#talia al ghul imagines

[intriq]

Red Carnation

Theme: Angst

Character: Talia Al Ghul

Word Count: 752

Red Carnation; Alas for my poor heart, My heart aches, Deep love

‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎┌──❀*̥˚───❀*̥˚─┐

Love was not something that could ever come easy to someone like Talia. She never expected it, nor did she ever want it. Or so you thought, at least.

That much was made evident in your thoughts when you started coughing up those bloody flower petals.

Your time with Talia goes from so blissful and joyful, to nothing but reminders to the suffocating feeling in your chest. The hazy lightness from the lack of oxygen that has you dizzy and almost tripping over yourself when you turn a little too quick.

A reminder of the blood and flowers you cough up whenever you are reminded of just how much she does not need nor want your love.

When Talia almost catches on one day, the humiliating thought that she could find out how you felt toward her is enough to make you go for the surgery. You'd hate to see her reaction if you ever dared to utter the words "i love you" from your own lips.

The night before your surgery, you take an almost leisurely stroll with Talia through those dark decrepit streets of Gotham. Strolling through alleys and around corners that conveniently keep you both out of the radar and sight of Batman, other villains, gangs, and the like.

On the outside you pretend to be unphased, but on the inside? You are happy you get to feel affection and love for her, just one last time. One last time before the surgery that will clear your lungs of the blood soaked flowers and your fuzzy, cotton-like feelings for her.

That night you spend with Talia brings you joy. It eases that thick, clogging feeling in your throat and lungs for just a little while. Eases the burning pain, and you only coughed up blood and flowers a handful of times. When she asks if your alright after one cruel fit of coughs that leaves the entirety of your palm stained a deep red, you force yourself to smile [with closed lips, to hide your blood-stained teeth] and nod.

For a moment she doesn't wish to believe you, but she does anyway.

And after your surgery, you feel lighter. You feel bad, for so easily making the choice to let go of those feelings you had. But you felt it was all for the best. After all, it was Talia Al Ghul you had loved so desperately. A woman who could do anything she wanted, had the power to do anything.

Perhaps that is why you are surprised when one day Talia blurts the words out to you. She's calm when she says them, almost reminding you of that son of hers she's got with the Bat, with how she calmly drops the information on you.

"I have always favored your company above anyone else's. Why wouldn't I, when I have liked you for quite some time?"

You'd faltered then, having been in the middle of carrying things to and from the little apartment you had. The plates you hold almost clatter to the floor, and Talia is the one who prevents them from doing so.

Her hands had quickly come up to rest underneath yours, preventing them from jolting back to drop the porcelain plates you held. The tips of her fingers brush against your hands when she does so, almost effortlessly taking them from your hands when you stall to place them on the counter behind her.

She calls your name, and you snap out of your trance. Because oh, how cruel fate could be. How cruel the mind could be.

A love that had been requited, ended before it could even dream to grow.

When you tell Talia that you do not feel the same, there is a look in her eyes that is just there for less than a second. Coming and passing before you can even try to read deeper into it.

Her lips press into a thin line as she stands straighter, letting her hands rest by her side as she makes quick strides to the exit of your apartment. "Ah, I see. Apologies then, my dear. Pretend I said nothing, for the sake of our dear friendship, hmm?"

And she's gone. Talia leaves that same soft, static-fuzz of feelings she'd only ever gotten near you at your doorstep. Kicks them under the doormat as she leaves, because how could she ever imagine you to love her back?

Oh, if only she knew. If only. Perhaps it'd been doomed from the very start.

‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎└───❀*̥˚───❀*̥˚┘

[dilfwaynes]

i. estranging from wayne | t. al ghul

summary: talia never had a problem with snatching resources and other factors before from her ex, granted he always took reoccupy of anything purloin; but with you talia isn’t too willing on returning you to the gotham knight.

⚢ pairings; talia al ghul x fem!reader, bruce wayne x fem!reader

✎ word count ; 3.3k

✗ warnings; dom!talia al ghul x sub!fem!reader, future smut with plot, talia being a little mean in the beginning and bruce being a shit head.

NOT PROOFREAD !!!

brandish enflames your skin, the embarrassment and anger quite literally flooding through like water under floorboards and tearing apart anything other than a rehash of an emotional saga of ire, shame, and resentment, for him and yourself. allowing him to treat you like an old trinket that’s tossed in a sheet and hiked up a shelf to remember for when it has a purpose, as well as forgetting about you like a generation passed down antique around the manor.

resentment for empty promises and his runs to cartier and tiffany’s for gifted diamonds to try and fill up his shallow promises somehow. resentment for succeeding in making things up for you, and then rotating to the root once again, and making you lose respect for yourself for your stupidity and naiveness. resentment for his usual family’s broad control of their facial expressions now sudden gained vociferous without them catching on when they also come to the realization bruce has stood you up for her again

selina was sculptured with a blade of aphrodite’s hand, her skilled cheekbones and cat-like eyes to her full lips and thighs and her long legs to match her height, it wasn’t hard to understand why your boyfriend is in love with her —you, yourself very well could see yourself in the same situation, replaced with you on selina’s arm instead—he and her will always have a connection, a bond that you two didn’t, couldn’t ever have. you accepted that a long time ago, but you thought it’ll remain as just a “what if” and remembrances. even though that wasn’t ideal you knew bruce would never get fully over her and belong to you wholeheartedly, you thought maybe at least you could have half of him. they had an understanding with each other that few shared with a man like bruce, an orphan underground that he and selina shared, while you and he quite didn’t, more of a middle ground with uneven sides to put it more accurately.

selina is also his ex who he never fell out of love with.

so it was more than longing and tension, more than wanting. there’s history, already the known, and longing for the once before and having something standing in the doorway of getting it, and honestly you even doubt you were the pillar to that door, which is probably the most pathetic part of it. you don’t even matter enough to be a problem or thought wedged in.

shreds prick the pad of your finger while you aimlessly flick the old wooden table with your head propped up in your hand, you can’t bear the confidence to make eye contact with alfred or luke and kate in the kitchen with you, barely giving a dry thank you when alfred collects your untouched plate of dinner.

red hot embarrassment flushes when luke gives an apologetic look and kate continues the exchange with whispering with a bullhorn of not understanding why you stay with her cousin. you swallow thickly with tears threatening to start with swelling of a burning sting behind your lids, viewing yourself as a complete idiot, actually waiting for him again, swiping your bag and hastily leaping out to the hallways, deluding the hot tears with your thumb as you try to rush from the fallen self-dignity that you lost in this manner.

embarrassingly so you can count on your fingers over how many times you’ve cried in the wayne manor hallways because of this very same situation you keep repeating yourself in.

‘stupid, stupid, stupid’. you scream at yourself mentally for placing yourself to constantly be humiliated, and for knowing your future self will take bruce back with open arms, and more than likely legs when he comes to your place with apologizes and kisses. tears completely blur your eyesight and train of thought when you finally end your rush to the door and step outside, and instantly colliding your body into someone, taller than you enough so that for a second you thought it was dick but you’re quickly confirmed wrong when you lift up to roiled jaded eyes.

overwhelmed with emotions before and confusion you’re obtusely glued to the floor, arms bent under your weight to support your gaze at the woman standing inches away, almost towering above you if she were to move closer, your mouth agape slightly, the action seemingly gets her eyes to slit the tint of the spleen in them more.

from the sleek of her cheekbones and bridge of her nose and green eyes and bronze radiance you already knew who she was without damian needing to confirm with it a calling of mother. your lips pull into a deeper pout as all your emotions fest larger than some minutes ago, great, now two of bruce’s aberrantly gorgeous exes are in gotham.

from her tighten expression she doesn’t need certification to know who you are either.

talia’s demeanor changes somewhat at the sound of damian’s voice, taking her annoyed eyes from your figure—still on the ground— and looking towards damian, muttering what you surmise is arabic. damian takes a peer at you and motions a look of being out of the loop, talia’s eyes latch onto you once more, annoyance clouds over now with unamused and a cocked brow of curiosity.

“damian is this how your father now regards his newest beloved?” she jeeringly quips and you can tell she doesn’t expect an answer, rather just wanted to throw a dagger into breaking the ice. your eyebrows deepen and you peck at your bottom lip, swallowing tightly at the jab. damain ignores his mother and reaches his hand to pull you up by your side, you know he recognizes your form of state and why your eyes are so glossy, acquainted already and that only further shames you.

heat elopes your skin more when you notice that you stayed grasped to the ground for this entire interaction, and quite literally giving talia the ultimate power play with falling onto your ass and staying there. you shrug subconsciously, not the worse or most embarrassing thing that has happened, just another add to the list, and realistically talia has the power play with simply existing.

“the typical?” damian asks, eyebrow raised exactly like his mother that it has you blinking your eyes a second, flicking to talia and latching onto an brief few seconds of intense eye contact. chewing on your bottom lip, brushing off whatever dirt attached onto your legs and skirt, bashfully avoiding the question and urging to make the outcome of tonight not so pitiful and low esteem, especially in front of talia, who’s rather dour parched to the side.

you wonder if she meaningfully meant to strike herself out to be so gorgeous tonight in her fitted washed jeans, the allure of the contrast of her white long polo sleeve against her skintone, or did it just come naturally to her like how all these runway models sort like to claim for themselves?

she seizes your longing eye and holds it again, her stare is complexion with boring into you, yet also uninterested in you at the same time. for you, her presence racks your body with insecurity, and something else you can’t tell right this second.

before even being given the chance to choose to ignore or reply to damian’s question hidden behind a clear statement, he’s gone from the sudden beep of whatever bat device, signaling he’s needed and passing on good nights to you and his mother. you shyly fully turn your attention to talia, anxiously pushing hair behind your ear while trying not to be a complete embarrassing idiot.” sorry for running into you, i should’ve paid more attention,” you quietly apologize, fastening out the words to ease out a fast escape from the situation.

talia was gorgeous in such a way you had never seen, coasted with sultry that edged with freeze rather than hot, structure that defined her bones in an angular perfection, her eyes honed and intimidating

the slit in her eyes struck dubiously, aghast some in the behavior towards your apology to her, she didn’t expect you so demure in such a timid way, bruce’s exes after her have been all rather… prim or at least along those lines.

“or if i hurt you by mistake, i didn’t mean to.” you ramble suddenly at her lack of reply and subdue stare, you sincerely hope you didn’t hurt her in your dull-witted rush, god you truly hated bruce at this moment as guilt claws at your stomach. what if you did clash into talia too hard and now she thinks you’re some bitter girlfriend and meant to run into her and you’re smug about it?

talia’s eyebrows farrow up just a smudge, holding down a bubble of laughter at your words, amusement overthrows any other micro responses at the genuine concern of yours thinking you could harm her. though she can’t pinpoint out if her amusement is set to leaning in offense or just plain amusement, you are as genuine as someone talia has ever met, your movements also show no falseness of putting up a show of timorous, you were truly a shy thing, a nervous habit of jutting your bottom lip between your teeth, pouting and giving doe eyes unconsciously.

you had to be very young with your mannerisms, talia wasn’t quite sure how young tho, but you were far too good and innocent for bruce, talia knows that for sure.

“no harm was inflicted.” her voice is lighter than she had expected and she can tell you thought the same, it was clear of any frostbite but also a dead end to it. you nod awkwardly, getting the hint of the lack of words and edge in her tone, she didn’t want to continue speaking to you. figuring a goodnight was pushing it, you decide to skim past her and the door to walk out to the cold air, and once again mentally scream when you realize you didn’t drive to the manor but tailed down a cab

that was hours ago when the sun only set to twilight and now it’s well over eleven, in this hour cabs tend to be freaky with drivers and more sketch, then again what choice do you have? you can only allow yourself so much self-shame, there has to be a limit, and going to ask for a ride back in the manor is well over dirt in that crossing.

ignoring the stinging crisp nipping at your skin, you pull out your phone and dial a texi service once researching for the most legitimate and less socially rejected one, somewhere along forgetting about talia’s coexistence with her also taking way out, seeming to not sense her adamant gaze on you.

you were very different than bruce’s usual type, thoughts of so swirled buoyant in talia’s head as she took keen in you, somewhere in the middle of diminutive; naïve and careless of your surrounds and hearing, giving you the benefit somewhat as her movements were trained as a deadly assassin, but also ticking that you were just as oblivious in other occasions too. you were timid and polite, shy.

curiosity and doubt burned her thoughts if you were that what you’re showing and not a trickery, damian seemed to care for you to bend down and help you recover from a clumsy fall, as well to ask about your well being in a tension knowledge he already knew information about. the mere idea of you playing some game and damian getting hurt cause of it has her stomach clutching, alongside her teeth.

“is your driver absent?” your attention disengages from the bright lighting between your eyes, fasting to the called-out voice and talia, your surprise must’ve shown on your face with the amused tug of her lip and brow. swallowing, you lamely nod, no cabs were answering or willing to come to the outskirts of gotham at this hour, even with the wayne name being under the address. talia merely tsk’s, her eyes steep and contacting with yours as you shrink under her stare.

her amusement quickly fades and a rush of panic engages in you at her loose response and lack of words, until you realize that she wants a verbal reply back.” yeah, i can’t get a cab for some reason.” you laugh awkwardly, dumbly showing a display of your words by waving your phone, cringing at yourself immediately.

your guess was right about her wanting verbalizing when her eyes light up the dull fringes of umbrage from your lack of voice before, noting yourself to keep in mind whenever— or if ever— you’re in the presence of talia again.

“the butler’s available, perhaps he can assist your aid,” talia suggests lowly, a new delicate placed behind her words. the idea has you drowning in displeasure at the thought of marching back into the manner and asking for a ride back to your house after your boyfriend bailed on you to help his ex. you shake your head softly instinctively with strays of hair brushing against your skin, a sight of talia’s expression quickly reminds you of her surmised preferences of words.

“It's fine, i rather just wait for a cab,” you reassure, pointed more towards yourself than talia, gripping the coat closer to your forested-over skin while glancing back at your phone to see if you received any notifications back. talia’s hum reached your hearing lowly and firing a spark of your interest and costing a peer at her; dry runs over your throat with torrid at connecting with talia’s pierced stare now more inflamed than some minutes ago with smoothed from any hardness, vehemence enhancing the effect of moonlight casting a white bright flare to her hair, jaw, and collarbone.

granted your answer was far from needing to be calculated, the response unknowingly pleased talia and meeting her without any difficulty, you quite didn’t think much about the earlier counter, or realized talia would put thought into the ordeal, and your apparent for making your situation was bold, though talia wasn’t quite sure if bruce kicked you to the side for batman duties regarding gotham, or a catwoman, she eclipses the other factors and leaning on the latter of the problems.

“perhaps i can escort you,” talia propounds while choosing to ignore the fast twitch of your brow and widen eyes, misdoubt swirls of her suspicion some minutes before, considering that you might actually just be bruce’s little bovine, docile and meek lamb. although even if you were, she’s still rather curious about your relationship with damian as he never mentioned you, yet seemingly cared enough to pull you up.

“i assume you reside in gotham city also?” she easily hunches out and walks towards the stretch where her black mercedes stills a few inches sideways from you and the driver’s seat merely far away, poised movements to her plodding reach inside her car. a glimpse once again has your throat clamping and burning, the moon glowering the defines shadows of talia’s jawline, lips and eyes and for the hundredth time your attentiveness falls into talia’s intense gaze; eyes scrutinizing through the rear view mirror to see your choice of her offering.

the frosted wrath of gotham this month of the year ultimately decide your decision when you feel your thighs chalking together to create warmth from the cold, you press for a moment, before hesitantly opening the door and slowly sliding into the passage seat. talia stares at you for a long moment, jades a waiting hue that leaves you confused and slightly uncomfortable in your seat until you blink with the realization she’s waiting for you to tell her your address; it seems like you can’t get enough of embarrassing yourself to talia tonight. you hurry and give her your address between an awkward forced laugh and large blushing spread across your cheeks, talia converts her gaze quickly ahead and roars engine to life.

“are you cold?” talia suddenly asks, voice flat with the question usually benevolent and concern, at least whenever jason or barbara has asked, even bruce. you still for a few seconds, nodding timidly before realizing your mistake again. talia’s lips tug upwards as she watches you catch yourself from your nonverbal habit of answering questions, the removal of the said habit from you picking up her dislike for it does rumble satisfaction in her.

”yeah, staying outside for a few minutes made me freezing.”

‘so obedient.’ talia thinks fetchingly and turning up the contrast of the heat, taking a brisk peek at you, vast curiosity about you swirling in different directions now other than the original reason.

“you and my son are well acquainted?” talia asks in a manner that’s very well stating it, rather than asking it, your head glides towards talia’s question from the heated thoughts angered at your suppose gotham knight. your frown turns confused, is talia annoyed or mad if you had a connection with damian? could she be thinking you’re trying to replace her as damian’s mom?

“uh, i guess. he’s a really good kid.” you reply back and avoid her fast glance at you, you simply can’t handle making eye contact being so close to her, sitting by her is already nerve racking and has you regretting not sliding into the backseat originally; her perfume hazing your sensesso strong that you have a feeling sitting in the back also wouldn’t have helped.

maybe you’re slightly attracted to your boyfriend’s son’s mother aka his ex - god what is wrong with you?

“damian’s prodigious, stupendous is his birthright,” talia waves her hand dismissively after claiming her sentence, as if what she just said is the casual run of the mill. you furrow your eyebrows but remain quiet.”what are your problems regarding the knight?” talia bluntly asks with no quiver of second guessing to ask her question, though you doubt talia’s the type of woman to ever second guess herself.

“it’s crowded when there’s three people in a relationship,” you respond without a beat to her question, with her question being so honest and straight to the point you figure she deserved an answer in the same regard. talia arches her brow amusingly after you confirm what she knew.”i’ll imagine so.” she draws, voice almost light and bemused.

for the first time being in her car you finally look at her and wonder why she bothered to ask you when her words mean are simply dry, maybe it’s normal when talking to an ex of your partners? or maybe you’re let down and was maybe hoping for some sight in advice.

“the doe eyes don’t shackle him to the bed as you hoped, i assume,” she teasingly jests in a dark tone after some large moments has passed, her words addles your already currently dull mind with trying to figure out what she meant. pulling your bottom lip between your teeth, trying to understand her but before so her gaze abruptly shifts to you, eyes boring yours until they linger downward to your lip trapped by your teeth - remaining her eyes onto you while shutting down the car”you’re home.”she announces and burning you up with hot embarrassment, no wonder why she’s staring at you! she wants you out.

“thank you for driving me to my place, i really appreciate it,” you express it meekly after getting out of the benz as elegantly you possibly can muster. after no response in the thirty-five seconds of waiting you begin gently closing the door after you.

”goodnight doe.”

ignoring the rush instant of sense of shock at first and leveling yourself slowly towards the door leading to your apartment, you can’t deny the also flooding giddy sensation at the nickname talia addressed you by, and how stupid that feeling makes you feel as you merely met talia two hours ago. a snapped zoom jolts and tells you that talia left the parking lot and some relief settles in from no longer in her tense presence - her perfume on your clothes make youpractically dizzy, as if her eyes didn’t have enough of that effect.

sighing you quickly unlock the lobby door with your card before some batman villain decides to come and kidnap you tonight. on the topic of batman while entering the elevator you think of the best possible to kill him, being honest with yourself? you think offering off the joker would kill bruce more than actually killing him.

maybe it’s not selina you’re fighting with for bruce but rather a psychotic gay clown.

[damian-lil-babybat]

"My Anatolia" & "My Alexander"

If DC remained truthful to their own canon, and let Talia lied about the miscarriage/abortion instead (like before the retcon, which the author admitted to have misremembered details for iirc), then my OTP since "Batman: The Animated Series", would have not crushed and burn like the city of Alexandria, rendered to ashes and dust that it could never be fully revived in canon.

Based on this panel from Boy Wonder (2024) by Juni Ba.

Headcanon: This is the rose of taif, you cannot convince me otherwise 😭

[oifaaa]

I dont think we as a society do enough with the fact that in current dc continuity the original story of how Damian was born is canon and that technically includes the bit were Talia gives Damian up for adoption as she thought that would be what's best for him bc there's a lot that can be done with this

[starry-bi-sky]

new Danyal al Ghul au just dropped! --or at least some art of it did. I call it the "Stillborn? No, no, still born" au (or stillborn just for short)

it's based off a batfam comment I saw that mentioned in the early comics Bruce knew about Talia's pregnancy and was ecstatic to be a father. So much so that Talia feared he'd give up being Batman for it, so when she gave birth she put the baby (Damian) on a doorstep and (seemingly) told Bruce that the baby was stillborn.

I saw it, thought "mm, tasty!" and thought what if that baby was Danny instead of Damian? By default I was thinking of making him a few years older, however, it works just as well with demon twins. I need to think it over. Meet Daniel Brown! 14 year old foster kid whose been with the Fentons for the last two years! He has SO many issues haha. hah. lmfao even.

Danny's theme song is literally just "Good Kid" from the Percy Jackson musical, to sum him up.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Lol Danny as Phantom trying to summon Jazz as a prank and accidentally summons one of the bats instead. Danny and the bat in question just stare at eachother for a second, eyes flicking between the other person and the obvious Lazarus green summoning circle.

The bat asks a question but before they can even finish Danny yells, "wrONG NUMBER" and breaks the summoning circle thus sending the bat back to wherever they were at the point of summoning.

Danny assumes he must have gotten something wrong and tries again and this time succeeds in summoning Jazz who is very disgruntled at his prank.

This goes on with Danny accidentally summoning various bats by accident and batcow one time while trying to summon cujo. It isn't until Nightwing gets sent back again that he mentions what was happening to him every so often to the others that they all realize they had been summoned multiple times. Batman is freaking out because all his kids??? Got summoned through some kinda magic circle??? And no one told him what was going on???

Bruce also wondered why he wasn't summoned but all the other bats were. The kid who kept summoning them didn't seem like a threat but it was all to suspicious and unnerving.

Danny was getting annoyed. Who were these people and why did they appear everytime he tried to use a spell thats supposed to summon siblings? Is he adopted or something? Mom and Dad never had the greatest relationship with him and his sister but this is something they would tell him, right?

Right?

Bonus: One time he uses the circle while he's in danger to summon his mom so she can beat up Vlad who's gone completely off the rails. He makes sure he's in his living form and looks all weak and small as possible.

This turned out to be a mistake as either Catwoman or Talia Al Ghul appears(writers choice). Danny is confused but mis bio mom recognized him immediately and Vlad gets obliterated. Depending on the choice Vlad is either Souped or Killed and Danny gets kidnapped regardless.

[strangeshoepatrolbandit]

Brotherly Love

Time at your father's has broken apart your relationship with your twin brother, but what about your adopted brother?

Jason Todd x Al-Ghul/Wayne Reader x Damian Wayne (platonic)

Disclaimer: I would like to say that a lot of this was hurriedly written, despite still being fairly new. I really hadn't thought of the full plot when I wrote this. Therefore, it is not my best work.

DC Masterlist

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

Part seven

Final chapter

(Requested Filler)

°•°•°•°•°•°•

☆Letters between Y/N and Arkin.☆

First letters

°•°•°•°•°•°•

Prompt list

(Request) Prompts 9 and 14 (Dick Grayson)

(Request) Prompts 10 and 14 (Dick Grayson)

[spacedace]

Fuck whatever DC is doing with the al Ghul's characterizations and story lines, I've decided that from now on the al Ghul's are gonna be DC's version of the Addams Family instead.

Now I don't mean just give the various al Ghul's the exact personalities of the various Addams and call it a day. That's boring, that erases all the interesting parts of the al Ghuls, that's just using "find & replace" and not actually adding anything. I mean give them the vibes of the Addams Family.

Keep the al Ghul's as the al Ghul's with all their scheming and machinations and world domination attempts but give them all the unhinged energy, the casually insane view of the world, the deranged levels of love and devotion for family. Make them that group where objectively they are batshit insane but also you cannot argue with the fact that they are indisputably the most stable and functional family in the entire universe.

They're creepy, they're kooky, they're mysterious and spooky. Ra's many opulent homes and impenetrable fortresses are a museum and the al Ghul's really are a screa-um whenever people come to see-um (or when they lay waste upon their enemies in a surprise attack that has been planned for months and is just the first domino in a series that will ultimately lead to achieving a far greater goal).

They all love each other and want each other to be happy, they express this primarily with stabbing and murder attempts (its fine, death is a thing that happens to other people).

And forget the League of Assassins being a cult. Just make the whole vast globe spanning organization a collection of cousins/aunts/uncles/dear old friends ect. No one (not even the al Ghuls, if they cared to keep track of such things) is sure who is actually related to them and who just got absorbed into the ever expanding family tree based on their vibes being right.

(Is Sensei Ra's father you ask? Well he's certainly someone's father - probably.

Anyway have you heard about Cousin Cheshire? Despicable poisoner of a young woman, capable of the most horrific things imaginable - yes she is the sweetest dear. Like I was saying though, she just had a baby!

Everyone in the family is just so excited to throw a baby shower to celebrate! Ubu has really gone all out with the spike traps, he does so love getting to welcome a new addition to the family.

Talia of course has cultivated a brand new strain of the most toxic plants imaginable to make a brand new kind of necrotizing poison. You know, as a nice little romantic gift for Cousin Cheshire and that young man of hers. It really is so important to make sure you take time for you and your partner to go on dates and have a few pitched battles to the death on dark rooftops in the pounding rain when you have children.

Now there is some to-do about it all of course, you know how family get together can be. Everyone is arguing over who should get to give little Lian her first weapon and what it should be. Nyssa is pushing for grenades but Ra's is insisting on a sword - he's traditional like that you know - but Dusan has the vote so far on throwing knives. You know the kind that have the little divots along the edges of the blades them to make it easier to get the poison you dip them in to stick.)

I'm just saying that the al Ghuls should be a delightful cross between the Bond Villains they were originally conceived as and the lovingly unhinged Addams Family. It just feels correct in my heart.

(Again keep the interesting aspects of the characters and the nuances of who each of them are like their drive to save the world through destroying humanity and their strong environmentalist leanings and their constantly playing 5D chess and everything, but like, take away the racism and the cartoonishly evil for no reason bullshit and give them some fun feral energy to go along with it).

[melloollem]

Loyal To The Blood|| Damian Wayne × Male reader

Summary: You were created as a servant of the League to protect Damian. Your bond is severed after Damian takes over as Robin. On a disastrous mission, you are forced to deal with the emotional conflicts that the loss of the boy has had and deal with the fact that he now stands before you after years. 

Warnings: Angst, Homosexual angst, Abandonment, Comfort, Recommendation: Once More to see you-Mitski

(Dc masterlist)

In an honorable oath in your childhood, you knelt before the one you recognized as God and pledged allegiance to the future Heir of the League of Assassins. You would die and kill for Damian, for the heir to the League of Assassins empire.

Faced with all the current circumstances, that seemed like a lie, but it wasn't, you and Damian knew that. Damian knew that over your oath, childish though it was, there was a veil of love.

There was only one problem, in your oath you swore to be true to Damian Al Ghul, not Damian Wayne, you would protect and serve the future leader of the League of Assassins, not Robin and it hurt to admit that no amount of love you felt for Damian could detract from your eternal bond with the League, your responsibility, your ideals, your upbringing, you could be true to Damian's blood as you promised to do, but only if he was with the League and he wasn't, not anymore.

The last time you saw each other was before Damian left. You looked at him in an anguished way, but you still tried to look serious and indifferent, like everyone else in that room, but Damian knew you, he identified the pain in your eyes, because he had spent nights staring at them.

That night you stretched out your hand towards Damian with the sole intention of fixing your armor, you were one of the few in the room authorized to approach him, and when your hand was already moving away, Damian grabbed your forearm and promised to come back, he would have liked to say "come back to you", but there were too many people present for that kind of interaction, you didn't answer him, just looked him in the eye quickly. Damian would like to know what you meant by that. Damian would have liked to know that it would be the last time in a long time.

You never believed that the boy would come back, not when he had the world in store for him, not when you knew of his eternal admiration for his father, not when Talia explained the reason for his departure. He wouldn't come back, your love wasn't strong enough to overcome Damian's reasons for staying out of the League, but it was strong enough for him to regularly think of you, for you to regularly think of him, but not for him to come back.

You both lived your lives in parallel, while Damian learned not to kill, you perfected your techniques, while Damian opened up to his new reality, you closed yourself off to survive yours, while Damian received his Robin title, you took over his old position in the League, you were on opposite sides every time.

You were sure that Damian had forgotten you, but you never could, not when you were carrying his position in the League. You felt it as a curse, as if you were cursed to never forget Damian, not when you looked at his armor and saw one similar to his old armor, not when you commanded the men he commanded, not when Talia looked at you remembering how he looked at you with the same green eyes, not when you still lived for him. You were cursed for loving Damian.

Your work in the League had never been easy, there was no way that murdering people and conquering territories could be, but lately they had been made more difficult by a vigilante, the whole thing was being extremely stressful for the League and for you, headquarters being knocked down, assassins hunted, it was all falling on you, the responsibility of sorting it out, sorting it all out, the constant demands of your superiors, along with your responsibility to your soldiers.

The vigilante taking your peace was Red Robin, you knew Ra's Al Ghul wanted to recruit him, he had proven his competence while taking down men from the League, but you weren't willing to negotiate with someone who had done so much destruction to your legacy. When the execution order arrived, you felt relieved, you knew that he had taken out the patience of the head of the League and now you could kill him.

You'd been sent to Gotham City, this wasn't going to be as quick a mission as you'd have liked, apparently the vigilante had enough training to require prior preparation before the attack, you knew you had to attack him in public, when he wasn't hiding his identity, that would reduce your chance of reaction and defense.

You were dispelling all your fears, this was Batman's city, which meant it was Damian's city. You were aware of Tim and Damian's connection, at that moment there were few things you didn't know about Tim, but that didn't matter, at least that's what you repeated to yourself. According to your superiors, you wouldn't even have to find Damian, the orders were clear to avoid members of Tim's family.

You were standing in front of Wayne Industries, an eye-catching building surrounded by people, the perfect setting. You weren't wearing anything to hide your identity, in the League it wasn't necessary. You waited patiently, it wasn't long before the vigilante left the building, you held the dagger firmly in your hands at your side, so as not to attract undue attention, letting out a shaky sigh, death never stopped scaring you, it's always like the first time, no matter how much skill you acquire.

When Tim left Wayne Industries, you started to take your first steps towards him, but your body froze as you met emerald eyes right behind him, Damian was here, your breathing stopped and the grip on the melee weapon loosened, you still tried to take another step forward, but your body threw itself back following what you really wanted to do, despair flooded your chest and that mission already seemed to have failed. You moved away, trying to blend into the crowd so as not to be spotted, hoping he hadn't seen you, but you knew he had, that was Damian.

It was impossible for Damian not to recognize you, you looked different, but the same. Even in a crowd of thousands of people, he would still find you. He watched your desperate escape and didn't move, the boy stood still, absorbed by your presence and the doubt, what were you doing here? Tim noticed his brother's delay after a few steps, calling his name without reply "Damian, we have to go, now" Tim was too tired to look what Damian was looking at and too late to care, he sighed impatiently and then Damian's attention returned, he was frowning in confusion as he looked at the ground in front of him. Tim was about to give up on Damian when the boy stepped in front of him and into the car. "Let's go, Drake," the older man squeaked, but decided not to fight it and got into the car.

That very day, you left Gotham, you would find another way to kill Tim, but it couldn't be there, not with Damian there. You returned to the League, you didn't explain anything to your superiors and you didn't even notify them of your arrival. Days passed after the meeting, you tried to deafen Damian from your thoughts, but it was impossible. The boy's ghost plagued every part of your mind. You had locked yourself in your room for days, asking your servants for privacy and discretion. You needed to be alone.

You didn't believe that Damian would follow you between continents, not even when you saw him standing at the foot of your bed did you believe it, believing that it was your mind playing tricks on you, perhaps your thoughts of him had become so frequent that they were hallucinations, but it wasn't, he really was there. You sat on the bed, staring at him. Your servants had disrespected the order to leave you alone by letting him in. You had forgotten that his power over the League superseded yours, even after years of being away.

You weren't sure what to do, your face was serious, trying not to let any emotion show, your eyes examined every part of Damian. His eyes were fixed on your face. Damian was looking for the differences that the years had brought you, even though he knew they were all over your body, new scars, new face, new hair style. He was trying to capture your new features, everything of you that he had lost. He found some kind of comfort in realizing that your eyes remained the same, still unable to hide any emotion.

"You need to improve your vigilance." It didn't surprise you that the first word he spoke to you was a scolding, just like when you were children, back then, that was his way of caring for you. "I will" was all you managed to say in the presence of the situation "I know", after which you stood in silence for a few minutes while you looked at each other, and on a quick impulse you got up from the bed, turning your back on Damian. You knew that, at that moment, he was looking at the many scars on your back.

You looked around your room for a shirt and then turned to him. "What are you doing here?" Damian didn't know exactly what to say, he wasn't even sure why he had come to see you, it just seemed right. Perhaps this was an attempt to fulfill the promise he had made, but it seemed too late for that to be the reason.

"Heir Al Ghul," you said after noticing the delay in the boy's response. Damian narrowed his eyes at the new way you addressed him, you didn't call him that, not when it was just the two of you, that was the way the League's servants called him, not you, you were allowed to call him Damian or whatever you wanted, all those years apart made you believe that was it for him, a servant of the League?

"I'm not the Al Ghul heir" he chose not to mention your new behavior "Then why do you dress like one?" You were quick to answer, since he was wearing armor like yours. The emerald eyes widened, he wasn't an assassin, not anymore.

"I'm not part of the League" The statement was capable of infuriating you, not for the intended reasons, but because that was supposed to be you, you wanted to leave the League, not Damian. You were only fighting that war because Damian wasn't there to fight it.

"Should I warn the men outside this room of that fact?" Your voice sounded cold and distant and at that moment it was the first time Damian wasn't able to recognize you. He wondered how much of that boy standing in front of him was the one he knew, he was still the same one he loved, he still seemed wrong, but now for other reasons, maybe because you were a murderer, maybe because your integrity was tarnished, maybe because Damian had abandoned you.

"I just wanted to see you," he admitted softly. The lack of arrogance in his voice surprised you, but his greatness still made you feel small, still wanted to make you fight, wanted to make you question "why did you leave me?" "Why did I have to take on all your responsibilities?" "Why did you come back?".

"Are you happy?" It was the question you chose to ask him, because in a promise you had made to him, one you didn't even remember, made in a hidden room at the League, away from all the harsh and judgmental eyes, while Damian cried on your shoulder (a rare occurrence, but one that you, only you could contemplate) you promised Damian that he would find happiness and you hope he has.

"A lot of the time," was his quick reply. "I wish you could enjoy these moments with me." When those words came out of Wayne's mouth, it was as if he had found you in those eyes and stopped looking for his former beloved.

You would have liked to say something out loud, but your childishness still resonated louder, even after so many changes your feelings still had to cling to his sincere gaze that would never lie when he said he loved Damian and despite the fear that the hatred outlined in your scars and war marks would hide that feeling from Damian, you hoped that his sharp gaze would still capture you.

Your love was always implicit, having to survive in the small gaps that the world had left you, no touches or declarations, what you were left with was excessive protection and glances. You wonder how children like you, raised in the midst of so much hatred and war, learned to love each other and now, even on opposite sides, you still loved Damian.

"Would you come with me?"

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This is a very long fanfiction (2,178 words / 11,833 characters) that took a lot of dedication and love from me, I hope that someone likes it as much as I do, thank you for reading it.

[bluerosefox]

Twins AU BUT WITH ANGST!

So I'm writing for the Twins story rn (snails pace of small updates and working on it but it's going) and an idea struck me and I wanna share it and bring it all the DP x DC and Twins AU lovers attention cause were missing out on some PRIME ANGST. (BAD Mom Talia ahead btw, I normally like her in the grey areas but this time, bad mom) (also I LOVE some good Angst.)

So we all know that Talia had Damian cloned right? And later that clone killed Damian. What if, now hear me out, after that (when Damian is brought back to life) what if she tried to use another clone (only not aged up so they’re at Damian age) to coax Damian back into the League and that he can use the clone as a replacement for Danyal (Danny), its her ‘gift’ of trying to give him back his twin.

Can you imagine the feral outrage, insulted anger or heartbreak he'd have over that. He didn’t care much about the first clone cause it had his eyes but this one has Danyal’s blue eyes. Especially if Damian does care for Danny and doesn't want to hide that anymore now that hes not in the League and he can freely talk about his twin without being hushed up (but hasn't been able to due to his own complex emotions over missing his twin). Can you imagine the after emotions after Damian verbally tearing into his mother for such an insult against his twins memory and life and defeating the mindless doll like clone (Taila made it so it'll follow Damian's orders with no fuss should he come back, she ended its life once they left Gotham, another failure it seems) and Bruce asking 'Who is Danyal, Damian?'.

AND THEN CAN YOU IMAGINE THE NUCLEAR MELTDOWN OR RAGE HE'LL HAVE IF HE SEES DANNY. Like Danny is in Gotham for something (class trip? One of his Rouges sneaking to Gotham? A ghost fight taking him there and is sight seeing in his human form now that its over? Sam taking him as her Plus 1 for a social event (Dating? Best friends? Danny being cool with being used as an (entitled, dumb, rich, elite) heir repellent for Sam? [Side note: ALSO DP fans we need to really play with that idea more, Sam comes from money her parents would totally want her with a powerful rich heir, which she would HATE and would totally ask her friends to be her Elitist Heir Repellent] Idk any one is good. Her parents hating that cause they planned to have her 'single' for some of the elite heirs) and Danny gets his face decked hard or his head gets nearly chopped off by a katana.

And when he looks at who did it he's surprised to see someone who looks nearly like him but when green eyes being held back by a few other guys (Dick and Jason)

Does Danny have his memories? Does he remember Damian? Or has he hoped to never see his brother again after all these years? Idk it's open for anyone to pick and choose the plot, I'm just throwing the idea out into the sea and waiting to see if anyone wants to try nibbling at it.

Do they discover the actual truth? Does Damian despise Danny the entire time? Does it go away when the Bats find proof that Danny isn't a clone (online media showing pictures of him growing up in a small town called Amity Park)? Does Damian take note that despite them looking so much alike, Damian is more leaning towards Bruce's body type in the future, while Danny's is leaner/more runnerish (mainly due to their fighting styles/what they fight)? Which is a huge difference from the last clone that was merely a copy paste of Damian but with blue eyes. Idk.

[Small side note: normally in the Twins stories Talia is the one that saves Danny if he dies/sent away, if it's bad mom Talia, who saves him? Maybe have Clockwork save Danny, cause he knows Danny's future is Phantom and later King]

[singswan-springswan]

I just had a fever dream about Jason so y'all gonna have to suffer through me ranting about it buckle up.

literally I just gave him bird wings

In this au he's an "avian" which is not a human... or maybe it is? Anyway just people with bird wings so like. think partial wing au. These "avians" are really rare and I guess functionally they are humans except for the obvious; no powers etc. Maybe they can have kids with humans too idk I'm not worldbuilding 😭

The avian peoples can hide their wings away and shapeshift into humans ig. Their ability to do so varies from individual to individual. Some can do it at will, others have to be triggered to pop them out or bring them in.

Jason can summon his wings at will but he's always had a hard time shifting back to human especially if there's some kind of stressor present. Sometimes he needs to meditate in order to put them away.

His wings were super pretty when he was a kid. When he gets his full plumage it's very light and majestic and glossy and mostly white, with very subtle accents of grey. Sometimes even gold if the sun hits them right. Think marble angel statue etc. Jason is very proud of his wings. He doesn't keep them out all the time, but they sure come in handy during patrol.

He's delighted to be Robin because of the bird theme. Dick is super mad about it.

Jason is kidnapped multiple times for his wings. As you can imagine, there's a big black market for avian products. Probably why there are so few of them :/ anyway he's a scrappy feller so obviously he manages to escape every time, and his efforts improve after all the Robin training. Intrigue about the newest Wayne boy with the pretty wings is borderline vicious. Where did Bruce find such an attractive avian child? Most everyone who recognizes Jason as Bruce's kid ask to see his wings

He likes to wear them around the house because he likes to show them off and he feels comfortable in the Manor. Bruce and Alfred help him preen while he reads or talks about his day and it's great bonding time. Bruce always tells him his wings are beautiful and he should be proud of them and it makes Jason happy. Also, before coming to the Manor Jason had already had a few run-ins with traffickers and is super hesitant to flaunt his feathers but Bruce makes his promise to never lay an unwanted hand on Jason and promises to be gentle with his wings and he is and he's very respectful and treats Jason's wings with reverence every time Jason asks for help taking care of them ouagh. He has a few feathers lying around the house in his study and on his nightstand next to the framed picture of his two sons.

All the Titans compliment Jason's wings and he's blushing so hard the whole time it makes him dizzy

The wings add another layer to the "Robin is magic!" theme

When Jason and Dick get on less hostile terms, Jason makes jokes about Dick being a Flying Grayson despite not being an avian. Dick never takes it well because he's still salty about Jason stealing Robin but at least he's stopped attacking him for it

The "Little Wing" nickname is so much more pertinent now although it serves less as a symbol of Dick's acceptance and more just emphasizing the obvious

Oh no! Jason gets murdered!

The Joker beat him to kriff, but he absolutely desecrated Jason's wings. I'm talking mangled mutilated every bone broken feathers torn out shredded and bloody poor Jason :(

Bruce frames the few feathers he has and cries over them a ton like the unhealthy coping mechanism walking that he is.

Jason never summons his wings after crawling out of his grave. Obviously there's not much to shift into there and he subconsciously knows that exposing himself as an avian is dangerous when Bruce isn't there to protect him

The Lazarus pit heals the scarring on his wings. It takes a while for the feathers to grow back in. The colors change

His new plumage comes in red (womp womp) and Jason is so upset about it because he loved his pretty white feathers that looked like they'd been dipped in champagne and looked innocent and safe. Now his wings are much bigger and scarier and he feels like a different person. Talia tells him he's being dramatic (he is) but also she helps him preen when he can't bring himself to and she teaches him how to fight with the different weight. She also tries to train him to have better control over shifting in and out of them with little success. Maybe it's a classic case of "needing to find inner peace first" lol

Over the course of his time with the League, hints of black begin bleeding in like ink. It looks kinda creepy and Jason hates it even more but Talia teaches him how to use the intimidating factor to his advantage.

Damian draws him whenever he gets the chance. He thinks he's being sneaky.

When Jason decides to go back to Gotham and be a little menace Talia asks him what he's going to call himself. By that point, the black is more prominent, but "Red Hood" still feels aesthetically appropriate.

The Red Hood doesn't show his wings though. It's just a personal poetic symbol for Jason. Keeps him focused on what he's lost and what he's fighting for in the end etc.

His plan proceeds pretty much as canon, everything goes smoothly, Batman's getting thoroughly obsessed, Black Mask is losing his marbles, even that new Replacement Robin is lying low with an up and coming serial killer on a rampage in the Alley.

Then a particular run-in with Batman changes things. Unbeknownst to Jason, Batman's been going down a check-list trying to gather every possible drop of information about Hood (as he does), and of course he has to check if Hood is an avian. like. as an afterthought. They are a pretty rare species, but it's worth checking anyway. How's he going to do that? Glad you asked

Apparently there's a specific move to trigger an avian into revealing their wings. Probably some kind of nerve strike. Bruce learned it while he was in the League because why not. In the middle of his fight with Hood, he manages to sneak the move in, and boom, suddenly Jason's wings are out in all their glory.

As part of the shapeshifting physics we're going to pretend that the wings can pass through clothing. As long as it's flush to the skin. Maybe. So Jason's wings appear beneath his jacket and they're huge and he is very much thrown off balance and caught off guard and of course feeling significantly violated.

Bruce never told him he could do something like that. He's flabbergasted. It's the perfect opening for Batman to subdue him. Which uh.

Of course Batman only knows the Red Hood as a mass murdering crime lord/Rouge adjacent so he's not super gentle. And he knows about the vulnerable parts of an avian's wings do you see where this is going

Jason goes into survival mode because he's high on adrenaline and feeling extremely vulnerable and remember how the Joker treated him? Jason apparently has trauma about other people touching his wings now. He was fine with Talia because he knew that not only did she have no intention of hurting him but she was actively trying to help (in her own weird way). Batman is a different story. They are in the middle of a fight after all. So Jason kinda panics and can't focus on shifting his wings back in meanwhile he's scrambling to try and fend Batman off and protect himself but now that he's off his game Bruce easily overpowers him

Batman gets his wings tied up somehow and it takes everything in Jason not to devolve into a crying pleading heap of feathers. He's lashing out while Batman tries to sedate him. This isn't going the way Jason planned. Eventually Batman has to hold him down because he's thrashing so hard and wow that doesn't resemble the fearsome crime lord from the rumors

Batman ends up grabbing his wings to avoid being bludgeoned and Jason breaks a bone or two in one of them. He fully shrieks at that point. He's always been sensitive about his wings and hated having them restrained and he's scared and irrational and the trauma has him in a stranglehold. Part of it is the fact that Bruce is the one responsible for hurting him. If nothing else, Jason could always count on Bruce being respectful of his wings, so to have him break a bone (never mind that he doesn't know it's Jason) is really rattling

Bruce meanwhile is doing his best to arrest this helmeted freak who thinks it's funny to cosplay as his son's murderer and unwillingly having his heart strings pulled because not only is this villainous man apparently an avian (just like his son) but also Bruce feels slightly bad about using his knowledge of avian vulnerabilities to take him down. ouch. His protective dad mode activates in the subconscious when Hood's desperation to escape becomes glaringly obvious. Batman has to stop himself from asking who hurt you. Wrong thing to say when he is in the process of hurting the crime lord in question

Jason manages to escape somehow. idk exactly. He's resourceful. Anyway he makes his getaway by a hairsbreadth leaving Batman mildly baffled and even more determined than ever to hunt down the Red Hood. He will need to alter parts of his plan. He can't keep running into Batman if Batman's going to force his wings out again. Of course, Talia taught him how to fight with them, but neither of them realized how difficult that would be when fighting Batman dredged up all the trauma yikes

Batman manages to find Hood again and tries to confront him. Jason does not let him get close tells him to stay the heck away and shoots at him to drive the point home because kriff if he's going to repeat that awful experience from last time. He had a Shadow help set his wing and he complained to Talia about it over the phone. after crying. ugly crying. He didn't leave his safehouse for a few days and spent the whole time eating ice cream and crying and reading macbeth.

Bruce updates the file on Red Hood to include his avian species. Tim saw it and said wow how many avians do you find in Gotham what if it's Jason. Bruce did not find that joke funny, Tim. (to be fair, Tim was running on fifty hours without sleep and at least one mug of coffee brewed from Redbull) Bruce goes to bed that night crying holding one of the feathers he kept from Jason's white wings

When the reveal finally comes, I'm thinking it's some ridiculous scenario involving Jason getting knocked out and Batman having to save him and Bruce naturally takes advantage of this opportunity to kidnap Jason and bring him back to the Batcave. He takes the helmet off too. Tim says wow no kidding huh. Then he has to punt the helmet before it can blow up in Bruce's hands because Bruce is well. He's having a moment.

Jason wakes up with his wrist cuffed to his cot in the Cave medbay. He freaks out. He shifts into his wings on instinct and tries to fly away before realizing the bed is too heavy to let him. His weapons have been thoroughly pillaged. He's having another panic attack. rip. Bruce is there and Alfred convinced him to change out of the Batman suit but he's there and he's also having a nervous breakdown. The first thing he does when Jason calms down (gets lightheaded) enough to stop trying to break out of the cuff by brute force or knock everything within range over is apologize for breaking his wing. Jason's having a bad day. He's already got head trauma from whatever knocked him out in the first place and his plans are in shambles and by God he is not supposed to be in the Batcave with a weirdly watery eyed Bruce. Jason just uh. stares at him.

Tim hears the noise and comes rushing in with Alfred at his heels. Tim's doing damage control analysis. Alfred is openly crying and all just "Master Jason" blah blah "it's so good to have you home" he goes to hold Jason's face like a baby and suddenly Jason feels like crying too. His plans are ruined.

Tim's like good now that you're awake what the heck happened to your wings. Jason threatens to slit his throat. Bruce is now also crying because Jason may look different but there's no denying that this defensive rough around the edges street kid is his kid and oh no he broke his wing :(( Jail for father jail for one thousand years etc.

Dick shows up. Bruce called him to inform him that they'd apprehended the Red Hood and that he was in need of medical attention so naturally... they brought him to the Cave (Bruce has a soft spot for avians and he knew that if he handed Hood over to the authorities he would have been taken advantage of). Dick said what the heck is wrong with you Bruce I'm on my way. So he rushed over thinking he was going to walk into a chaotic atmosphere and he wasn't wrong but he wasn't expecting so much crying to be involved. He also has a mental breakdown. You know how it is. Lots of hand tremors. Screaming. Big ugly sobs. Glaring at Bruce demanding to know why he didn't think to tell him his little brother was back from the dead???? *horrified* what happened to your wings? because Jason's wings somehow look even creepier in the light

Jason keeps trying to shift them back in but he can't focus. He feels very exposed and obviously upset. His beautiful perfect plans are ruined :(( He had so many wonderful plans :((( He was going to break the Joker out of Arkham :((((((( And force Bruce to murder him :(((((((((((( looks like that's not happening anymore

Dick attaches himself to Jason with an octopus hug despite Jason's insistence that he will snap Dick's stupid neck. Tim sees his chance to make the situation worse and joins the hug. Jason half-heartedly attempts to push them off

Eventually they remove the cuff even though Jason makes repeated death threats and as soon as he's free he bolts. Doesn't leave the Cave but he needs to get away and gather his wits so he finds a perch near the Cave ceiling (one of many Bruce installed for him back in the day) and refuses to come down. That's fine. Everyone was trying to process the fact that he's alive anyway. Bruce sits on the ground far below and waits the whole time.

Jason is forced to come down by his need to pee. Also Alfred made tea and biscuits and despite Jason's vendetta, he did miss his family. Conversations are had. They fight and say mean things and Jason still can't pull his wings back in but they've reached a consensus. Bruce is in awe the his baby is back. He's willing to do anything to keep him this time around. He tells Jason that his wings are still beautiful (again, sorry for hurting them that one time), and for every bone of yours the Joker broke I'll break one of his just say the word Jay-lad. Tim pipes up didn't you already do that? Bruce says he'll do it as often as Jason wants lol. This man is so unstable. Jason is very touched. He maintains that the Joker is better off dead, but then he can't really hurt people if he's in a body cast so... sure he'll take the win.

When Jason works up the courage to go into the Manor he sees all his old feathers lying around and it makes him oddly happy. He wants to find it weird, and he definitely makes fun of Bruce for keeping them, but secretly he's so touched and he likes having them so he can still see his pretty white feathers.

Jason gives the best hugs. Okay I know Dick is famous for his octopus hugs but Jason's hugs are objectively the best in canon because it feels like Bruce but without the weight of transaction or expectation PLUS Jason has wings now so imagine getting the best hug of your life and then being cocooned in warm fluffy wings on top of that I would die.

Cass comes home and everyone's like ooh update Red Hood turned out to be Jason! This is your little brother btw and she's like ??? yeah I know. They freak out. How did you know Cass. She says dude look at him. and they reexamine the whole Red Hood scheme (aborted) and the fabricated rivalry with Batman and the speech pattern and the strategic maneuvers and the iconic dramatic flair and they're like okay yeah that makes sense. But you never met him Cass you had no point of reference. FOOLS. MUST THE GODDESS JUSTIFY HERSELF TO YOU??

Anyway everything is fine and Damian joins the family and he makes so many paintings of Jason and his portrait is the first one they have framed with Jason and his new wings. Happily ever after

[cassandracain52]

Damian Wayne has a metal spine

Ok so I’ve talked about Damian having his spine replaced three times on this page and every time I’ve gotten a surplus of people confused about when/how that happened

so in the interest of saving time, I’m going to give a brief synopsis of the entire event. (All comic panels are from comic issues Batman and Robin (2009) TBD 1 Part 2 - Batman and Robin (2009) TBD 2 Part 2) Funnily enough this happens in the same time period that Tim lost his spleen aka When Bruce Is Lost In Time

(!Warning! There will be talk of the G*nt M*rr*s*n Talia character assassination as this happens during that run)

Alright so the whole thing first starts when Damian is shot repeatedly in the back by a villain named “Flamingo” and loses the feeling in his lower body

Because Damian is paralyzed, Dick and Alfred take him back to his mother to be treated

There is where we see Talia arranging for Damian to have his entire spine replaced by a synthetic one

The surgery works but Damian still can’t walk for a few weeks

Oh and I can’t forget to mention that before Alfred and Damian leave, Talia has this lovely conversation-

Here she very clearly vocalizes that since Bruce is dead, Damian has no reason to stay in Gotham and that she wants him to come back home.

Damian refuses to be a weapon used against the Bats and Talia -very suspiciously might I add- just lets him leave

We later find out the reason she didn’t put up much fight to keep Damian in her care was actually because his new spine was laced with tiny machines that allowed for someone to merge with his nervous system and control his actions

of course we find this out when Damian appears to randomly attempt to murder Dick for no apparent reason

Talia then gives control over Damian to Slade -freakin’- Wilson. Arguably the worst possible person to give this control to right below Ra’s Al Ghul himself

Slade to absolutely no one’s surprise, appears to have agreed to this strictly so he can try to kill Dick. Dick ends up figuring out that it’s Slade (after the man makes Damian yell “SlaDe” in a truly brilliant reveal) and thinks of a way to free Damian

Unfortunately his solution is to shock the crap out of Damian’s nervous system because -and I quote- “Your heart can take it, but his?”

He proceeds to more or less give this poor kid electro shock therapy and zap Slade into releasing his hold on Damian. (No hate to Dick it was a time sensitive situation but yikes Damian can’t catch a break)

It works and the connection between Damian and Slade is severed. (Yay??? I guess??)

Batman and Robin then return to the cave where Damian promptly declares he needs to see his Mother right now and Dick agrees but comes with him

Dick quickly finds the machine that they had been using to control Damian and promptly smashes it to pieces. (As he should)

Damian however goes straight to Talia to talk about her -ya know- putting a bunch of robots in his back

the conversation goes as well as you’d expect it to and Talia then reveals that “Oh btw, I’m growing another Damian cause you’re flawed”

She also offers Damian one last chance to reconsider and come back to the League.

Because he’s not completely crazy Damian of course refuses which prompts Talia to do this-

Just straight up disowns Damian right there.

This then starts everything to do with Heretic and all that and Damian’s eventual death (G*nt M*rrs*s*n you are truly my biggest opp)

But that’s not important here, what’s important is that while it can no longer be used to control him, Damian still has the metal spine!

Hope this cleared things up for anyone who was confused/didn’t know about it!🖤

[damianwayne0]

Talia: Damian you need to trust me!

Damian: stop telling me to trust you while I am still coughing up water from when you last drown me!

[1-8oo-wtfbro]

What if, people really didn’t leave the league? like, in fics and comics it’s always ppl sneaking away in the dead of night and then being hunted down. But, what if that wasn’t the case? What if, when you swore in, you (unknowingly or knowingly to you) pledged your soul to Ra’s Al Ghul, to the Al ghuls, and to the League of Assassins.

so you can run, but it always feels wrong, and you always end up back there, bc your soul it tugging you back to where it is pledged, where it’s tethered. And when you die, your soul doesn’t go to heaven or hell, but you continue to serve the al ghuls as ghosts.

Bruce doesn’t count, bc Ra’s let him go; he respected the detective too much to enslave him (he pledged to so as to get trained by the league). Jason and Cass weren’t technically part of the league, since they never formally pledged.

And because of this, the Al ghuls have this weird relationship with the occult. They can actually sense/see all ghosts, but only control the ones who are pledged to them. similar thing with magic and the occult (they have magic in their blood). they have a 6th sense for it, like it almost leaves a residue that they can sense/see.

[raeofgayshine]

Jason, holding baby Damian: Uhm

Jason: You want a beer?

Damian: *baby noises of delight*

Talia: He’s a baby!

Jason: I don’t know, what am I supposed to do with him?!

[2d-beefcakes-my-beloveds]

OC Marina Grayson

As a young man, Orm fell in love with a marine researcher. When she didn't return the next year with the pod of dolphins she was studying, he assumed she had been killed over their relationship bc it's something his father would've done. When he finds out it's actually bc he's a father and small children aren't allowed on research vessels, he peacefully abdicates the throne to his brother so he can marry the love of his life and raise his daughter in Gotham. Since he has the wealth of the ocean at his disposal, he purchases the local aquarium so they can still do marine research and start sharing some Atlantean knowledge with the surface world in order to help environmental awareness.

(HC for all Atlanteans) Atlanteans have scales they can display at will, and coloring is indicative of familial line. They also have facial markings when underwater and generally the bolder the better; more fierce and therefore beautiful. Orm inherited a Siren's Voice from his mother, and Marina was able to prove her ancestry with her Royal Gold scales and the incredibly rare Siren's Voice. Her facial markings look similar to a goth egirl, and are considered the height of Atlantean beauty. When she does her makeup on land she mostly just adds back her natural features, though the specific colors and shaping might vary a little. Dick is considered kinda ugly in Atlantis without the domino mask.

Because of her vocal ability, she had to visit Atlantis fairly often for training in control and as a backup heir to the throne. She was trained in traditional combat using a trident, but she's never felt right with the thought of ever needing to use it to take a life. The Atlantean public loves their kind and gentle surface princess, but the other court families think she's too free spirited and want to push their sons on her to keep the Voice within Atlantis.

She was Dick's classmate and acquaintances at the very least until she saved him from drowning in Gotham Harbor when they were 11. She dived in to rescue Robin, and was shocked to hear her classmate's voice thanking her. She paired up with Dick on their next school project so she could have an excuse to visit the Manor. She then confesses to Dick, Bruce, and Alfred to having figured out their secret, and tells them about her being Atlantean to show she's not intentionally a threat.

She and Dick become good friends after this since they can talk about their secret lives, and she joins the original Teen Titans when they form. She wrote the choreography for the team's lip-sync and dance videos for their official YouTube channel since, as younger millennials, they were some of the first heroes to publicly goof off on the internet in costume.

At one point during a school dance, she slapped her own date for calling her best friend a "dirty gypsy." There was a month or so when they were 15 where Dick did date Starfire, but there's no hard feelings or jealousy from it.

In high school, she was a competitive diver and worked at the aquarium as a mermaid in the shark exhibit in her spare time. She picked up air ribbon acrobatics as well because it's the closest thing she can do on land that feels like being underwater.

I'm undecided as of yet how they started dating, but Dick proposed with his mother's necklace. Some Romani vistas (I've heard) use coin necklaces, so I think he'd use his mom's the same way ppl use heirloom rings. It amuses Wally to no end that Circus Boy has a royal title and his favorite teasing nickname is "Your Highness."

Marina quit being a vigilante as they got older because it was getting harder to pull her punches as she got stronger. She recognized that it would be devastating for Surface-Atlantean relations if either the Princess or a representative hero killed someone even on accident, so stepped back to be a more supportive role as Surface Ambassador and post patrol medical assistance. Most of her work as Surface Ambassador involves negotiating ocean cleanup and environmental improvements on a governmental level with the various world powers.

She absolutely does not want to inherit the Atlantean throne. She despised her tenure as Regent while Arthur was dead before he was brought back to life in Darkest Night, and gave the throne back the very next day so she could go home.

While Bruce was stuck in the time stream, she was fully on board with Dick over legally adopting Damian. Sometimes he'll actually call her Ummi since she's more affectionate than Talia, especially when he's overtired. She does eventually adopt him under Atlantean law by challenging Talia for Mother's Rights. Since their fight was underwater due to Atlantean rules and Talia wanting whatever's best for her son, Marina wins and Damian is technically royalty as well now too. She's not even mad that Talia let her win, and gains a new respect for her as a mother who's willing to let her child go for a healthier upbringing than she could give.

When at home or for some semblance of privacy in public, Dick and Marina speak a blend of English and as much Romani as Dick can remember. Sometimes they'll include some Atlantean for extra security in public, but as English is Marina's first language they don't usually bother.

In the public eye on the surface, Dick is considered the trophy husband with a day job as a detective. He kinda loves their visits to Atlantis bc he's actually taken seriously as Dick Grayson without his pretty privilege. He can actually be his fully intelligent self there without the Atlantean public being shocked that he has more than a single brain cell.

Marina fully encourages sibling shenanigans amount the younger Batfam. She and Dick used to prank Bruce after all, and it's good and healthy bonding for them.

Jason is the adorable little brother who was taken too soon and came back angry yet still just as loved. She's kinda neutral about Tim but fully supports his tinkering and pranking shenanigans, and he likes her coffee more than Alfred's. Unfortunately I haven't known about most of the rest of the younger members long enough to have any relationship specifics in mind, but she's kinda like the cool auntie to all of them who will absolutely provide mischief supplies and assistance. No questions asked, just immediate "here you go I didn't see or hear anything."