves to be a better dad, and IMO he’s always sincere.

And Tim loves him, a lot.  Tim’s protective of him and worries about him when he’s kidnapped or in danger, and when they’re reunited, Tim’s really relieved and usually hugs him (and Jack hugs back!). 

...But they have very little in common, and that’s a problem. Jack doesn’t value the things that Tim values, or respect the people that Tim admires, or care about the things that Tim’s interested in.  Tim lies to him a lot, but that’s partly because he correctly guesses Jack wouldn’t respond well if he knew the truth of what Tim’s up to.

The Batfamily is a surrogate family that Tim’s drawn to because of the ways his real family doesn’t meet his emotional needs…but also he feels guilty about that and disloyal. (And to the extent that his dad recognizes what’s going on, he's jealous and resentful!)

Very long version:

(LISTEN I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS)

Okay!  So first: Jack’s a character who IMO is pretty up for interpretation.  You can interpret him very charitably, and make excuses for the bad behavior, and fill in the blanks sympathetically when situations are ambiguous; or you can interpret him uncharitably, and emphasize the bad behavior. I don’t think either approach is invalid - it depends on what kind of story you’re interested in!  I have enjoyed Bad Dad stories and also stories that redeem Jack.

My personal take on canon is that Jack and Tim’s relationship is in a gray area.  Jack's definitely neglectful, and he does prioritize other things over Tim, but he’s never so bad that Tim can easily reject him, and he's never so bad that Bruce could justify taking Tim away.  He's just...not great.  Tim loves him, and feels loyal to him, but it’s a very mixed-up complicated love.

I have a gentler take and a harsher one which I switch between as the spirit moves me. xD

My Gentler Take (tl;dr: vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports)

Here’s the core conflict: Jack and Tim are very different people with different values.  Tim idolizes Bruce and Dick and vigilantism, and secretly gets involved, knowing his dad will hate it. He gets increasingly wrapped up in his secret world and lies to his dad...because if his dad finds out, he’ll make Tim quit.

This is a great setup for an ongoing comic.  It’s practical, because it provides endless potential for plotlines, and it’s nicely thematic, because it maps closely onto relatable real-life situations with extracurricular activities:

Tim the drama nerd whose dad thinks he’s playing football and not in the school play; 

Tim the closeted-queer kid secretly getting involved in his school’s politically-active Gay-Straight Alliance; 

Tim the choir kid whose dad only values making money and wants him to go into the family business (and Tim keeps promising himself he'll give up choir soon, definitely soon, but maybe he'll stay in just a liiiittle longer, because they need him, you see, the last tenor left town, so...); 

Tim the computer geek with the sports-obsessed dad (this one’s just canon);

etc. etc.  

The extracurricular metaphor works pretty well for Tim’s relationship to vigilantism.  Tim's involved in his "extracurricular" because he genuinely thinks it's important and fulfilling, and he values it and wants to be good at it. He idolizes Bruce and Dick because they're good at it. He's been collecting information about it since he was a little kid, and hiding it from his parents because he knows they wouldn't approve. And mayyyybe there's also an element of low-key rebellion against his dad, and maybe that's secretly part of the appeal. And yet also as Tim gets more and more invested, he starts to daydream: maybe I could tell my dad and he'd be proud of me and supportive. But he doesn't, because actually he knows his dad would be upset and angry and make him quit.

And - again, just like with lonely kids and extracurricular hobbies - one of the things that happens is that Tim starts getting his unfilled emotional needs met ... by people he knows through this secret hobby. And people like Bruce and Dick start turning into a surrogate family. Which Tim feels guilty about. And also as Tim gets more and more wrapped up in their world, he has to lie to his dad even more, which means the distance between Tim and his dad gets bigger and bigger and more and more unfixable.

I love this dilemma. It's simple, it's recognizable, it provides endless sources for conflict, and there's no obvious solution! Tim can't tell Jack: he'll make Tim quit! And Tim doesn't want to quit, because he loves choir / art / theater / whatever.  Yeah, it’s difficult, and there are challenges, and sometimes he has doubts...but at the end of the day, he cares about it a lot.  And everything he values is there, and all the people he admires and cares about are there, and all he wants in the world is to feel like he's one of them and belongs there. So he has to lie, even though he doesn't want to lie, and he feels guilty about it...

...but also he ends up lying more and more.

(Sidenote: I think it's important that Tim chooses to keep lying - Tim's narration often glosses this as "I have to lie to my dad," and that's certainly how it feels to Tim, but this... isn't quite true. He has to lie to his dad, because if he doesn't, his dad will get mad at him and try to stop him, not because he literally has no choice about it.)

Other Reasons Why I Like The "Secret Extracurricular" Interpretation

(tl;dr it complicates not just Tim's relationship with his dad, but also all his other relationships)

Tim's problems have some obvious parallels to Steph and Cass, who both become vigilantes while rejecting their evil supervillain dads. But Jack isn't evil. And that means the Tim-and-Jack relationship is ambiguous and complicated in ways that I like. Steph and Cass can just leave their Bad Dads in prison, and say good riddance, and feel very righteous and triumphant about it! Tim’s more complicated. Tim gets into vigilantism ostensibly out of duty and altruism, but secretly, he's also involved for straight-up selfish self-fulfillment reasons. He's lonely, and bored, and his life feels pointless, but he thinks that Bruce and Dick are cool and amazing and he wants to be a part of the things that they do.  When his dad gets jealous of Tim’s relationship to Bruce, and feels like Tim’s looking for a surrogate family, he’s... not wrong.

And the ways in which Jack is not Actionably Bad complicate things from Bruce's POV.  If Jack was a straight-up villain, it’d be an easy call to keep in touch when Jack finds out and makes Tim quit...but he’s not a villain, not really.  So what do you do?  Do you try to surreptitiously stay in touch with Tim even though you’re ignoring his dad’s express wishes and thus forcing Tim to sneak around?  Do you respect his dad’s wishes and stay away from Tim even though you have a years-long relationship at this point?  

Again: a bit similar to the extracurricular analogy.  Say you’re the choir director and you’ve built this whole relationship with a kid in the choir, and you’re an important mentor to him and you care about him etc. etc. etc.... and then right before a big performance, his dad finds out he’s been secretly involved, and yanks him out.  How would you react?  Well, maybe kind of in some of the ways Bruce reacts.  You replace him. You’re annoyed with him. You miss him. You want him to come back. You’re also worried about him.  You’re upset with his dad.  But also... what should you do, exactly?

Bruce and Alfred and Dick care about Tim as if he were part of their family, but he’s not part of their family, and there’s a lot of interesting tension there.

My Harsher Take

Jack never hits his son.  But his temper is a big deal.

In his worst moments, he takes out his anger on Tim’s stuff - wrecking his room, or ripping his TV out of the wall and confiscating it.  When he’s worried about Tim, he usually expresses that fear by yelling at him / punishing him / sending him away - threatening to send him to boarding school in Metropolis in Robin III, or threatening to send him to military school abroad in Robin 92, or actually forcing him to go to an all-boys' boarding school post-NML.  

This is bad behavior!  It is Not Good!  

And you can easily connect the dots to a bunch of Tim’s terrible coping mechanisms, like the constant lying and or the fact that Tim’s go-to methods for dealing with interpersonal conflict are 1) repress it and pretend it never happened (most of his fights with Bruce), 2) withdraw from the relationship until he can pretend the conflict doesn’t exist (when his friends get mad at him in YJ, he quits the team for a while), or 3) literally run away from home.

Also, Jack is a Manly Man with firm opinions about how men behave vs. how women behave, and he thinks boys shouldn’t be scared and thinks Tim should date hot girls and pushes Tim to work out and wants him to play football and expresses period-typical sexism, etc. etc. etc. ... and though obviously this wasn’t what the writers had in mind at the time, all of that is certainly interesting to read backwards in the light of Tim as a queer character.

More Disorganized Thoughts on Jack Drake

Tim’s our hero, so we’re naturally more sympathetic to him, but it’s also true that relationships are a two-way street, and Tim doesn’t value any of the things his dad values, either.  Jack at various points is shown to care about grades, business, money, boarding schools, archeology, football, a kind of macho bragging-about-dating-hot-women ethos, and a very public and performative kind of caring. Tim tends to respond with discomfort or disinterest or even disgust.  When Jack gets on TV to try to rally the government to save his son from No Man’s Land, Tim isn’t touched—he’s mortified.  When Jack makes some bad investments and loses money, Jack’s deeply upset and his self-image is majorly impacted, and far from being sympathetic, Tim’s annoyed and kind of contemptuous of the idea that this is a problem.  Jack thinks fishing in the early morning and going to tennis matches is a fun father-son activity; Tim finds it exhausting and tedious.  And so on.

This means that Tim often longs to be closer to his dad in theory, but this longing is more tied to fantasy than to reality. He rarely seems to enjoy spending time with His-Dad-The-Actual-Person.  So for example, when Tim’s deadly ill with the Clench, he has an extremely poignant fever dream about telling his dad the truth and getting hugged…even as he insists in real-life to Alfred and Dick that he does not want them to tell his dad what’s going on.

The same is true of Jack, who IMO genuinely wants to be closer to his son and is continually declaring that he’s going to turn over a new leaf and get closer to his son…and just as continually backs out of activities or loses his temper when faced with spending time with his actual son.

Tim and his dad sadly get along best—by far—in Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder situations.  When Jack gets kidnapped or is in danger, Tim worries for him (and Tim grieves him deeply when he dies).  When Tim disappears or runs away, Jack’s genuinely worried about him.  So e.g. they have a really moving emotional reunion and hug when the earthquake hits Gotham, and Tim panics about his dad’s safety and comes running home (and meanwhile Jack’s been panicked about Tim’s safety!).  It’s the day-to-day, regular life stuff where they don’t connect.

Jack's written quite differently by different writers. Mostly, Tim's parents are at their least likable in his early appearances and early miniseries (this is where you get, for example, Jack and Janet being nasty at each other while a pained employee looks on, and Tim disappointed to once again get news of where his parents are via postcard - "I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be–or when–or even how long!” - and Tim alone on school break, and Bruce and Alfred thinking there's something weird going on with Tim's parents, etc. etc.). Jack's more sympathetic but still often unlikable in most of Tim's Robin solo, and he's almost invisible (but positively treated if he does show up) in Tim's team books.

For obvious reasons, Jack's remembered way more sympathetically after his death. Tim's completely devastated by Jack's murder, which he arrives moments too late to prevent, and he basically never gets over it. We see him grieving Jack again and again in Robin, and also in Teen Titans, and also in Resurrection, and again in the Halloween Special, and again in Batman: Blackest Night, and all the way up to the end of Red Robin. Tim also grieves for an extended time over Janet - he hallucinates a happy reunion with her when he's feverish in Contagion, and hallucinates her in the final issue of Robin, and the reveal-your-buried-emotions song in Robin 102 brings up his grief for her too (meanwhile, other characters dance or laugh or otherwise get giddy).  Tim’s grief over his parents’ deaths is intense and long-lasting.

I'm not going to clip comic panels because this is long enough, but if you're curious, here's a nice and fairly lengthy compilation of comic panels with Tim and Jack.

If you're interested in a Jack-centric story with a softer-but-still-recognizably-canon take on Jack, I really like the way Jack’s narration is written in the one-shots Heart Humble (set shortly before Jack dies) and Never a Hero (Ra's resurrects him during Brucequest, and Jack's archeology skills turn out to be unexpectedly useful).

[mumblesplash]

the fact that doctors can just Recommend Weight Loss with no instructions beyond ‘eat healthier/less’ is actually insane to me, i lost weight on purpose ONCE and it took me like 6 years to recover a semi-normal relationship with food and hunger

[summertimemusician]

Linktober (Shadow) 2023

Spirit

Welp turns out my exam season throughly steam rolled through my general Linktober plans, so you get this VERY late thing for now folks who find this, at least until I decide whether to continue this until I finish it even though it's no longer Linktober or if I'll make whatever other stories come later their own thing after exam season is over (mostly because the original for this one is my preferred draft, and that I feel the one for the Link/Dark Link prompt would be kind of wasted if it just sat there collecting dust cause I worked hard on the tension and horror there lord darn it, along with a few others mainly involving Fae Hyrule, Twilight, Time, First, among other Links like Legend, Sky, Warriors, just all of the boys, I wanted to give them all proper spotlight and still want to do that in any way I can). Welp. *Downs coffee like a shot* Also really need to find out how to make a Masterlist on mobile, figure out how AO3 works and answer asks.

Anyway, not really any warnings this time besides Reader Not Being Okay (par the course really) and angst.

As always can be read as either romantic or platonic, Reader is gender neutral on purpose, technically is meant to be read as either Hero's Shade Time x Reader or First x Reader mainly, but you can interpret it as any Link really lol

Good reading!

This corner of Faron Woods was quiet this time of year.

The woods were solemn in this Hyrule, the sliver of moonlight barely enough of a guide through the mist, it was silent but for the soft padding of animals through the underbrush and the howl of a wolf in the distance (not Wolfie's, not musical enough). The stars were your only company as you were separated from the group, the air was cold agaisnt your skin as you attempted to find your way.

Being alone in the forests of Hyrule never spelled anything good for anyone, but as you felt the brush of a hand tenderly twined in yours, the ghost of leather and the faint clinking of steel, and a faint glow of pale gold and ivory cutting through the veil of the night, mindful of roots you may trip onto and never flickering too far out of sight you couldn't feel safer, even  if instead something like melancholy threatened to lock your throat with the chains of silence, you felt as warm as the soft twilight glow and as frigid as ice, frostburned with the bitter cold of your own warring emotions.

You can't help but chuckle a bit whille holding a old scabbard close to your heart, it's a wry sound, "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

There is no answer, of course there isn't, but you don't mind, you know he'll listen, thorns wrap around your heart and crawl up your throat, the smell of lilies and steel coats and sticks in your throat like honey, or maybe blood, "... I didn't think you'd show up, you know? I always considered the possibility but..." You trail off, you feel something brush your side, you can only see him in the corner of your eyes or with a passing glance, there but not, existing but gone, so you keep your eyes on the road and in the flicker of light, so you carefully don't look to your side, you don't think you could contain the shaking in your heart otherwise, to stare at inevitability and prophecy, "... I know, I know you're fine. At least for now, I apologize for all the trouble I gave you."

'It's alright. It could never be a hardship aiding you.', the voice echoes in your ears, and you swallow thickly, breath hitching, the warmth of the sun in the fields of Hyrule, the wind caressing your hair, the song of the animals in Faron Woods, someone holding you carefully, fondly. The warmth of your hand in his. Not really here, but not gone either, more feeling than true echo.

You chuckle, and try to pretend it's not a bit breathless, something like a wounded keen, "... You're too kind. Too, too kind, thank you."

Spirits in Hyrule never spell anything good, in this wild land of light and shadow in a gestalt of divinity. There are some exceptions though, even if it hurts to witness then. So you follow him through the dark, certain that as you've guided his way once, he'll lead you now to where you need to go.

----------------------------------------------------------

... The clearing he leads you to is open, but by no means truly quiet among the trees, there is no peace to be found for the armored skeleton here. You choke on sorrow, on unfinished business, on the cruelty of being brought to ruin and being denied peace, and you stumble towards the familiar figure, almost in a trance as your vision blurs, roots and thorny vines wrap over rusted armor and a thorn cape, the skeleton's void sockets piercing through your soul, illuminated by the solemn gaze of the wretched moon and it's uncaring maids of honor in the stars.

You fall to your knees near the decaying skeleton, biting back against the wounded sound that attempts to leave your throat with enough strenght to bleed, you lay the scabbard by his side with a bouquet of lilies and shiver at the gentle, phantom touch, so soft, so loving it almost leads you to ruin all over again.

'... It's foolish to grieve for someone who isn't gone yet.' the thought comes to you, yet you can't help it. You still hurt for him, you still hold onto the fury at the heavens themselves for denying them quietus. For denying them rest over and over and over again. To watch this cycle and be helpless to stop it all due to the will of uncaring gods.

Alive. Dead. Alive. Dead. Denied full rest over and over again, to watch the chance at rest to the kindest of souls found in this world you found yourself in.

You barely register the touch to your cheek, ephemeral as it is, as you can't help but shed tears, can't help but grieve. Because if you don't, who will?

You know by now that some wounds can never heal, some rifts can never be mended. Even with the guarantee of cyclic, eternal rebirth, some things never return to how they were. And reminding yourself of this inevitability to them will never not hurt, even if you know it's futile to blame anyone but the one god who started this, and maybe the goddess who stood complacent to it. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth that it'll one day come to this, that the frost of death and the sharpness of pain will leave a mark the sands of time can't scar over.

You reach a trembling hand towards the one in your cheek, try to find catharsis in the remains of decayed, dead yet ever eternal, ever growing love. And you breathe.

'We'll meet again. So do not mourn for me, please.'

You don't think you could deny him if you tried. Not when you know he's trying to soothe you, to thaw your sorrow. To allow your heart's healing to fallow.

"We will, I know. I'm sorry for making you worry." You chuckle, leaning into the cold, trying to brand the memory of the shadowed, but not gone love given to you so you can return it in kind. Just until you meet again, just until you can give all you can to his not yet decomposing self, grasping onto what remains of him, "I love you."

'I love you too. Until we meet again.'

The cold is gone, the echo of love leaves. And you breathe, and pretend you don't feel empty.

(When you see Link again, reuniting with the Chain on the next day's twilight. You hug him as tight as you can, and hope you he doesn't notice the tears in your eyes. And that you don't feel the lingering traces of a frigid embrace.

When no one is looking, you wave goodbye to the shade. And pray he dreams of warmer days until he finds quietus.)

[burningapples]

random hunches for s2 (or possibly beyond) from someone that has watched way too many cartoons:

1) Lilith is either going to be the big bad OR the Lilith we saw at the end of s1 is actually Eve/an imposter that’s gonna head down to hell and fuck shit up

2) Alastor might lean even more towards the antagonist role in an attempt to seem more powerful in hell. Charlie will have to work to pull him back towards his previous more neutral state.

3) Maybe more insight into heaven now that Sir Pentious has been redeemed. We’ll probably see pushes for change and get insight into who is REALLY in charge

4) More sinners will try to head to the hotel after word about Sir Pentious getting redeemed gets out. Charlie will probably have to deal with really shitty people and question her own ideas about redemption.

5) This might be more end of series-ish, but I think we’ll get a definitive answer as to what happens to souls that die in the afterlife. Maybe reincarnation, maybe they simply stop existing. We might get an actual answer tho

[superbellsubways]

do u guys ever get a couple of ur mutuals confused/mixed up with eachother like they just give off the same vibe to you or have similar looking users

[hydedolos]

Some concept art for Hyde's dopple form! I imagine that some of the dopplegängers ,much like animals,have natural mimicry(As in,how an animal can evolve to look like a completely different species. Most obvious example is certain insects evolving to look or even sound like bees as a way to sneak into hives in order to get honey.)

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Five Stages of Mamma Mia

Fandom: Batfam, DC Comics

Summary: AU where Catherine Johnson is Jason's bio mom and Jason doesn't know who his father is. (Jason Todd is Jason Johnson for fic reasons).

Chapters: 13/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Jason Blood, Catherine Todd Mention, Bruce Wayne, Willis Todd Mention

Relationship(s): Past Catherine Todd/Jason Blood, Past Catherine Todd/Bruce Wayne, Past Catherine Todd/Willis Todd

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Mamma Mia-inspired AU, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Father-Son Relationship(s), Jason Todd Experiences the Five Stages of Grief

Chapter Thirteen: The Day Before You Came (Depression)

Mr. Blood thought it would be better for Jason to heal elsewhere. Bruce took him to the manor. Jason had never been to the manor in the daylight before. He hadn't spoken since the incident. Alfred set up his room ahead of time, and when Jason arrived, he curled up in bed and stared at the ceiling. Jason lay there for hours. Or maybe days. Time felt so strange after escaping Nakane's clutches. The only thing that interrupted the dark passages of time was Alfred's offer of meals. Oh, and the strange man who entered through his window. Jason sat up, his head spinning from self-inflicted starvation as he tried to focus his blurred sights on the man in the shadow. "Who the hell are you?" the man questioned.

Jason flopped back down on the bed, closing his eyes to stave off the oncoming headache. Nausea washed over him in waves. "Are you a weirdo, or are you his son, Dick?" Jason questioned. Dick walked over to Jason, careful not to mention the odor originating from the despairing child. He took off his mask and set it on the dresser.

"I am," Dick replied in a softer tone. "How long have you been here?"

Jason shrugged, still lying on his back. "Don't know... A couple of-. I don't know. Can you sit for a while?" Jason requested. Dick nodded and pulled up a chair. "He might be my father... I don't—. Dick, have you ever wanted to die?"

"I've been in bad places mentally before... Yeah," Dick answered, "What makes you ask that question?"

Jason exhaled and wrung his hands. "Something happened to me..." Jason took a shaky breath. "A lot of things, and I can't—. I can't breathe anymore."

"What's your name?" Dick asked.

"Jason Johnson," Jason mumbled.

"Do you want to talk about everything? I have time," Dick offered. Jason nodded and told Dick his life story. Dick sat and listened for hours, only offering a word when it seemed appropriate. "How do you feel physically?"

"I think I want to take a bath," Jason mumbled. Dick nodded.

"I'll run your water, and if you want, I'll stay here and wait for you... I'll be right here," Dick reassured him. Jason planted his feet on the ground and hid his face in his hands. "It's gonna be okay." Dick left him alone for five minutes to run a bath. Jason joined him, holding onto the door frame for support.

"Why do you want to help me?" Jason asked.

"Because you need it," Dick answered, "After you get out, I'll get us something to eat... Maybe we could go downstairs and watch a movie or something."

Jason nodded. "Okay," he whispered weakly.

Dick left the bathroom and closed the door before changing Jason's bedding. Alfred peeked into the bedroom before gesturing for Dick to come into the hallway and talk. "How is he?" Alfred questioned. Dick shook his head.

"I managed to get him to talk, and he's in the bath now. How long's he been here?" Dick asked.

"Four days... I was starting to worry," Alfred whispered, "Are you staying the night?"

"Mhm... I wasn't originally planning on it, but somebody needs to watch after him. Where's Bruce?" Dick questioned. "Does he know that his kid is in there wasting away?"

"Master Dick, it's not that simple... He's tried to be as gentle as possible. Master Jason's in a fragile state," Alfred explained, "He didn't want to speak to Master Bruce."

Dick pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's quiet in there... I should go check on him," Dick whispered. Alfred nodded. "Jason, you okay in there?"

"I'm okay... Bruce takes full responsibility for what went wrong between you two. He misses you," Jason divulged.

Dick smiled a half-smile. "You don't have to worry about that... We'll work that out at one time or another," Dick reassured him, "You know, Jason, you're not a bad kid for what happened."

"For a second... I hated her," Jason whispered, "I didn't want to admit it, but I hated her for just a second, and that's the worst thing."

"You can love somebody without condoning things they've done wrong," Dick whispered, "You can't blame yourself for being upset with things that hurt you. I'm sure your mom was a beautiful person that loved you very much, but everyone is flawed. It's okay to be angry about things like that."

"But she didn't-. She wouldn't have been that way if she wasn't sick," Jason whispered. Dick heard the water drain from the tub, but he didn't say anything. "I don't want to be mad at her. What is being mad gonna do?"

"Help you heal," Dick replied. Jason opened the bathroom door with tears in his eyes.

He had sweatpants and a t-shirt on instead of pajamas. He stood still, waiting for Dick to tell him what to do next. "Jason, let's get you something to eat," Dick whispered. He took Jason's hand and led him down the stairs. Jason squeezed Dick's hand, but his hold was weak. Jason stopped at the center of the steps and sat down, still holding Dick's hand.

"Sorry, I think I should lie down," Jason whispered. Dick offered to carry Jason on his back, and Jason accepted. Jason closed his eyes and listened to the near-silent sound of Dick's breathing. Dick made two plates and carried them to the living room, and Jason's stomach growled.

He sat Jason down on the couch before setting the plates on the coffee table. Jason set the plate on his lap before eating his soup.

Dick turned the tv on and searched for a movie. Jason finished his bowl and curled up next to Dick. "Is Bruce here?" Jason questioned.

"I'm not sure... But I'm not worried about that right now. Jason, are you still hungry? I could—."

Jason curled up next to Dick on the couch. He seemed content with Dick by his side, and for the first time in days, he slept. Dick finished the movie alone and finished eating before carrying Jason to bed. Jason slept through the night, and Dick slipped out of the room to wait for Bruce. Bruce came up from the cave, and Dick stood in the hall, his arms crossed despite a distinct smile on his face. "He's cute. I'll give you that," Dick whispered.

"I don't want to argue—."

"Neither do I. I spent a little time with Jason... Is he—?"

"I'm not sure yet. I want to hold off on finding out until he's stable," Bruce interrupted, "Wait. He spoke? Did he eat too?" Dick nodded. Bruce relaxed his shoulders. "Did he—?"

"He took a bath... He cleans up nice, but he's still shaken up. Were you ever gonna tell me you might have a kid?" Dick questioned. Bruce closed his eyes.

"I wanted to be sure... He spoke to you?" Bruce asked again.

"Yeah, he told me everything... What are you gonna do? I mean, he's really—. He's traumatized," Dick whispered. Bruce didn't answer. He didn't have an answer.

[suffercerebral]

me having gone to bed at 6 am every day for the past week and generally spiraling mentally while rotting in bed waking up this morning: a 4 mile hike in the heat is a really good idea right now, and while we're at it let's start like 3 art projects

[mythicalthing]

this is all happening because i didn’t forward that chain email in 2009 

[galefcrce]

@shadovan gets a starter

"Hmmmm," the wizard mused, perusing through a rather impressive array of potions and other materials. Truth be told, Gale was far too caught up in the collection before him that he failed to observe the eye of the merchant in front him until he noticed the shadow of the man across the wares.

"Oh, apologies. I was merely having a look. Is there any chance you happen to possess something to help a person who is rather poor at sneaking? The person I speak of tends to give himself away with creaking knees."

[quarterdollar]

ok so like my extended family keep dying on top of all of the global tragedy going on so i’m probably not gonna be on as much.

[kyuala]

SOOOOOO hard to go through everyday life trying to ignore the never-ending feeling that im just irreparably fucked up and therefore should just give up on everything

[legovasavouchi]

no time to explain, quick, please accept this 30 min Valmont sketch page

[fckinglion-archive]

rebecca + margarethe // for @mxdam.