#oracle Written

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Summoning Failed Successfully

Imagine a warehouse. Imagine a bunch of cultists in dark robes with all the candles, daggers, ancient books, and chanting. Now add Danny.

Only not as the summoned being, no. As a sacrifice.

He is sitting down, tied to a chair, in the middle of the summoning circle, looking as bored and deadpan as he can possibly be. The cultists are chanting, and he frowns, listening to their chants for a moment.

"Hey, is that Latin?" He questions, but to no avail, "You know you're not actually using those words correctly, right?"

"Keep quiet, child!" One of the cultists snaps. Danny leans back in his chair and shrugs.

"I'm just saying, you ain't summoning shit with wrong grammar," he huffs, seemingly absolutely nonchalant about the whole thing. Oracle, who is watching the whole ordeal through the surveillance cameras, raises her eyebrows. Red Robin and Robin are already en route to the building the cultists chose for their extracurricular activities, but now she almost wants to watch this a bit longer.

Gothamites are pretty used to all kinds of shitshows, but this boy is from out of town. She checked him through facial recognition. Daniel Fenton, a transfer student from Amity Park, Illinois.

A few more cultists stop chanting and turn to Danny.

"Do you know Latin?" One of them asks, and the boy makes a half-nod, making a thoughtful face.

"Not fluently, but, like, it's a dead language, I felt kinda obligated to learn it. Just for the meme, you know?" He chuckles.

The cultists, judging by their confused silence, don't know. Barbara doesn't know what he's talking about, either. But she is almost curious now, so she taps Robin's and RR's comm lines:

"RR, Robin, when you arrive, don't jump into the scene," she asks.

"Understood," Tim answers immediately, but Damian, of course, demands explanations:

"Is there an obstacle?"

"Not really," Barbara humms, "The sacrifice is in the process of de-escalating the situation."

She can almost hear the questioning silence over the comm, but, thankfully, no one argues. Meanwhile, one of the cultists pipes up, voice full of doubt:

"So, you can... like, proofread our incantation?"

"Yeah, sure," Danny nods, apparently fine with being sacrificed, "Who you're trying to summon anyway?"

"Satan," that same cultist answers, and Danny laughs approvingly.

"Classic," he nods and smiles, "I'll give you this. The circle is mostly alright, so you don't need an incantation to summon the fucker, I have him on speed dial." And with that, he leans forward, screaming towards the floor: "Ey, Satan!"

Barbara must say the act was actually convincing, but he went a little overboard with it now. She reaches to tell both Robins to get in, but suddenly, a loud, booming voice reverberates through the building.

"The fuck do you want, kid?"

Cultists fall to their knees - it doesn't seem like an act of worship, more like their knees bucking. The whole circle dimly lights up in red, smoke raising from it.

"Do you see this shit, Oracle?" Red Robin questions, and she mhm's at him, not sure what else to say. If this is still an act or a trick, she must say it's a very good one. Although somehow she suspects it's not a trick. She's seen enough magic in her life to tell the difference.

"Do you want to come to Earth, be gay and do crimes?" Danny asks, almost mockingly.

"Fuck off."

The red light flickers and disappears, and Danny looks back up to cultists, grinning cheerfully.

"Welp, looks like he doesn't wanna," the kid concludes and stands up from his chair. Barbara hadn't seen when or how he got out of his bindings.

The cultists just watch him walk out of the circle in bewilderment.

"Pursue?" Robin's voice comes over the comms, and Barbara thinks for a moment.

"I get a feeling like that's a bad idea," Tim mutters over his line.

Barbara agrees.

[batfamhastwitter]

Part 38! If my family found my ao3 account I think that I would actually pass away I'm not even joking

Prev ~ Beginning ~ Next

[sunnycanwrite]

no I don't think some people get it.

Barbara Gordon should not ever be Batgirl ever again. She is an adult woman, who has grown fr past the role. Who lost her ability to walk. Who lost a good chunk of her mobility, and had adjust to disability. If you've ever lost a bodily function you've had your entire life it drains on you both mentally, and physically. Having to fight with yourself to adjust to a new reality to learn to adapt to the world your now living in. It is a fucking battle, and the world is not made for you in the end.

She had to get used to slighting lopsided sidewalks are, two floor buildings without elevators, trying to wheel over carpet, not being able to do things she's always done, etc. And in the end she ended up becoming more powerful than ever before as Oracle. So the goddamn fucking audacity to take her back to Batgirl.

[sbd-laytall]

No hate to anyone who ships DickBabs, but I just can never get behind it, and no, it's not because I enjoy the pairings of DickKory and DinahBabs (I am a multishipper at heart). I think one of the reasons why I just don't like DickBabs is because of the way that some writers will warp both of their characters.

Batman: Gotham City Secret Files And Origins (2000) #1

Barbara is definitely someone who can overstep boundaries, but considering she got so angry at Bruce for spying on her, I just feel like it doesn't really make sense for to put cameras in Dick's apartment without his knowledge. To my knowledge, this has never been brought up in comics again, but I guarantee that Dick would not be happy if he found out because he's a guy who values respect and privacy. Also, if this was a guy spying on a girl, people would have more of a problem because it would be acknowledged as messed up.

Birds Of Prey (1999) #19

Dick is someone who has been jealous on some occasions in his canon relationships, but the fact that he's written to get jealous over Ted and Barbara being friends, despite never having seen them interact or having met Ted is just not good writing to me. Yeah, I know that characterizations shift with comics, but it feels so wrong for his character and disgusting for him to have a problem with Barbara being friends with a man.

[doctorsiren]

he’s mad she ratted him out

[based-bobcat]

[aingeal98]

Thinking of Cass and Damian got me thinking of the New 52 and how the dynamic between Batgirl and Robin there is even more proof of the travesty that was Babsgirl. She's been the longest running Batgirl to Damian's Robin, has witnessed most of the events of his life as Robin and yet their dynamic is just... A nothing burger. She's there in batfamily group reactions in the New 52 as the most heinous use of the Smurfette Principle I've seen in a long while. Tim isn't Tim, Dick isn't fully treated as Bruce's son, Jason exists mostly to say funny one liners, and yet despite the shallow characterisation there are still moments and events you can point to and say look. This happened. They interacted with Damian and it meant something. With Babsgirl? Nothing. How can there be anything when they're shoving a grown woman into a role she's outgrown for years now and forcing her to be the Batgirl of a preteen Robin? Her original Robin gets his own mantle, gets to be an adult with a legacy. She's shoved back into this role she doesn't fit in and because they know damn well she doesn't fit in it and they're just doing it for misogyny, they don't even try to make Batgirl and Robin a thing. Any interaction they had during the new 52 was so unremarkable and flavourless, devoid of character and heart, that I've never seen a single panel of the two of them in my 16 years as a DC fan.

Steph had a 24 issue batgirl run where she interacted with Damian a few times. Cass got even less than that with a six issue miniseries to bond with him. And yet the characterisation, writing and dynamic created in those stories was interesting, entertaining and impactful enough to last in the fandom for YEARS when Cass and Steph got erased. When you think of Damian's big sister you think of Steph, Cass, Maya etc long before you think of Babsgirl.

It's just infuriating to me. All those years of potential Batgirl and Robin stories wasted on a duo with as much cultural impact on the Batgirl and Robin team up as the James Cameron Avatar movies had on the word Avatar. All so they could erase the women of the batfam and reduce the sole one remaining down to The Girl Bat. Yeah whatever she was there in Damian's life when Steph and Cass weren't why am I supposed to care when her standing there gave me nothing to work with emotionally compared to a single conversation Steph or Cass had with Damian back in 2011. Compared with them or even Oracle Babs, I care about Babsgirl and Damian's dynamic and bond as much as DC and it's writers do. Which is to say, not at all.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Least favorite writing tropes: Multiple PoVs retelling the same event.

Like, seriously, do you really need to retell the same superhero fight five different times? Repeat the same conversation from both sides?

Just pick one Point of view per scene, and pick the point of view that would either be the most emotionally impactful, or tells the audience the most information. I can assure you, we don't need to know everyone's thoughts about the same event across three different chapters.

[call-me-oracle]

barbara gordon in batman #148

bonus:

[kara-zor-els]

I mean, while I also agree on Barbara needing to go back to being disabled I feel like the whole "I only care about Barbara when she's in the wheelchair" is... icky to me? Barbara was a good character before the killing joke happened. Her time as Batgirl matters both to her character and the dc universe as a whole, especially the Batman mythos. She might have not been as good of a fighter as Cass (no one is as good as Cass) but I feel like a lot of people present her as incompetent, which was never the case?

Also like... Babsgirl was a mistake but I still think that she (and every other female character) deserves to be in character and have good storylines, even if DC is hellbend on keeping her around as Batgirl.

[lightningshrikes]

warning : this is gonna be a long post about my thoughts and feelings towards barbara gordon and the titles of batgirl and oracle. i want to make it very clear that i love barbara as a character and i am very protective of her as disabled representation in media. in fact, that's where a lot of my feeling towards her continuing to be put back into the role of batgirl come from.

so, my main issue is that i do not personally believe that barbara should be shoved back into the role of batgirl, i believe that she has fully outgrown that role and no longer needs it from a character standpoint. i think that putting her back into the spotlight as batgirl is a disservice to her character and the characters of cassandra cain and stephanie brown. there's a plethora of reasons i believe that, but the main ones are :

firstly, putting a mantle back onto barbara that she has already outgrown completely nulls any character growth that she's had outside of being batgirl. she has been shown time and time again to no longer need that title, and that she is doing more than fine making a name for herself without the shadow of batman being thrown over her hero name. it makes her yet another "bat adjacent" vigilante that is only discussed in her relation to bruce wayne, which is idiotic, as she has many relationships outside of bruce, and has helped out many heros who aren't even on a team with batman.

adding onto the first point, having barbara still be "the batgirl" in comics doesn't allow for the other batgirls who came after her to have the relationship with the mantle or even barbara herself that they do have, and had, for decades. often times they get shoved into the background, and honestly forgotten about. it erases the past that all of these characters have gone through, just so that barbara can be a hot able-bodied hero again.

that brings me to my last point. the sexism and ableism that is intertwined when writers decide to make barbara batgirl again needs to be discussed together. because while it is definitely incredibly ableist to make a very obviously and historically disabled hero able bodied, even with a "scientific" explanation, the reasoning as to why it happens reeks of misogyny. while batgirl itself is not a misogynistic title, and i believe that it still should be given and held by someone, giving it to the original holder so that she can be "attention grabbing" again, is.

i think to fully explain what i mean, i will have to dip my toes a bit into real life ableism/misogyny that i have seen and experienced myself. the thing is, a lot of fanboys of media only like women (real or fictional) when they are objectively sexy. so, they really only care about a female comic character if she is hot and fills some sort of attractiveness checklist for them. now, a disabled woman, especially a visibly physically disabled woman, is not hot to the majority of men. when you look on social media, or when you yourself are a disabled woman, it is incredibly obvious that you are treated differently because you being disabled instantly makes you less attractive.

so, how does this apply to barbara? well, as we know, the vast majority of comic fans you interact with outside of small bubbles on the internet are men. so, it makes sense that comics want to appeal to these men by making their women attractive, especially the ones that are/were popular. barbara is a generally well known female character, so i fully believe that when she was paralyzed a lot of male fans of hers were no longer interested in her character because she was disabled, and therefore not hot. maybe i could even go as far as to say certain writers were no longer interested in writing her because of her disability! that's the point im trying to make here : barbara is being put back into the batgirl mantle in order to appeal to male fans who knew her as batgirl, and that also means no disability.

barbara gordon is disabled, and there is no reason we should be happy or even okay with her disability being erased in any way. especially when it is coming from a place of sexism and misogyny.

[loregoddess]

fic writers are insane (compliment) bc that shit's hard

[mabellovespameladawes]

Oh nothing, just patiently waiting for Oracle to get a rogue whose just an AI system that’s stealing art and writting and trying to steal her code

So she defeats it very easily (cuz AI is stupid) and then and AI bro gets rlly rlly upset abt it cuz he has no life and the comic meaningfully reveals how these tech guys who have so much “power” over our world and are currently destroying it are really just sad little pathetic boys who can’t deal with their ego’s getting bruised and rlly are just so pathetic to the point where I would almost pity them if they weren’t such colossal jerks

<3

[fantastic-nonsense]

Ram V's Detective Comics run is somehow out here acting like it's still the Rucka-Brubaker era of Bat comics and not 2023 and I want to know whose soul he sold to the devil to get DC to let him do that

[sunnycanwrite]

i feel like Barbara Gordon does not have handle bars on her wheelchair. She has a drawer full of wheelchair gloves, and pushrim covers. Half the time she removes the arm rests from her wheelchair as they can bruise her interarms and get in the way. She keeps a box of bandaids in the bag handing off the back of her chair, incase her fingers get caught in the wheels.

[aquaticaesthetic]

First meeting

Silverhall. Home. As much as I enjoy adventuring, it is always nice to return. Take a break. Let my magic settle. Catch up with people. Help with my parents’ shop.

After a couple days in the shop and spending time with my parents, checking off that list leads me to The Dead Blossom, a small, dingy, dark, hole in the wall bar owned by one Amos Warren that hasn't always seen my best side. He doesn't seem to mind, though. If he does, he's never told me otherwise. I like to think he lets me stay since I help keep the assholes out. 

Maybe I should've been a bouncer.

Pushing open the door, I take a quick look around, spotting a few unfamiliar faces amongst the several familiar ones. Not a bad turn out tonight all things considered. A few of the familiar faces wave to me as I head for the bar. I wave back.

I see Amos working the bar and take a seat in front of him. Bothering the grizzled grump is always fun.

“I lived.”

“I see that.” He sets a drink down in front of me. “How long are you in town for this time?”

“However long it takes to find another group who's heading out who needs a healer.” I take a sip. “And however long it takes to start growing a new batch of herbs for the shop for Dad. The offer to grow you things still stands, by the way.”

He scoffs, “If I start adding lavender to anything it’s not my bar anymore.”

I roll my eyes. “You can use it at home too, you know.”

“What makes you think I go home?”

“I'm not six, I know you don't sleep under the bar.”

That makes him crack a smile. A small one, but I take what I can get. “You sure? Maybe that's why my back's been hurting lately.” We both share a laugh.

“You giving me the evil eye or something!?”

The loud accusation draws both mine and Amos’ attention. At a nearby table, a tall and somewhat muscular man stands over some poor red headed man who looks like he's actively trying to shrink into himself, hands up trying to placate the other with reassurances that he's just sitting there. This does nothing to deescalate the situation. The asshole must have had a few drinks in him.

I frown, and Amos gives me a knowing look. He then goes off to help another patron.

With that, I stand, knock back the rest of my drink, and face the problem, approaching him and leveling him with a glare, crossed arms, and a warning to knock it off.

“Are you the owner or something?” he asks.

“I'm not.”

He has the nerve to smirk. “Then what are you gonna do about it?” he says smuggly. He's taller than me by maybe half a foot and posturing to make himself look even taller.

He quickly finds out just what I'm going to do about it.

CRACK!

He stumbles back from the uppercut, holding his jaw and looking stunned. Unfortunately the feeling only looks like it lasts a few seconds before he's glaring and throwing a punch right back. I dodge, then throw a left hook that he's much more ready for. He aims for my stomach. Tries for a grab. Gets a hit in on my arm. My side. I go for the chest and the face again, missing the latter. It leaves me open and he gets a solid punch in, hitting where I missed. The pain blooms under my eye. I return the hit as best I can, slamming my fist into his side. He returns the hit right to my jaw, sending me stumbling into a table.

I hear footsteps approaching as I brace myself against the table, but they stop before they reach me. I catch a glimpse of Amos glaring down the man who I can only assume is about to finish the fight. Like I hadn't gotten my ass thoroughly kicked enough already.

He kicks my leg as he walks past, muttering something about not worth his time, and I'm grateful for the table I'm leaning on.

After watching him walk out, as best I can anyway, I grab a nearby chair and flop down onto it with a groan. My teeth hurt. My eye hurts. My side hurts. I touch my lip and find blood.

A small bag of ice hits the table just in front of me before I can heal, and I look over at it with my good eye just in time to see Amos heading back to the bar. I make a mental note to tip the man heavily at the end of the night as I press the bag to my eye.

I only look up again when I hear someone clearing their throat. It's the redhead. He smiles politely, tugging at the gloves he wears.

“Um, thank you, for getting him to stop. I'm sorry about the trouble, and your eye.”

I wave off the concern. “It's not the first time, probably won't be the last. I don't mind.” To make my point, I cast a healing spell to relieve the pain in my side.

“Oh, right. Still, thank you.” He extends a hand. “I'm Cian.”

I reach out mine to shake his hand. “I'm Satisa.”

“It's nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too.”

He tugs at his gloved hands again. The poor guy looks like a lost puppy.

I gesture to one of the seats at my table. “You can take a seat, if you want.”

He sits down a bit too fast. He really is a puppy.

We spend the next hour just small talking before parting ways. I heal myself in the meantime, not wanting to worry my parents by coming home with a black eye. Not that it would stop them from hearing about it eventually. At least it didn't hurt anymore.

I end up seeing him around Silverhall quite often. We stop and chat, sometimes he follows while I run errands. I eventually tell him about the shop and he stops by. I think my parents are glad I've seemingly made a friend. It won't last long, but I think I'm glad, too.