#selkie dick grayson

[crowned-aeris]

In honor of mermay, but not related to any prompts:

“I don’t trust that guy,” Jason narrowed his eyes, jabbing a finger at the weird not-human and his half-human son chatting with fully-human Bruce and fully-human Alfred.

“Relax, Jay,” their fully selkie not-human brother drawls with his legs in their giant pool filled with aquarium-grade water, “It’s just Uncle Clark with his son.”

Tim shrugs, “I dunno, they look weird… and smell weird. Cass says theyre- and I quote- really weird, if Cass says they’re weird? Sorry, Dick, they’re weird.”

“So…” Dick puts on a cheshire smile and leans forward, “you can even say they’re Super -weird? Eh? Wha- AUGH!”

Tim yelped, flinging himself out of the pool as Jason lurched forward to yank the selkie into the water. Cass was laughing below the surface, a wide smile on her face as Dick floundered and screeched. Jason had his claws hooked into the selkie’s pants with a bright grin.

“BRUCE!” Dick screeched, the sound of struggle clear within this floor of the manor, and Tim pulls his caudul fin out of the water in disgust, “ALFRED! HELP, I’M- AUAGDHGAGAHDHFPFPSPFGSAGO—”

“What is going on here?” Bruce walked over to examine the scene with an incredulous expression, “Jason, let your brother go!”

The lionfish mer hissed in displeasure, but released the selkie after a stern look from the butler.

“BRUCE!” Dick gasped dramatically, clawing himself onto the floor. His Pelt remained dry, but everything else about Dick was sopping wet. There was even a puddle forming under him.

Tim eyed him warily, flattening his cranial fin as Damian approached with the other half-human, half not-human spawn of the not-human Dick had named “Clark”.

“Grayson, cease you incessant chatter,” Damian huffed before addressing his… “friend”, “Jon, feast your eyes upon our mers.”

The older human walked over while Bruce ranted to Clark about his children’s “dramatics”. Meanwhile, Damian was still talking, “Timothy is a pedigree mer. He is born of a prestigious bloodline, and his scales echo his worth. The previous humans he resided with were not providing him with the proper enrichment a mer of his value should have, and so Father rescued him.”

Tim grimaced at the human’s description before glancing at his red-dappled tail, “Thanks?”

“What do you have to say about me?” Jason swam over and propped himself upon the ledge of the pool with a grin.

Damian sniffed and gave Jason a side-long glare while “Jon” giggled.

“He looks pretty,” the bright boy commented while his… brother(?) hummed.

“I think this guy looks prettier, kinda like a koi.”

Jon examined Tim’s tail before nodding, “Hmm, you’re right!”

Tim frowned, feeling suddenly self conscious at the attention.

Damian sniffed, “Please do not scrutinize Timothy! He is a sensitive mer, and I will not allw you to unsettle him! Jason, on the other hand, is hardier- though I advise you to keep a healthy distance from his spines. His piscine breed is that of a lionfish-”

Jason grins and flashes his fins like the show-off he is.

“-and Father rescued him from an illegal mer trade,” Damian finished.

“What about her down there?” the older half-human asked, peer down at Cass, who popped up to wave and tap Tim’s tail. With a smile, he flicked his tail and artfully drenched the older half-human with the pool water.

“Kon!” the little one exclaimed in shock, and Tim darted away before Bruce coild spot him.

“Jason!” Bruce called again, “We don’t splash guests either!”

“But-!”

“I doesn’t matter if he was annoying, we don’t splash guests!” Bruce sighed in exasperation before returning to his conversation with an amused Clark and an equally entertained Alfred.

Damian continued on with his infodumping, “Cassandra is a mer who escaped from a facility ran by my grandfather, who was trying to create the ultimate weapon for marine warfare.”

“Oh!” Kon blinked in surprise, “That… was not what I was expecting!”

“I kinda feel bad for them,” Jon commented, but Jason waved him off.

“Don’t worry about Cass. If she was in any real danger, she’ll just electrocute you and then rip your throat out!”

“That’s so cool!” Jon chirped eagerly while Kon remained slightly peturbed.

Tim shrugged, “I guess, but it’s kinda… just our lives. Dick has seen so much more of the world than any of us.”

“Maybe, but he’s an asshole,” Jason replied and Cass nodded in agreement. The selkie jerked upright with an affronted gasp and a mock-offended expression.

“Excuse me! I am not an asshole!”

“Mhm, sure not,” Jason countered with a flap of his hand. Before Dick could continue his defense, Bruce approached once more with Clark and Alfred at his side.

The not-human helped Dick to his feet before addressing the two half-human boys, “Alright, boys. It’s getting pretty late, so we should head back to the farm before Ma and Pa worry.”

The boys chorused their agreement before… floating and flying out of the manor? Tim thinks that not-human and his half-human sons were weird.

Bruce took in a breath before kneeling down in front of them, “Okay, kids. I know your thoughts on strangers in the manor-”

Jason interrupted with a flat expression, “If they weren’t kids, then I would’ve stung them.”

Tim huffed as Bruce’s expression tightened, “Okay, I wouldn’t have done something as extreme as Jason, but I really don’t like strangers in the manor… I kinda don’t mind that Kon, though.”

“What?! Tim!” Jason gasped in offense and Tim groans.

“Shut up, Jason! He had shiny things, okay!”

“Timmy has a crush!” Cass teased swimming over to wrap herself around Tim’s torso and drag him underwater. Very wisely, Tim decided it was in his best interest to not fight with the electric eel.

“Ugh, I wish I’d sting him sooner!”

“You will not be stinging anyone,” Bruce admonished, and Tim could hear Jason boo in dissatisfaction before joining Cass and Tim underwater.

“Father, I support Jason’s idea,” Damian chimed in, “we should allow him to sting Timothy’s potential paramore, for Timothy is a regal creature and shall not be paired up with such a thing below his standing!”

Tim groans in exasperation, the sound echoed by Bruce as he thrashed his red-white tail. Suddenly, the water churned and a ringed seal joined them in the pool, his eyes bright with mischief and whimsy.

As Bruce watched his fish (and seal) children tussel together underwater, he pulls Damian close against his side. Alfred rests his hand on Bruce’s shoulder, and the man cannot help but marvel at how far all of them have come since their first introduction into this… messy and patchwork family who now all call the Wayne Manor home…

Bruce could not be happier.

[dragonpyre]

Look. Jason was a shy lil bean around his olders brothers cool friends, ok

Dick might also have forgotten to mention he was a selkie...

Part 2

Commission info ko-fi

[valnorok]

im really obsessed with dc right now and @sreppub's selkie drawings tingled my brain because seals r just so :3

i also ran with the idea of damian being a polar bear bc i just think its neat. once hes an adult he gonn be a UNIT but hes just a lil baby man rn

inspirations below the cut thank u pinterest

[ghost-bxrd]

Do you have any more selkie Jason Todd headcanons? 🙏🏽

Of course! 🦭

Jason’s pelt never loses the baby white of seal pups after his death

Dick spends hours watching YouTube videos with seals and trying to imitate their calls

Alfred sneakily tries to incorporate a good amount of seafood into everyone’s diet. Jason hates to admit that he loves eating sushi

Once during a trip to the coast Jason runs into an exiled Orm. Selkies are sacrosanct to Atlanteans, so when Orm sees Bruce holding Jason’s coat it’s not a good day for anybody. Jason snatches his pelt and leaps straight into the water because he thinks he’s about to be trafficked

Orm and Bruce track Jason down with Arthur’s help after two days of panicked searching. Jason is huddled in the back of a cave and refuses to come out until they get Alfred on the phone

Dick absolutely loses his shit when he finds out nobody bothered to tell him that his baby brother was missing for two days

Jason is inconsolable the entire time he’s with the League (before the pit) until Talia takes him to an oasis by chance and Jason just—- melts into the water, calming down and relaxing for the first time.

When Jason returns to Gotham as the Red Hood he is desperate to find out what happened to his sealskin, terrified that Bruce had it destroyed after his death

Jason steals his skin back (let’s go with “the pelt was in the glass case along with the suit” version) and lords it over the furious bats, gleeful to see them collectively use their shit over his blatant disrespect for it

Tim is angry enough at Hood for disrespecting his Robin like that he doesn’t shy away from confronting him about it during patrol, Jason is both pissed and amused by the audacity

I know I mentioned it in the previous ask already but I feel like it bears repeating: when Hood hints at using Jason’s pelt as a “trophy” or a “rug”, Nightwing goes downright feral in his quest to retrieve his baby brother’s sealskin, and Batman isn’t faring much better

[dudethatsmyundeaduncle]

That Selkie Jason / (SEA CRITS) Au is very children's animated movie coded to me so I drew my brain rot.

Dick is the tween who hasn't discovered Hot Topic yet, just you wait, but thinks his brothers are Babies TM and can't be seen with them. Jason is going thru it with his "shit ass" older brother and baby Tim won't stop stalking his brothers wherever they go. I imagine they're like 13, 8, and 1/2ish,

As for their Sea Crit ids, Selkie Jason is king so he's a snowy baby. That Dick is an otter post changed my life so there he is.

I saw someone suggest that Tim should be a platypus which I would have drawn except I had already decided that he was gonna be a sea lion (they are very tim coded, big heads, droopy eyes, can probably skateboard etc) so there he is.

ps. if ur angsty him being a sea lion makes him even closer to jason and thus more threatening to Jay Emotionally.

I've drawn the boys all together because although I appreciate the angst I think the sibling trio trouble would be very fun, and stressful on Bruce who'd have to actually take care of three literal children at the same time.

[spoilers-ahead]

okay!! now that it’s not 2am for me, i’m going to post my selkie!jason todd hc’s straight up au apparently! 

(uh. this was supposed to just be a list of hc’s but i got slightly,,,, carried away)

his selkie skin looks like an oversized red hoodie in his human form, and is just warm enough to help him survive new england winters.

when the summer heat becomes unbearable, he slings the hoodie around his waist

alternatively, he just coasts it out underwater. perks of living in a coastal city!

willis todd was a selkie. he used to tell jason stories of what it was like to swim through the big, wide ocean. of how freeing it felt. how different it is, from the smoggy, heavy air of gotham --- different, but both theirs, in their own right.

but to be honest, jason doesn’t remember much about the stories he was told, or really, anything about willis --- he had been in and out of blackgate for most of jason’s life, working for two-face to try and make ends meet, before dying. 

what jason mostly remembers, are the warnings. don’t let anybody know you’re a selkie. don’t let anybody find your skin. they will find it, and they will use it to control you. even decades later, jason would still remember those warnings. 

catherine is the one who teaches him how to swim, who helps him trial-and-error his way into putting his skin on, and learn how to make the transition seamless. 

after she dies, jason spends three months as a seal, to just... exist. forget.   

although jason technically lives on the streets, whenever he can;t find food, whenever he can’t find somewhere warm to sleep, whenever just being human becomes too unbearable, he spends the night as a seal. he ends up spending more time in the ocean, than on land.

that’s not to say he’s very good at being a seal --- he barely knows how to swim, has to learn how to fish the hard way. 

when bruce finds jason stealing his car tires, he marvels over how nice jason’s hoodie is, soft and fluffy even after all of jason’s time on the streets, especially given the condition jason is in, ribs showing from malnutrition, and the worn and raggedy shape of the rest of his stuff.

jason is skittish when he goes to live in the manor, even after a few weeks. he always adopts an expression particularly similar to a cornered wild animal around alfred in particular, alfred, who keeps on trying to take his hoodie away, purportedly to wash it.

alfred eventually gives up on trying to force jason to wash it --- he figures that as jason becomes more comfortable living at the manor, he’ll wind up telling them why he’s so protective over that hoodie, and they can work something out then. 

whenever wayne manor overwhelms jason with how big and how decadently expensive all the decor is, jason runs away, run to the ocean. 

jason doesn’t actually end up telling alfred and bruce that he’s a selkie --- bruce just has a ridiculous amount of motion alarms, which are triggered every time jason ran off. he had followed jason the third night, and saw him transform. 

bruce doesn’t tell jason that he knows, assuming that jason kept this a secret because he didn’t fully trust either of them. he would later learn that he was right in this assumption (a rare win for bruce in terms of emotional awareness)

except jason doesn’t fully trust either of them, even after a few months. bruce impulsively decides to do a few things --- a) tell jason about batman and robin and his crime-fighting secret identity, and b) tell jason he already knows about him being a selkie. 

jason is absolutely bamboozled by the fact that bruce knows, and yet hasn’t tried to take his hoodie to control him, or to stop him from playing in the ocean for a few hours. 

in fact, (under alfred’s encouragement) bruce offers to take him to the ocean during the day, so he can get “a proper night’s rest that a growing young boy such as himself would need”

jason remembers what his father told him, to never trust anyone, never let his guard down. but bruce has known about jason being a selkie for so long, and he didn’t take his hoodie or try anything. of course he can trust bruce. 

and when he tries on the robin costume for the first time, it fits perfectly. just like his hoodie, his second skin. it fits just like magic. 

oh, it’s a little loose in some places, the legacy of dick fucking grayson a little heavy sometimes, but he’ll grow into it. he’ll make himself, if he has to. 

also, jason finds the fact that even though he’s a friggin’ selkie, his callsign is a bird (a robin, no less) incredibly ironic and funny 

being a selkie is actually so useful for vigilantehood. the amount of people who talk freely, openly, and loudly about their drug smuggling plans near the ports is quite frankly, ridiculous.

honestly, towards the end of his robin years, jason remains genuinely surprised nobody catches on to him or his tactics yet. bruce is very proud.  

even though jason is safe, has been safe for three years, and trusts bruce with his life, his skin, and everything, old habits are hard to break. so he has his hoodie on when he goes to find sheila. 

and anyways, he wants to see if sheila is a selkie too. he’s taking biology right now, and they’re learning about punnett squares. jason’s never met another selkie before, other than willis who he barely remembers. there’s a possibility that sheila knows something, anything, so he has to try. 

sheila gets a glint in her eyes when jason mentions that he’s a selkie, tells him that while she’s not one herself, she’s familiar with the myth. she has long suspected that willis was a selkie, she tells him, and she’s glad to have confirmation. 

jason positively vibrates with excitement, can’t wait to ask, to pester his mother (mother!) with questions upon questions until. 

until. 

sheila doesn’t do anything after she gives him to the joker. she just smokes and smokes. and she doesn’t tell the joker about his hoodie, despite how it would have been much easier for the joker to destroy him that way. much more painful too.  

small mercies, he supposes, in between hacking coughs that brings blood bubbling up his lips. 

after he dies, his hoodie is ripped and in tatters from the crowbar, with burns along the edges from the bomb. bruce has to carefully peel it off his body. 

when jason was alive, his magic kept the hoodie in perfect condition, always. even when the rest of him was covered head-to-toe in mud, or dripping sludge from the nasty gotham sewers. 

bruce stares at the same hoodie, blood-soaked and mangled, so incredibly dissonant from how he remembered it on jason, when he was bright, whole, and alive. 

he can’t stand it. the hoodie that was so precious to jason, that was jason, at the core of him, in this state. dirty and ripped and devoid of the magic jason had exuded. 

in a moment of desperation, late at night, bruce asks alfred to teach him how to sew. he doesn’t dare to practice on jason’s beloved hoodie --- instead, he starts with the suits in his closet, grabbing the first one he sees, regardless of price. rips a hole and sews it back together over and over until he perfects his technique. 

and then he washes the fabric gently, using baby fabric cleanser and scrubbing for hours upon hours until the last traces of the deep-set brown stain from jason’s blood washes down the drain.

he painstakingly sews the scraps of fabric back together with a red thread, carefully sourced to match the hoodie to try and make it flow seamlessly like it used to. 

it doesn’t work, not exactly. despite his best efforts, the creases bruce had carefully sewn together are prominent and thick like scars, littering the  soft fabric.

so he gives up. he hangs it over the grandfather clock entrance to the cave in his study. brings it with him every time he visits jason’s grave, because he doesn’t ever want to keep jason’s hoodie away from him, but he also can’t bear for it to get ruined. 

dick visits him. a rare occurrence, these days. 

dick yells at him, as he is wont to do. 

these days, it feels like they spend more time angry at each other than not. dick says that this isn’t right. isn’t fair to anybody, not to alfred, not to himself, definitely not to jason. he rants, jason deserves to be remembered as he was in life, not frozen in death. 

perhaps he is right. bruce is not unaware of the state of violent, cutting stasis he is in, this putrefaction of his life. and he is certainly not unaware of how it is affecting the people around him. dick. alfred. the neighbor’s kid, the one who wants to be robin.   

bruce tries. not for himself, but for tim. for alfred, for dick. even for stephanie brown, who sometimes, when she smirks just right, or says something with just the right twang, he swears he can see jason in her. 

he still can’t bear to put the hoodie away, because jason deserved better than to be forgotten, so he folds it gently and places it in his closet instead. 

he also can’t bear to look at it for very long, so he forces himself to every single day. 

it’s different from the glass case that houses robin’s tattered suit in the cave --- that, is a reminder of how he failed robin. this, this is salt in a constant, stabbing, festering would, reminding him of how he failed his son. 

it was stephanie, that eventually helped him figure out what to do with the hoodie. when she was young, young enough to cry at ripped pants and skinned knees, young enough that her mother hadn’t touched the drugs yet, her mother would dry up her tears, give her a hug and a kiss on the forehead, before patching her pants up. 

what not many people know, is that before crystal brown set her mind on becoming a nurse, she wanted to be an artist, first. and so she grabs her old set of embroidery needles, and stitched little designs. dogs and cats. stars and planets. tools and gadgets. 

bruce doesn’t react, doesn’t even move, even as stephanie finishes her story. she hangs there awkwardly for a second, stares up at jason’s suit, waiting for him to respond, before shuffling towards the exit of the cave. 

thank you, spoiler, bruce manages to croak out. 

ah, yeah, she says, shrugging lightly while slouching in on herself, any time, boss. she walks out, and bruce watches her go from the reflection on the darkened computer. 

that night, he takes out jason’s hoodie, smooths it out, grabs his threads, and stitches. 

he stitches on constellations, argo navis, for jason’s namesake in the greek myths he had loved so much. a tiny seal, playing with beach balls. little books, with quotes on the sides. a robin, big and bold. 

he tries to make it as true to jason as possible, not just in death and in bruce’s memories, but as he was in life.

jason wakes up abruptly.  

he wakes up in a coffin, cold, alone, and with a gaping hole in his chest. getting dipped in the lazarus pit only made it worse, only made him all the more aware of what he was missing, all the more conscious of it. 

he doesn’t bother trying to learn how to swim with two arms and two legs, instead of two fins and a tail. it doesn’t feel the same. it only reminds him of what he’s lost. 

sometimes, on sleepless nights that happen more often than not, he wonders what would have happened if he still had a hoodie, still could swim. 

if he still was robin. 

and he doesn’t have access to the cave anymore, or to the titan’s tower, or the watchtower, and his memory of the past is still patchy and shitty in some places. 

so in a burst of impulsivity fueled by the person he no longer is, he prints out photos of robin’s costume from the internet and recreates it on his own. 

if his skin is gone, then fine. fine! he’s perfectly perfunctorily aware that nothing about this resurrection of his is natural. if he doesn’t think too much about it, he’ll be alright. his hoodie, his skin, that was something he was born with, a birthright that died with him. 

but robin, robin was something that he helped shape. robin was something that he worked for, changed himself for. 

and the makeshift robin suit --- it doesn’t fit him, not anymore. no, it feels wrong, like a child playing with their parent’s suit. or --- he realizes, perhaps more accurately, like an adult realizing they no longer fit in their favorite clothes. 

and --- and --- what was the point of it all? what was the point, of trying to make bruce proud of him, of getting dick’s approval, of trying to futilely save people over and over again from the same gallery of supervillains who keep on escaping from prison?!

and what was the point of carving out a space for himself if the joker was just going to beat him out of it, and if tim drake was going to insert himself in the hole he left behind?

and then the next thing he knows he’s in titan’s tower hitting tim drake over and over again because who let him? who let him take jason’s role as a son, as a brother, as a hero? how dare he?

but when he’s slit tim’s throat and torn the ‘R’ off his chest, jason doesn’t feel any better. the robin suit still doesn’t fit. his hoodie’s still gone. 

he’s starting to think it never will, not again. 

sometimes, when he gets tired enough to let his mind wander, he wonders what happened to his suit. 

he’s pretty sure he died with it, so either the hoodie is with the joker, batman, or... gone entirely. (it’s not like they found willis’ skin after he died. maybe selkie skins just disappear in a cloud of sea foam once they die, or some little mermaid shit like that)

it’s a cold comfort, that nobody can manipulate him now. nobody can control him --- not even batman. 

(bruce had thought about it. when he first had his suspicious regarding who the red hood was, before he knew there was any trace of the son he once had left. he thought about using the hoodie, using jason’s selkie skin to coerce him, at least to stop murdering people, to stop hurting their family.) 

(he would never go that far, in retrospect, or at least, he doesn’t think he could ever. to do that to jason, betray his trust so thoroughly and completely... but it would be a lie to say that he didn’t consider it.)

bruce reflects on this as jason reveals himself, the joker tied up at his feet with a gun pressed to his head, and venom spitting from his son’s mouth.  

but when he lifts the batarang to hit jason’s gun, or wrist, or anything that’ll force him to drop the gun, he realizes that his hands are shaking. 

and when he throws the batarang, he knows a millisecond after he’s let go, that he’s miscalculated the ricochet. 

so when jason escapes that night, bruce knows he’s fucked up. 

jason goes off the maps, completely. bruce doesn’t know where he is, if he’s safe, if he even made it out of the explosion that night. 

it takes weeks. weeks for bruce to track jason down, from meticulously documenting the dropped threads of where the red hood was pulling strings in the gotham underworld behind the scenes, to tracking security cameras with facial recognition. 

once bruce manages find where he’s staying, make sure he’s safe, he knows what he wants to do. and, he knows what he needs to do. 

jason gets a package in the mail, five weeks after his disasterous meeting with batman and the joker. unmarked, unsigned, no return address. 

when jason opens the box gingerly and carefully, he holds on to his skin for the first time in years. and then, and then, and then --- something right slots into place. his fingers brushed gently over the tiny spotted seal he knows he used to look like, the books he remembered ranting to bruce about for hours on end. 

the robin, on the top left, over his heart, big enough to have changed him, yet small enough to not define him. 

it’s not perfect. it doesn’t even fix anything, not entirely. he still fights with bruce most times he sees him, tries to punch dick in the face, steadfastly ignores tim and steph the entire time. 

but it’s something. it’s something, and the next time nightwing, batman, spoiler, and robin fight a gang on the docks, the red hood gives them a helping hand before jumping back into the ocean and swimming away.

fin!

wow this got long

[florisa6s]

ideas - Selkie Jason Todd

I read a few stories where Jason is a selkie and I just find it hilarious and here are a few small thoughts I had when I was looking through them.

----ex

When Jason goes to attack Tim he enters going into Tims room theb instead of attacking he catches Tim sleeping so he turns into his seal boi self and flops on Tim and when the others come their searching around completely missing the muffled yells of Tim under Jason.

Jason ends up flopping on top of the bats whenever he wants, like if Tim's sleep deprived flop. If Dick is overworking flop. If he's just angry for no reason flop. I fully believe one day the bats slick up the floor get on Jason as he's a seal and slides down the mansion hallway (they hit the wall)

I just love the thought of Jason sneaking around stealing stuff while a seal and when hes caught you just hear yelling and a seal flopping down the hallway with any of the other bats chasing him, I can just imagine him sneakily stealing some food and Alfred catches him.

Jason gets angry because the bats tend to try and pick him up and so far only Cass, Dick and Bruce had been able to pick him up easily.

He also sometimes mess with guests and other heros by just moving around like in the leagues base or around the town just to mess with people.

Basically he's a cute menace.

[internalsealpanic]

4 Times You and Bruce Met and 1 Time Someone was Introduced

summary:  Or 5 separate times Bruce is rudely forced to be soft. a/n: To the people who just found this, this is a side story to my Sealing the Deal fic. I highly recommend reading that first. So for the end of mermay, I decided to post this because why not. This video is the only reason I finished this fic (yanno, aside from my usual partner in crime). I legit just had a screenshot pasted to my doc. warning: Minor character death

1:

Padding through the beach in your father's over-sized workman's boots, you run excitedly to the shore with the pup pressed against your stomach. He wriggles and flaps his flippers in protest as your feet sink into the hot sand. You laugh and the pup rumbles unhappily when you squeeze him. He snuggles up to you anyway.

"You're going to trip!" Your papa shouts over the splash of waves.

You turn around, jumping out of your boots. "I won't!" You whine. The pup rumbles again-- vibrations rippling against your chest.  His large, liquid eyes bulge out of his little face as you start to fall. You crash into the hot sand.

You're on your back with the pup on your stomach, his delicate white coat dusted with sand. You laugh and the pup huffs. He looks like he's glaring at you. You squeeze him tight knowing this might be the last time you get to cuddle him. The pup snuffs more.

Your father sighs above you, shaking his head. "I told you you would trip."

The pup snorts in agreement.

You scramble to your feet with the pup in your arms and run towards the shore like a little maniac. The pup squeals in terror. Or maybe that was your father.

Saltwater splashes in your face as you rush into the water; it laps at your ankles-- cool and crisp.  It sings to you, calling to you. The pup wriggles and reaches for the water.  You wade deeper into the water until you're waist-deep. The fibers of your chunky sweater fill up with water, chilling you to the bone.

You loosen your hold on the pup. The sense of loss when he slips your grasp is devastating in a way. There's a moment where you think to keep holding on to him but when you see how happy he is in the water, you keep your arms to yourself.

He floats towards a large dark seal. The large seal nuzzles the pup, pulling him closer and squishing him to the larger seal's blubber. He rumbles affectionately. The pup huffs in embarrassment. You try to move closer but the large seal turns his attention to you. You think he's glaring at you. It's really kind of spooky.

2:  

Dick is smitten.

Dick is definitely smitten.

There are no two ways about it. All Bruce can do is sigh as he watches Dick plop after you. You crouch above Dick and smile indulgently, patting his head with a gentle hand, basin resting on your hip. Dick boops his face against your hand in answer. His round snoot is soft and warm against your hand. You press him back into his squishy body.

You giggle and Dick looks like he's gonna jump over the moon.

Bruce is worried to say the least. He needs to do something about it.

You're washing clothes by the shore when Bruce approaches you.  He towers over you even in his seal form. You jolt then settle on giving him a quizzical look.

"Hey Spooky," you say with a quirk of your lip.

He replies by staring you down.

He bares teeth at you.

"Oh," you say.  "Are you hungry?" You ask, holding up a fish.

Bruce frowns then snarls.

You shush him, wiggling the fish in Bruce's face.

Dick trills on your lap, squeaking happily in his sleep. The pup snuggles into your lap and you plant a kiss on his forehead.

Bruce stops snarling and just stoops because what else is he supposed to do.

Dick turns in his sleep.

3:

Bruce doesn't usually come to this side of the island but he needed to think [read: brood].  His noisy pod of pups just weren't having it, especially not Damian. So, here he was staring into the distance, blubber flat against the cold cove floor. It wasn't all that comfortable but at least, he's at peace.

He was.

That went right out the window as soon as an angry scream cuts through the calm lapping of waves.

For the love of-- What did Jason do this time?

Bruce cranes his neck, scanning the shore for his pup. Nothing. That's concerning. Usually, they would have pounced by now.

Another cry rips through the air-- this time high, wounded, and frail. In a muggy way, he recognizes it. The voice is distorted by grief but it's still the angry sobbing of a human.

Bruce lowers his head contemplating whether he should check on you.

He sighs. He should. So much for his peace and quiet.

Bruce plops towards you, his body sounding like wet dough against stone. He wonders mildly if this is a good idea. The last time he approached you he threatened to tear your face off but as he reaches you, he realizes he should have hopped slower.

You're curled in front of the shore, eyes cold with anger. It was the kind of anger used to carve grief out of your chest. You rub your face raw, hoping that if there was nothing left of your face you would stop crying. Bruce sometimes forgets how small humans are.

He bounces towards you and the smell of ash wicks off of you in ribbons. He knows you'd burned something earlier, something important, because the fire had burned on until it couldn't anymore.

You look up at him and fold into yourself.

Bruce can guess what happened. He rests his head on yours, rumbling comfortingly. Underneath him, you unfold, wrapping your arms around him. You start to sob more softly this time. Sniffling into his fur, you begin to whisper things.  Bruce lets you cry, puffing breath into your hair and rumbling every once in a while.

4:

Dick spins you around, his foot catching with his own, and you both go down on the sand with a thud and a laugh.

"Dick!" You giggle, coughing up sand.

Dick nuzzles his face against yours, fingers tickling your sides.

"Dick!" You screech, lightly pushing at his chest but his body is heavy. Seal or human, Dick is a big lug. "Dick, I'm getting sand all over me, you dork."

He kisses your jaw and then turns you both over. He holds you against his chest, kissing your chin. "Stop flailing then," he chuckles.

"Then stop tickling me!"

"Never."

You tussle a little more until a great shadow hangs over the both of you.

Dick beams at the great big elephant seal above you. You recognize him by the scar on his chest. "Hey B," Dick says with a big soft grin that makes your heart melt.

"Spooky?" Your face twists a little.

The giant seal gives you a look. The dad look and you understand immediately. "Oh," you breathe and your face heats with embarrassment. "You're Bruce."

You've been calling your father-in-law 'spooky' this whole time. Someone end you now.

"Spooky?" Dick bites his lip to stifle a laugh, his blue eyes shining bright with glee.

You bury your face in his chest. "Shut up." You whine.

"Make me." He says into your hair.

You look back Dick and pinch his cheek.

"Nnnnnnnn." Dick whines. He reaches down to tickle your sides again and you begin to tussel.

Bruce huffs, nudging you two apart then laying on top of Dick, booping your husband's nose menacingly.

Dick pushes at Bruce lightly. "B, B, relax. I was going to introduce the two of you but it seems like you two know each other." Dick flicks his eyes to you.

You glance at Bruce and he glances back at you. Bruce snuffs, grumpily plunking his head on Dick.

+1:

Rapid clumsy foot tack tack tack against the footpath towards the beach. Bruce pretends to remain calm. He's remained calm since yesterday why wouldn't he be calm now? Several reasons really--most of which involve Dick running.

The footsteps become muffled by the sand. They're hurried and the rhythm of them ratchets up his heart. His mouth is starting to go dry.

"B!" Dick chirps and it's a happy sound with no ounce of panic.

Bruce cranes his neck, slowly opening his liquid eyes. Shoved in his face is another pair of liquid eyes that takes up most of the pup's face. They snuff in his face with a little breath. Small flippers slap his snout. He snuffs a large breath in response.

Looking away from the child, he looks up at Dick who is beaming as if the sun wasn't bright enough. "I take it labor went swimmingly," Bruce says with a wry smile.

Dick shakes his head with an airy laugh. "Selina says she hates you for suckering her into help" is what Dick manages between laughter. The pup trills at the sound and Bruce understands it perfectly because Dick has one of those laughs that just makes happiness a solid concept.

Bruce flicks his tail. "I'll get her a present. She won't be mad for long."

"Good luck with that," Dick says setting the baby down. It wiggles confused. It registers in Bruce's brain that this is the first time the pup is touching sand. His heart clenches and a scream burning in his chest.

The pup stupidly digs their face into the sand making them sneeze quite loudly in a loud, shrill squeak.

Jason and Tim hop quietly towards them with soft plops.

Jason tilts his head. "Huh, what's wrong with it?" He asks poking the pup's side with his snout.

Dick makes an affronted sound which Bruce wasn't sure Dick could make in his human form.

Tim pokes the pup on their other side. "They look fine but then again Dick seemed fine too."

Jason chokes out a laugh, "You tellin' me Dick was fine before Bruce."

Bruce makes a hurt noise which Jason just rolls his eyes at.

Tim snorts doubtful. "Dick's brand of crazy is genetic. Don't even."

"Ye, but Bruce didn't help," Jason says with a tap of his fin. This makes Tim tilt his head again. It looks like he's going to agree.

Bruce clears his throat. "What's the pup's name?" He asks placing a flipper on the fluff ball who is trying to shove him out of the way.

Dick strokes the pup's fur making them turn their attention to him. The little one nuzzles their face into Dick's hand, a low purring sound rumbling from their small chest. Dick hunches, sitting on the sand. He ruffles the fur on the sides of the child's face. "Her name is Mary."

The child trills in response to her name, snorting into Dick's hand and leaving little bits of sand on it.

Jason stops poking Mary only to look up and give Dick an incredulous look. "Did you bully (Y/n) into naming her that? Did you even ask?"

Dick rolls his eyes and lets out a breath. "Should I have done that before or after she screamed ‘get that fucking thing out of me’?" He asks with an exaggerated wave of his hand. Bruce thinks Dick is starting to become just as expressive in his human form as his seal form. It's  not unpleasant. Far from it. It's just a weird thing to observe.

Jason gets that look on his face that makes Dick want to smack him. Jason hums, "Definitely after, she’ll be too tired to argue." He claps his fins as if to salute how brilliant of an evil mastermind Dick is.

"You’re terrible," Dick says flatly, "You're awful. Don't infect my child." Dick moves Mary away from Jason, placing her on Bruce's other side.

Jason, somehow, gives Dick one of those innocent cat-like smiles Selina makes. "Hey, I'm not the one who put a baby in her."

Bruce patiently looks to the heavens while Tim snickers and Dick looks appropriately horrified.

"What?!" Jason asks as if he needed to.

Dick's face is flushed and scrunched.  His shoulders hunch and he lets himself plop down on to the sand. "We planned it," he says almost inaudibly. His cheeks flush even more.

Jason chokes out laughter and rolls over.  "Ok, so you willingly made her suffer?! You're a terrible husband. Even worse than Bruce."

Bruce quietly defends himself by not dignifying that.

Dick side-eyes him. "See? This is why I didn't want little brothers. B, how could you do this to me?"

Bruce only answers with a noise. He feels like his nerves are popping. He caves and gives Dick a sympathetic look, patting his boy’s leg. The little pup takes the opportunity to waddle away from him.

Dick and Jason continue to bicker while Tim throws some unhelpful comments with nothing helpful at all.

Mary, the rambunctious little pup that she is, wanders over to the shore, dipping her face into the tide pools. The salt water fills her little snout. She exhales the water in tiny displeased spouts out her snout. She cries panicked and tries to flail away from the water.

Dick shoots up, his heart leaping with him. He shoots towards the flailing pup with his family following behind him. It’s funny how fast he can move on his legs now. He even manages not to trip.

“She’ll be fine,” Tim calls out.

Dick pulls his pup close to his chest. His breath steadies now that she’s safe. Bruce can sympathize more than he’d like to. Turning her around, Dick nuzzles his face against hers in a calming gesture. She reciprocates without hesitation, seeking comfort after the frightening experience. Bruce attempts to soothe her further by nuzzling her back and it works as her breathing evens out, following the slow rhythm of Dick’s breaths.

The pup snorts water onto Dick’s sweater.  

A look of panic crosses Dick’s face as he looks at Bruce. “B, what do I do?”

Bruce goes quiet (not that he was anything else to begin with). He nudges Dick’s leg, trying to usher the pup back onto the beach but Dick continues to keep her close. He sighs through his nose. “Chum, put her down and she'll sort herself out.”

Dick’s panic doesn’t subside.

“She'll be fine I promise.”

“What if--”

“She’ll be fine, trust me,” he tries in his most reassuring fatherly voice.

Tim snickers at that,  “Hearing Bruce tell someone to trust him is kinda funny.”

“You’ve all turned out fine,” Bruce defends because they did. All his boys have turned out… functional is a stretch.

“Barely,” Jason scoffs.

“You really want to take credit for these two AND Damian?” Tim laughs. “Good luck with that Bruce.”

Bruce suspects their habit of bullying him comes primarily from Alfred. He loves the man but he is mean when he wants to be. It may also come from Selina. And Talia. And Vicky. And Clark. And Diana.

Does he know anyone who doesn’t bully him?

The familiar banter makes Dick settle and he loosens his grip on Mary. The little pup hops towards the tide pools again despite her earlier panic. Dick follows her, keeping his hands at a reassuring distance as she dips back into the ocean. She flails a little but eventually, she takes to it--like she knows in some part of her little body that she belongs to the sea. She swims around chirping happily and rumbling affectionately when she reunites with her father. Dick beams proudly, playfully pushing Mary back into the waves only for her to swim back to him. Bruce squishes against the warm sand, content to just watch the scene.

[crowned-aeris]

Mermay's almost upon us.... are y'all ready for my ~17.9k words of fluff and angst? 🥰

Featuring:

Bruce Wayne as King of Gotham

Dick as a Mer

Jason as a Selkie

Tim as a Siren

Damian as the Prince of Two Kingdoms

Special Appearances Include:

Clark Kent as Fellow King

Conner & Jonathan Kents

Alfred as Head Butler

and MANY many more! Tune in on May 1st for Part 1, Chapter One, of my 2024 MerMay writing challenge :3

Here is the bingo i'll be following:

by @skumhuu so check them out!

Here's Part 1:

[dragonpyre]

You know how ppl play drums on big dogs do you think they do that to Jason

I'm hoping this is about selkie!jason otherwise this art is very confusing

Commission info ko-fi

[lanceneedstherapy]

My entry for Dick Grayson Week!!

Day 2: captivity

[ghost-bxrd]

I beg of you, more selkie Jason please 🥺. You hc about lil pup Jason saving dick was adorable. I need more, respectfully.

Gladly 💚💚

Jason retreats to the cave pools whenever he’s sacred/insecure and doesn’t resurface (apart for the occasional breath) for a long while. The first time it happens post finding out about his selkie heritage, Bruce thinks Jason must be sick and calls several vets and Leslie to cover the range of both human and seal diseases

Dick loves cuddling with Jason when he’s in his seal form (pretty sure I mentioned this before but it bears repeating ksksks)

One time when Dick is sad Jason looks like he bit on a lemon before draping his seal skin across Dick’s shoulders. Dick is too stunned and touched by the show of trust to stay sad much longer (mission accomplished)

Bruce has hours of footage of seal!Jason doing happy little spins in the cave pools and making little pup squeals. Every single video has at least three backups on different servers.

Bruce offers to have an actual pool installed for Jason to swim in (somewhere that’s not the caves) but Jason declines because the cave pools are perfect to hide.

At least one of the family take Jason to the ocean once a month minimum. Jason is too overwhelmed by the expanse of water he refuses to leave the car at all during the first trip. Dick takes him back a couple days later and just sits down with him in the shallows for an hour before Jason allows himself to shift. Later that day Bruce gets a short video to his phone that shows grainy footage of a grinning Dick diving through the waters with a wide eyed seal pup at his side. Alfred thinks Bruce is having a stroke because the man’s never worn such a big smile on his face before.

Alfred discreetly asks Leslie to test Jason’s blood for any deficiencies. Not much is known about Selkie physiology, so a lack of fresh seafood might be detrimental to his health. Thankfully that is not the case.

Dick tries getting Jason to do tricks with a ball exactly once. Jason insists he didnt know how strong his tail flip would kick the ball back in Dick’s face, but Dick can see the little shit laughing from where he’s nursing a bleeding nose.

The first time Bruce sees Jason waddling over the rough cave floor with his soft seal skin he panics so much he actually starts yelling for Alfred to “get down here right now!” and scoops the bewildered seal pup up in his arms to deposit him smack dab on the first flat and smooth surface he can find to inspect Jason for scrape wounds.

Jason eventually apologizes for the trick ball incident and proposes a peace offering by showing Dick some choreographies of swimmers performing together with the seals. Him and Dick end up learning an entire show and perform it for Bruce and Alfred for Dick’s birthday. (Dick misses the circus, and while this is very different from what he had once, this… this comes close. And nobody is in danger of falling)

Jason is hyper aware of his family’s inability to hold their breath for long and keeps close watch on them in the water, nudging them back to the surface when he considers it too long 🦭

[butcherlarry]

Weekly Fic Rec 39

Another Sunday, another fic rec list! Next week will be my 40th list, so there will be some non Superbat/Batfam/DC recs on that list (not sure what yet though, we'll find out TOGETHER).

Anyway, on to the fics!

pinion by starshotplagues - Superbat, complete. Clark thinks he's dying and Bruce thinks that bullshit. Shenanigans ensue.

Talk Science To Me by profoundalpacakitten - Superbat, complete. Clark has an intimacy problem due to him being indestructible. Bruce does science to fix it. Clark finds that sexy. There is also a PowerPoint (very important).

hit 'em up style by TheResurrectionist - Batfam, complete. Steph asks Bruce to get her some tampons. He becomes very concerned when he starts reading the labels. Shenanigans ensue.

To Hear, To See, To Smile by JUBE514, SalParadiseLost - Batfam, complete. Bruce adopts creepy eldritch children. He adopts another one when he finds Tim :)

Patchwork Pod by Ktkat9 - Superbat, wip. More of the mer Bruce fic! Tim is recovering at the doctor after eating something he's allergic too :(

(Love) Triangles Have Multiple Centers by frozenpotions - Superbat, wip. SECRET IDENTITY SHENANIGANS MY B E L O V E D. The first chapter was so much fun to read!! Drunk Jimmy is a GEM.

Patroclus by widow_account - Superbat, wip. An update of the ''Clark gets kidnapped to Warworld and Bruce goes to save him" fic. Every time I see an email notification for an update to this fic, I do a little happy dance :) :) :)

Good Morning, Sweetheart by InkpotSprite - Batfam, complete. Bruce was late sending Jason his good morning text AND he forgot to add the heart at the end (not like Jason cares, what are you talking about). Jail for Bruce, jail for 1000 years!!!!!

a sky of honey by TheResurrectionist - Superbat, wip. More of the omegaverse Superbat fic. Clark and Uncle Lex go to visit Jason while Bruce and Alfred do some overdue pack bonding 💖💖💖

Sealing the deal by orphan_account - Batfam, complete. Bruce gets kidnapped and Jason saves him. Also, Jason is a selkie and in seal form the whole time. Shenanigans ensue.

over easy by shipyds - Superbat, complete. ALIEN BIOLOGY CLARK!! Bruce is very into this, sexy times ensue :)

Make an Ass of U and Me by Huntress79, Sevidri - Superbat, complete. Clark is jealous of the attractive young man that keeps visiting Bruce, name of Dick Grayson. Misunderstandings and shenanigans ensue.

when doves cry by Scarlet_Ribbons - Batfam, complete. Tim is Not Doing OK after his parents die. Suprisingly, Jason helps.

The Seats of Stars by JUBE514, SalParadiseLost - Batfam, Superfam, (secret) Superbat, wip. More of the centaur batfam and royal superfam fic!!!

What is Dilf? by Speechless_since_1998 - Batfam, and a little bit Superbat, complete. Tim asks Jason what a Dilf is and why the Green Lantern is calling Batman that on Twitter. Shenanigans ensue.

It's Always Bring Your Robin to Work Day by audreycritter - Batfam, complete. Snippets of Tim visiting Bruce in the office throughout the years.

Happy reading!

[ao3feed-sladedick]

Sea Spray and Seal Skin

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/weT8kOU by timbitsandpieces “Listen, we’re going to pack up soon. The selkie or the gold?” Wilson reached for the coat. Dick could feel the moment the power transferred. When he went from belonging to Desmond to Wilson, when Wilson had the power. Any word he spoke, Dick would obey. There was no choice in the matter. He would do as he was told, or he would do as he was told and suffer for a moment before.   After a year spent under Roland Desmond's command, Dick is given as payment to one Slade Wilson. It's more bearable than he would've expected, but he needs to remember just why he's here, that Slade took him to keep. Slade knows that he has to obey. His coat is hanging on the door. Words: 8795, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, Roland Desmond, mentioned batfam Relationships: Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Selkies, Selkie Dick Grayson, Misunderstandings, Miscommunication, they're literally so dumb, Slade is not as much of an asshole as he pretends to be, he's actually flirting!!, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Slade Wilson is Bad at Feelings, as in he's incapable of saying words about them, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Hurt Dick Grayson, romance in the form of slade taking Dick on jobs with him, aka flirting, Dick Grayson Has a Bad Time, But it gets better! read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/weT8kOU