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sanjithesimp · 2 years

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Attention

Sanji x fem reader

A/n: After seeing all those pics of Sanji being tied omggg it gave me so many ideas, like can we all agree he’s a sub? Anyways, I couldn’t stop thinking about them, even as I was writing for another fic, I had to stop and write this. Enjoy!

w.c: 1.7k words

WARNING: NSFW (minors DNI)

T.W: jealousy, sanji sub, blowjob, teasing, bondage.

summary: sanji being a sub, like always ;) it has a cute ending hehe

playlist suggested to listen while you read this <3

You saw him flirting with other girls on the island you were visiting. He wouldn’t stop looking and complimenting them. Although, to be honest there were a lot of really pretty girls around but that didn’t mean he could be flirting with them openly like he wasn’t in a relationship. He would definitely pay for that later when you all got back to the Sunny, and you definitely had a plan. You separated from the group and decided to buy some things for the plan you had. Sanji would not even see what was coming for him.

The rest of the day you continued walking around the small town, watching as Sanji gave flowers to some girls that were passing by, reciting poems, and the stupid blush he would get whenever a girl smiled at him. It made your blood boil, but thinking about how much you would make him suffer calmed you down, it even made you laugh.

When it started to get dark, all the crew went back to the Sunny. Nami was very happy with all the bargains she got, Robin was carrying a whole set of new books and Chopper couldn’t stop smiling because he had tried the best cotton candy in the whole world.

Once all the crew was on the ship, everyone headed to their respective room.

You went to your room and changed into the outfit for that night. And then you decided to wear a coat to cover the outfit, and after closing your door you walked all the way to Sanji’s room. Once you were in front of his door, you lightly knocked the door. And he opened immediately, letting you in quickly and his hands desperately trying to touch you.

“Who said you could touch me?” You said harshly, moving away from his grip.

“Y/n-swan, why are you doing this to me?” Sanji was surprised by your reaction, whenever you went there you would always make him feel good. But not this time, he deserved to suffer.

“And you are asking why?” You laughed, and sat on the corner of his bed.

“I don’t understand, what have I done to make you feel like this?” He asked, suddenly getting on his knees and holding your hand.

“Just shut up and take off your clothes” You said and he obeyed, making you smile at the power you were holding. He was needy and desperate to touch you, that he would do anything, but this time he wasn’t going to get any of it.

Once he was all completely naked he stood there, your eyes roamed all over his body, stopping at his girthy dick, and then looking back at his face, watching him get flustered and blushed just by looking at him. You hadn’t even touched him.

“Sit down” You commanded and pointed to the chair on his small desk. He then walked there and sat, he spread his legs, showing it all making you feel weak for a moment but you had to control yourself.

You then walked slowly towards where he was sitting, until you were standing in front of Sanji. And then you took out some ropes out of your coat. Making Sanji audibly gulp.

“Don’t move or else...” You said and he nodded as you started tying him up.

Once he was completely restrained, you took off your coat and dropped it on the floor. Revealing the set you had bought for this occasion. It was meant to torture Sanji, making him want to rip it out of you and fuck you right there.

It was a light blue lingerie set, the fabric was sheer and it adjusted nicely to your body. He audibly gasped at how hot you looked.

“Baby, you look so fucking hot right now...the things I would do to you if my hands weren’t tied” He said, his breathing had increased and his dick was now hard from only looking at you. But you really wanted to punish him for what he did, so you pretended like you didn’t listen to him.

You got closer to him and whispered in his ear, your lips grasping his ear “You want to rip it out of me don’t you” He let out a moan, as he tried to untie himself but you made sure he couldn’t free himself so easily. You gently caressed his face, looking directly at him.

“I’m sorry Y/n, I’m sorry for whatever I did..I promise you I won’t do it again.” He said but it was too late to say sorry.

“You should be sorry, but you won’t get off so easily baby” You said with a smirk and then kneeled in front of him. And then looked at him while you took his dick on your hand.

“I’m going to make you pay” And then you started gently stroking it, “And I also want you to be quiet, don’t want anyone listening to your needy ass” he nodded and you stopped.

Then you took a handful of his hair and pulled him closer “I couldn’t hear you”, and then he replied “Yes, baby I’m going to be quiet”.

“Great” And then you continued on stroking his hard dick, up and down, precum already dripping from the tip and falling on your hand. You could hear his soft moans and muffled groans, trying to be as quiet as possible. He was a mess, and you could tell he was really making an effort to obey, so you decided to delight him with your tongue.

So then you started giving kitten licks on his tip, while keeping eye contact with him the whole time.

“Ffffuck Y/n, you are so good” Sanji whispered, you were also aroused at how hot he looked and what he just said had made you wetter than you were already so you placed your legs together to create some friction.

“Oh babe, I know you want me to touch you so bad”Sanji said under his breath while looking at you, it was a big mistake. As you completely stopped, knowing that he was close to his orgasm.

“I said to keep quiet” You said and stood up. This wasn’t over. So you walked all the way to the bed and sat on it. A smirk was drawn across your face while you took off your set, piece by piece. Letting your whole body on display for Sanji, but he wouldn’t be able to touch any of it.

And then you spread your legs, letting your cunt in full display for him to watch as your juices dripped out of it. He tried to move, he needed to relieve his need to touch you, to feel you against his skin.

“Now watch” You said as you started slowly moving your hands over your body, and then one of your hands landing on your core, you placed two fingers on it and started rubbing your clit in circles. Making yourself moan and whimper at how aroused you were.

Sanji could only watch you as you pleased yourself, frustrated as he wasn’t the one doing it and also because he was painfully hard and no one was there to help him while you drove him crazy as you moved your fingers in and out of you.

And you had to be honest, you wished it was his dick that was making you feel like that but you couldn’t let him make you feel bad and reward him for it. You wanted to teach him a lesson.

You continued pleasuring yourself, touching your body as you tried to reach your peak. Once in a while moaning his name, getting him more aroused. He reacted by groaning from how hot you sounded when saying his name over and over as you fucked yourself with your fingers. Making Sanji watch it all, until the coil of your belly finally snapped.

You cried out of pleasure while you continued rubbing your clit, riding your orgasm until you couldn’t no more.

Once you had caught your breath and you were stable, you walked all the way to Sanji.” Do you want me to help you with that” You said as he was still working very hard and you wanted to reward him for behaving the whole time.

“Yes, please baby” He said and you started to untie him, and gently caress the places where the rope had left marks. Then you gave him a soft kiss on the lips and sat on top of him. Then you slowly started to introduce him into you, feeling as your walls greeted him with warmth and adjusted to it until his tip kissed that spot that made you see the stars every time he touched it.

You started rolling your hips, while Sanji bucked his hips making each thrust hard against your sensitive cunt. As you continued, you created a perfect rhythm making both of you enjoy every second of it.

“Babe, you look beautiful tonight” He said as he placed one hand on your hips to get a better grip and with his other hand he cupped your face while he looked at you with loving eyes. Once you both were closer to your orgasms, he started leaving wet kisses all over your neck and chest, sucking the skin and leaving marks on it.

“Oh Sanji, yes...like that” You said as he started thrusting faster, while he sucked on your nipple. Making him and you cum almost at the same time. You felt as he filled you with his cum while your cunt clenched around his dick taking it all in.

You stayed like that for a couple of minutes as you tried to recover from your high, and then you both separated to walk back to the bed where you both plopped and started talking.

“I just want you to know how much it hurts me when you look at other pretty girls, you know?” You said, telling him the reason why you behaved like that.

“I know, and I’m sorry for it, I’m sorry for hurting you” Sanji replied and then he pulled you closer to him, making your head rest on his chest. “But just so you know, you’re my pretty girl”

Tag list: @jin-supremacy01 , @aces-sweetheart , @thewanderinglunarian, @lawscorazon, @shrimp-sanji

#ooof omg #i mean #this was really hot too #like after watching those sanji pics of him being tied #i had so many ideas #and this is what came out #sanji x y/n #sanji simp #blackleg sanji #sanji black leg #vinsmoke sanji #one piece #op #sanji x reader #sanji x you #op fics #one piece smut #one piece fics #fics

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fantastic-nonsense · 2 years

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I think if we’re going to tackle the “Dick wanted to send Tim to Arkham” demonizing Dick, woobifying Tim bs we also have to tackle the “Dick put Jason in Arkham at the same time the Joker was there and Jason was traumatized by it” demonizing Dick, woobifying Jason bs, because they stem from the same place with the same goal and they’re both completely non-canon

I mean...you're right and you should say it.

(General Warning for Tony Daniel's and Grant Morrison's shitty Jason characterization that created this situation in the first place. You have been warned)

Okay, so like...every time 'Dick sent Jason to Arkham!' discourse pops up, I always want to remind people of four things:

The Joker wasn't there. Literally. The Joker. Was. Not. There. Jason never interacted with the Joker, he never saw the Joker, he was never once in the Joker's presence during this arc. It didn't happen.

Jason being sent to Arkham rather than somewhere like Blackgate was explicitly for Jason's own self-protection, because he would have been flat-out murdered in a normal prison (and in fact, he nearly was the second he was transferred). Jason being in Arkham was Dick's personal preference because it meant Jason had an actual chance at rehabilitation rather than being shanked the second he walked out of his cell. However, Dick didn’t actually send him there. That’s just where he ended up.

Jason's canonical actions at the time justified his incarceration at a prison facility specifically geared towards working with criminals with poor mental health rather than being left to the 'normal' prison system.

Dick was actively working to improve Arkham's conditions and spent several issues in various comics dismantling its corrupt leadership and practices (though it's not stated, it's implied that he was so dedicated to it because of his own experiences when he was trapped, drugged, and tortured there during Batman RIP). This was explicitly shown on several occasions, and we're also explicitly shown that Jason is genuinely being helped. He doesn't want to be helped and said help is so-so at being effective (because...Morrison), but he was hardly being tortured or shut away in a straitjacket 24/7.

The big things I always want to remind people is that a) Joker was literally never in Arkham at the same time as Jason (he was free and causing mayhem around Gotham during Jason's Arkham arc) and b) Jason was incredibly unstable during this arc. You all have to understand that at the time Dick handed Jason over to Gordon, Jason had JUST been waltzing around as a killer Batman and nearly killed Tim (again) in Battle for the Cowl. In the story where he was arrested, he was casually murdering criminals and uploading pics of their dead bodies to social media with his new teen sidekick. This isn't a situation where Dick was just like "well he's a villain and villains go to Arkham." Jason was doing some incredibly messed up stuff and basically dared Dick to take him on while doing so.

Jason's actions weren't particularly in character during this arc, but Dick had pretty legitimate reasons for thinking so given his words/actions in Battle for the Cowl; it's not like the decision was made on a whim. Also, a lot of people maliciously misrepresent both how much of a say Dick had in where Jason was placed and his perspective on Jason in general. He was both genuinely trying to help Jason and constrained by what he could do with Gordon standing right there:

"Look at yourself, Jason. You're a mess. Everything's a mess. Stop all this...and let us help you." "Help me? It's...too late for me, Grayson. And it was always too late." -Batman and Robin (2009) #6

Dick handed Jason over to Gordon, and the legal system put him in Arkham over Blackgate because of the danger he posed. However, Dick actually petitioned for Arkham over a normal prison not because he agreed with that assessment, but because Jason wouldn't be safe in Blackgate. Dick even says this to Bruce when Jason (who's scheming up a prison break) puts in a transfer request to a regular prison:

"He won't be safe in a conventional prison...there will be a list of enemies a mile long locked up in there with him. Unless he's in twenty-four hour protective custody, all he'll be doing is fending off attacks. Why would he put himself at such risk?" -Batman and Robin (2009) #23

So does Bruce, by the way, though he's uh...characteristically blunt and Batman-y about it:

"You're in Arkham for your own safety." -Batman and Robin (2009) #23

And Dick does try to make sure Jason's in an environment where he can be helped; again, Dick spends a lot of time during his tenure as Batman specifically and explicitly cleaning up the corruption in and around Arkham's administration and making sure the Asylum treats its inmates fairly and with compassion; it's the entire plot of the Arkham Reborn mini, and we also get a couple of Batman issues dedicated to it as he tracked down and turned in Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, the then-Head of Arkham Asylum.

Dick spent basically all of Jason's time in Arkham worried about Jason's safety...and he was right to, by the way; when Jason's transfer request is approved, he does, in fact, spend basically all of his time trying not to get killed (he also killed around 100 people in his prison break scheme so again: this version of Jason was absolutely not in a place where he should have been allowed to participate in general society. This is not post-Flashpoint!Jason, whose story and personality was drastically softened to "rebel with a cause" as DC fully committed to the anti-hero direction; this is full-on Villain!Jason at his worst).

Since Jason basically disappears after his prison break and retrieval of Scarlet and we don't see him again before the reboot, we have no idea if his time in Arkham helped him (if at all); however, it's implied that he still doesn't feel much remorse for his actions and he's ready to continue wreaking havoc on Gotham.

Morrison's characterization was fucked up, but within the context of the story written, Jason's incarceration in Arkham was both justified and a genuine attempt on Dick's part to keep him safe and get him help. Jason's actions were well beyond anything considered moral acceptability and basically put Dick in an impossible situation without a lot of options (said options were "Arkham or Blackgate," not "Arkham or freedom").

Jason wasn't a victim (either of Dick's supposedly unjustified decision to "put him in Arkham" or of any particularly awful treatment while he was there) and Dick weighed in to the best of his ability in order to make sure Jason was safe while incarcerated and surrounded by people who would genuinely do their best to help him. Any attempt to twist Dick's actions to be otherwise is an active misrepresentation of what canonically happened designed to woobify Jason and villainize Dick for no reason.

#long post #dick grayson #jason todd #dc meta #dc comics #batman and robin #jason todd meta #dick grayson meta #tony daniel's and grant morrison's jason todd my beloathed #but anyway: yeah no the eternal nonsense about how Dick is a terrible person b/c he 'threw Jason in Arkham' is bs to the highest degree #thanks for coming to my ted talk #asks

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the-witches-you-couldnt-burn · 3 years

Text

It started with a whisper

I originally wrote ‘Like I did with you’ as a one-shot but people wanted a sequel. This turned out to be waaaaay longer than expected (4.7k word count). Inspired by Everybody Talks by Neon Trees. I hope you lot enjoy!

Ao3

(Also this is Mari’s new outfit, all credits go to the original artist)

————

Two teens stood upon the balcony of a large banquet hall, exposed to the midsummer night air. The sky was a lilac blanket that hung over the Parisian buildings, speckled with glowing stars. The moon, with it’s crescent smile, beamed down of the young couple.

Hey, baby, won't you look my way?

Marinette’s eyes were closed as she rested her head upon his shoulder, relaxing after the night’s rapid escalation. Tonight she had arrived at the ball with the intent to be there for her friends, but somehow she found herself within the arms of Gotham’s (and probably Paris’) Ice Prince. She had overheard his nickname from the Gotham students, one of which being Jon, who was in the middle of mocking the young Wayne. She had never considered that nickname as suitable; sure he was temperamental & had a tendency to snap, but icey to the core? No.

I can be your new addiction

Damian was calm. For the first time in his life he felt like he could take a breath. His exhale was carried off by a small gust of wind, the bush over hanging the stone railing rustled. With his inhale, the scent of Marinette’s perfume became present once more. Mixed with the crisp night’s air, her usual scent of pastries was mixed with what could only be described as ambrosia. His phone vibrated within his pocket, it was never on volume due to the potential risk it caused during his heroic activities.

“Shit.” Notifications covered his screen, multiple tweets, Instagrams and Tiktoks in which he had been tagged in. But the alert came from his family’s private messaging chat. The whole thread was a shit storm, Grayson and Todd’s messages were completely capitalised (he learnt years ago this meant ‘to yell’ in writing form) and both had multiple ‘keyboard spasms’. Drake, like the thorough detective he is, had combed through the images and videos, investigating their validity. His honorary sisters had replied with ‘awwwww’(s) and ‘Omg we MUST meet this girl! I need to know how she tamed the demon!’. He could practically hear Brown’s shrill voice from across the ocean.

Hey, baby, what you gotta say?

No reply from his father or Alfred. The two of them were the only semblance of ‘normal’ paternal figures he had within his life, after the sham of a relationship he had previously held with his grandfather. Their silence unnerved him.

Marinette had noticed his attention had shifted to his phone, her own mobile was buzzing away within her baby pink purse. Messages, notifications of account tagging and comments galore. A sigh left her lips when she saw her parents seemed to be none the wiser. Good, she didn’t need to deal with future adoration for ‘The boy who swept our daughter off of her feet’ (or something along those lines).

Her cheeks regained some of the warmth they held before as she thought of her parent’s reaction. Scrolling through her Twitter she saw her friends had posted multiple images of the night’s events, majority being her shared dance.

Chloé Bourgeois @TheBestBourgeois

what kind of Disney shit is this? (Insert video of two teens dancing around an mostly empty dance floor.)

Alix Kubdel @Sk8trGirl

Replying to @TheBestBourgeois

I KNOW RIGHT?! THEY WERE FUCKING FLOATING!!!

All you're giving me is fiction

She was thankful that they hadn’t tagged her but she hadn’t been spared by others in attendance. Her post thread had blown up, thousands had commented and even more had viewed the evidence. There was no way she would come out of this unscathed.

“Has anyone been on Twitter today?” The blonde of the family asked as she walked into the dining room. Her eyes focused on her scrolling screen, brows furrowed in confusion. “Actually has anyone seen what’s happening on any of our socials?”

It was early in the afternoon and the family had recently returned home after a straining stakeout. The Joker had broken out of Arkham and the Batfam had to deal with his minions. Dick’s arm was in a sling (sprained from a grapple gone wrong), Jason was icing his hand, Alfred was stitching Bruce’s chest wounds while Tim and the girls escaped without severe injuries. All were still recuperating and finally able to recharge.

Alfred always enforced a strict ‘no devices at the dinner table’ rule; no matter how urgent it was, it could wait until after sustenance was consumed. Tim strongly opposed this, but there was no arguing with Agent A. This all surmises that probably no one had seen the crap storm on social media.

I'm a sorry sucker and this happens all the time

Bruce sighed, bringing his free arm up to rub his eyes. Tilting his head back to look at Steph, “Who was it this time?” Barbara quickly took out her phone to see what Stephanie was talking about, all the while glancing accusingly at Dick and Jason. Both of whom held up their arms (or in Dick’s case arm), declaring their innocence.

“It wasn’t fucking me!”

“Jason! Language!” Dick shot a glare at Jason and was met with one in return. “It wasn’t me either.”

“Then who-“ Bruce started before being cut off by his most rambunctious daughter.

I found out that everybody talks

Stephanie with a squeal, exclaimed that it was Damian. Visions of what the Wayne brat could have done flashed through the heads of everyone in the room. He had been sent overseas before the quarantines and lockdowns hit. During Damian’s first month in France he had been forced into online schooling and then finally when he got to go to in-person classes he hated it. Described the class as a kindergarten with petty and vindictive toddlers.

Had he broken someone’s arm? Was that person of such importance that it had spread over multiple social media platforms? France’s government had announced on June 15th, that teens were now being inoculated so him having COVID-19 was doubtful. Had he insulted the wrong person? Had he taken over the government? He certainly had the potential.

Everybody talks, everybody talks

What they saw stunned them, even Steph as she watched it for the 7th time. Damian Wayne was dancing. But not only that, he was dancing with a girl.

It started with a whisper

“What is this shit?”

No one verbally objected to Jason’s outburst but he was sent a harsh glare from Alfred, Dick and Bruce. Their focus soon returned to the images and videos before them. Babs’ and Steph’s phones were returned to them as the others ran to grab their own devices. They all met back at the table, comparing the posts and comparing their notes.

I can hear the chitchat

“There’s no way this can be real.”

“Jesus Tim,” Barbara rolls her eyes, “have you seen the amount of posts there are? You’d be an idiot to think otherwise.”

Take me to your love shack

“I’m with Tim, how do we know this isn’t some skit. I mean, Demon Spawn almost looks normal. That’s a matter of concern.” He almost dry heaved when he agreed with Tim. Damian couldn’t be capable of naturally exuding that amount of humanity unless there was something in it for him.

Mamas always gotta backtrack

“I was just saying Babs, that we should check the credibility of these images. For all we know they could be gorilla glued together and trying to get unstuck.” Tim cringed at his own reasoning, he really needed to either sleep (probably not going to happen anytime soon) or find his favourite coffee brand (which had been one of the first to vanish after the covid hoarders appeared).

When everybody talks back

Dick was too busy freaking out and spam messaging the youngest Wayne, to defend Damian’s humanity. The family saw this and followed suit, wanting to get information from the source.

Chat name: Alfred supremacy

BigBird: AHHHHHH DAMIAN!

BigBird: YOU LOOK SO CUTE!!!

BigBird: HAIFJDNDNFI

LittleWing: WTF HAPPENED DEMON SPAWN YOU LOOK ALMOST HUMAN

Babs: who knew the city of love would influence the brat

Blondie: they are so cuteeeeeee!

Blondie: We HAVE to meet her!

Silent-but-deadly: agreed.

Timbo: YO DEMON

Timbo: Apparently the videos are legit

Timbo: are you being blackmailed?

And it just devolved into more chaos from there, fueled by the fact that they saw Damian’s ‘Blood Son’ account appear online before vanishing once more. Dick shrieked, “I FOUND HER ACCOUNT!”

The family gathered around the eldest son, peering over his shoulder to view his iPhone 12max screen. They saw a young girl’s Instagram account. It was locked but they could see her profile pic, the girl had black hair and looked to be if Asian decent. They compared it to the videos but it was hard to see due to the hall’s lighting and the minimised facial features of the pfp. Alfred suggested that they search up her username and see who has tagged her, some might have other photos of her.

After research for awhile, the family began to get frustrated with lack of results.

Hey honey you could be my drug

You could be my new prescription

“Come on!” Jason complained, “What kind of teenage girl doesn’t post her life online?” He ignored the girls glares and went back to researching. How had the account by the name of ‘mariiiiinette’ to managed to prevent the entire Wayne clan from accessing it? Damn Instagram privacy settings. He groaned, dragging a hand down his face, “We are fucking stupid. Why don’t we just use the Bat-computer? It would be so much fucking easier.”

“It shouldn’t be used for civilian issues-“

Too much could be an overdose

“The girl could be a meta for all we know! We aren’t safe until we know who she is.” Jason points a finger at Tim, his paranoia flared up and even though he would never admit it, Jason would do anything to protect each member of his family (although Bruce is still debatable).

All this trash talk make me itching

Barbara and Tim took their usual positions as Oracle and Red Robin (who had been banned from patrol due to lack of sleep). The rest of the Batfam stood behind them either with arms crossed or still failing at researching.

Oh my my shit

“The account is owned by a girl called Marinette Dupian-Cheng. She is French-Chinese and her parents own a popular bakery. Also if it wasn’t already obvious, she goes to Collège Françoise Dupont, aka Damian’s French school.” Tim begun informing his nosy family, “But this account has been inactive for the past 6 months, which is strange due to her frequent posting schedule before hand. It seems she probably has a second account and this is her old one.”

Everybody talks, everybody talks

“Not only that,” Barbara interrupted. “There are unopened messages from other accounts that accuse her of being a bully. There is a whole Facebook page about this girl and how she has been hurting her old friends, but neither side seems reliable. The so called victims seem to be twisting the truth but there is barely any information about Marinette so we can’t disprove it either.”

“Read out some of the messages.” Bruce took a cup of coffee from Alfred and sipped it.

The main screen of the bat computer displayed a Facebook group with the banner picture being a photo of Marinette. “They are mostly complaints expected of teen girls when there is a girl they don’t like; ‘Marinette is such a know-it-all’, ‘She is constantly insulting Lila’s intelligence’. They go on to talk about how Marinette was briefly expelled from the Collège before being reinstated by the principle for a reason unknown to them.”

Everybody talks too much

“Her school reports up until this year were good. The newest one states, ‘While Marinette is a wonderful and bright student, I encourage her to settle her disagreements outside of class. This seems to only be a recent occurrence and I implore her to go to the guidance council if she is in need of help.’” A beat of silence echoes through the cave, Tim sighed. “Jason’s meta theory could be correct. She could have just recently started exhibiting her abilities and using them to get what she wants.”

“Bruce what do you want to do?”

“We’re going to Paris.”

She opened her eyes to the blaring morning light that streamed through the blinds. Her lashes still painted with mascara that refused to leave. She felt a pang of sorrow when she was removing her makeup and dress last night, she never wanted the night to end. She shuffled down the stairs to the kitchen, covering her mouth when she yawned. She greeted her mother as she entered the kitchen to get breakfast.

She glanced at her phone and there was the chaos that was started hours ago and it was still occurring. It was the weekend, she wouldn’t need to deal with her classmates until Monday. But she would still have to survive her parent’s interrogation. Out of the corner of her eye she caught her mother smirking at her.

Everybody talks

“Nadja told me some interesting news about last night.” Marinette held her breath, glaring at the toaster, willing it to hurry up so she could escape. “Well,” Sabine patted her shoulder before rubbing Mari’s back. “I know you didn’t want to go but I hope you had fun.”

With that she exited the kitchen, probably going to help her father in the bakery. The ravenette stared after her, eye widened in shock, jumping when the toaster went off. Buttering her toast she went over the conversation, her brows furrowed in confusion. She had expected a ‘When do I get to meet the oh so famous prince?’ or ‘Should I be expecting a new guest sometime in the near future?’ or at least a ‘Who was that young man, Bǎozàng (宝藏 it means treasure)?’ But she said nothing.

A small smile was plastered upon her face as she changed and went down to help her parents in the bakery. Her father didn’t say anything either, he gave her a knowing smile before continuing to kneed the dough. She sat at the the store front as the cashier whilst her parents were busy making ‘Paris’s Finest Pastries’.

Her musings slowly faded as she was brought back to reality by badly hushed whispers. Two young preteens were by the bread roll casing near the door. She had seen them come in before with their parents, the girls went to the prestigious international school over in the 16th arrondissement. The one with purple hair kept whispering to the brunette, both ‘subtly’ glancing towards her. Using her enhanced hearing she listened in on their conversation.

“That’s her, I swear that’s her in the video.”

The blonde’s face soured likes she sucked on a lemon. “No, it wasn’t good lighting there is no way he would dance with someone like her.”

Everybody talks

Marinette had tough skin but their words had an impact, only a small one due to her defence mechanism of repressing emotions. She stopped listening and went back to drawing in her sketchpad, she was in desperate need of a new school outfit.

The two girls eventually came up to the counter, goods in hand. Marinette rung up and bagged their items (paper because save the turtles sksksk) in a tired daze. A phone was shoved into her face, her eyes barely adjusted to view the screen before the blonde spoke.

“Is this your instagram?” She asked in a tone so snobbish that it should be illegal from a person her age. Marinette finally was able to view the screen that was barely an inch from her face. Her old Instagram ‘mariiiiinette’ was displayed on screen, she hesitantly nodded, gaze flicking back to the two in front of her.

The blonde’s nose scrunched up and the purple goth girl squealed in delight. They soon after left the store, their conversation had devolved into ‘See! I told you’ and ‘Yeah, yeah. You were right.’

Walking to school on Monday, she had finally come down from cloud nine. She still rode the tail end of her high as she rushed along her path to her campus, she wasn’t going to be late but she sure wasn’t going to be early. She had spent the better part of the weekend designing and sewing a brand new outfit. Her new look was composed of a black cropped singlet (L'amour gagne hemmed into it and it’s straps), paired matching peach plaid cropped overshirt and a-line miniskirt. Her hair was down, ballet flats were worn and her makeup was the usual with the added edition of a rose gold eyeshadow.

Even though her face was covered in a black and gold mask, she looked hot.

She reached the campus and the whispers started again, people were still buzzing from Friday night. Her classmates, the majority of her grade and the younger years seemed to gossiping before class about the formal’s events. She couldn’t spot any of her friends or the two Gotham transfers, so she was stuck listening the the chitchat. Why couldn’t she have been late like usual?

Damian had a fowl disposition and it showed in multiple icey glares (and that was before he even reached the collège). His family had made their appearance known in Paris at 1am Sunday morning. He could have used his dorm to escape but his family didn’t have the word ‘privacy’ within their vocabulary. He didn’t want to have to pay for a lock replacement due to his brothers’ (most likely Todd with Drake & Grayson laughing at him) lock picking habit.

The Ice Prince was back with full force. He had just been... influenced by all the other couples. Yes he did respect Dupain-Cheng and he appreciated her company & pleasant conversations. He would struggle to hide a small smile at the memory of the dance, even if he denied himself the happiness of normality, he felt content when reminiscing.

“Ooo the Ice Prince is here, did he have a fight with his princess or something?” The voice seemed to mock him.

“The Disney Magic is gone. The demon is back.”

Everybody talks

At the second jeer he shot a glare at the perpetrator. Jon held his hands up in an ‘I surrender manner’, laughing as he joined Damian at his side. The two entered the school’s large foyer and looked to see if any of the classes were open yet. Sadly they weren’t, before he was wrong and the his class was plain torture but this was truely hell.

He saw Dupain-Cheng sitting alone on the stairs, drawing within her sketchpad. He wondered how a girl like her, who always seemed to be involved in other’s lives (for the better) was ignoring all of the comments about her. She felt his focus centre on her, eyes flicking up to meet his, she provided him with a small wave before continuing to draw.

Jon nudged him with an elbow to his ribs and dragged him off to the side, into the boy’s locker rooms. Jon scowled at the door, “It’s a mad house out there. You’ve heard what some people are saying right?”

“Why would I care about these imbeciles?”

Jon jabbed Damian in the chest, causing the demon to stumble. Green eyes darted from blue eyes to the tan finger. “You care when lies hurt people you care about.”

The day began to rapidly decline once the two dance partners took their seats, next to each other. They had both been placed up the back of the class and them sitting together hadn’t been a problem until now apparently. She wasn’t even safe when the teacher started their lecture, whispers and glances were cast towards them. Once the two got to biology it was better, Ms Mendeleiev was a strict teacher and was able to control the class.

Everybody talks

But the recess came. When the bell rang she slowly started packing up her equipment, Alix and Max (who she shared biology with) waited for her; she watched as the Ice Prince left through the door. She knew she didn’t need to be concerned about her friends joining in with the gossiping, if anything they would dispel people and tell them to ‘Mind their own fucking business’ because this whole situations is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

She did receive some slight teasing from Alix about being a Disney princess, but Marinette quipped back about the skater’s fairytale story being ‘Pinknette, the Geek and the Beast’. The three met up with the other two of their group, they had just come from geography. Kim was complaining that Argentina was a state in America.

“That’s Arkansas you idiot!” Chloe shrieked, lightly hitting his arm with her white handbag. Max held his head in his hand as he approached, how had his tutoring sessions failed so badly?

Chloe turned to Marinette, a smile forming from her glare. The blonde examined the designer’s clothing, nodding. “You look like you are about to have a hot girl summer.”

Marinette’s face burned, the tips of her ears coated in red. Alix chuckled and nudged her shoulder.

Everybody talks

“Look at her, she is so desperate for his attention that she probably copied those designs.”

“Why do you think he danced with her anyways? Maybe she has something on him? I mean, she forces him to sit next to her in class, who knows what else she has done.”

What. The. Fuck.

Chloe glowered towards Lila’s posy. “We have a fucking seating plan, those cretins-“ She made a motion to storm over but was caught by the ravenette, looking back to Mari, her rage decreased from a boil to a simmer.

“No Chlo. It’s fine, it’s not worth it.”

Everybody talks... back

The group walked out to the school’s front steps, it was a mad house... a mad courtyard? Students sitting on the stairs, on the grass and standing around mingling, all of them now were staring at her. She held her backpack close to her chest (she had swapped her signature coin-bag purse for the pastel pink bag), pretending its a shield. Her friends circled around her becoming an obstacle to prevent their stares. If people were afraid of a scowling Kim then they don’t know the scorn of Chloe or Alix’s bite. And Max, sweet quiet Max.... you better hope he doesn’t have blackmail on you (he probably does), he can dismantle your life with a single anonymous post.

Rushed footsteps approached them. The group was broken apart by a rude Wayne boy, he swept Mari away from the school and the gossip crowds within. Her four friends shouted at him and he kept walking, shooting a glare at them in response. He kept pushing Marinette forward with a hand placed on the small of her back, her backpack was now swung over his other shoulder.

They ended up in her favourite alcove. She had brought him here with the other Gotham transfers for a native’s tour of Paris. It had always been her safe place to be creative.

It started with a whisper (everybody talks, everybody talks)

“My apologises for our rushed departure but you seemed to want to get out of their anyhow.” His gruff tone danced through the silence, his head still peaking around the corner; watching for any unwelcome guests.

“Thank you.” She whispered, her voice almost being carried off by the gentle wind. A genuine smile illustrated upon her face.

“We weren’t able to converse after the events of the other night. I would like to formally apologise once more for my actions causing this adverse reaction. If I had kn-“

“You don’t need to apologise!” She squeaked, hiding her eyes behind her fisted hand. Her shoulders curled inwards as she tried to make herself seem as small as possible, a side effect of her common use of her secondary miraculous form: Multimouse.

“I chose to dance with you, you don’t need to apologise for my own actions.” He stared at her with confusion. He had taken the blame so she wouldn’t need to do so herself; but she had taken it anyways. He had given her an out. Why does she always take the blame, even for things out of her control?

“But if I hadn’t danced with you then you wouldn’t have been the focus of the entire school.”

Marinette stepped forward, her eyes hardened and blazing. “Damian Friday night I went there out of obligation to my friends, I didn’t want to be there. But dancing with you? That was the highlight of my week, probably my month too. I enjoyed our time together.” Her face softened, lips twitched downwards ever so slightly. “I don’t regret anything about that night, but do you?”

He was bad at comfort. Everyone in his family avoided him when they were in need, he plainly didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t visibly upset but he sensed that she is disappointed that he apparently didn’t share the same opinion of the night. The only thing he regretted about that night was letting Jon call him a coward, but then again if he didn’t he never would have danced with Dupa- Marinette.

He picked up her clenched hand, the tension in her body alleviated at his embrace. He remembered how Grayson would apologise to Kor’i or how his father interacted with Ms Kyle. He brought their hands up and placed a kiss upon her knuckles.

And that was when I kissed her (everybody talks, everybody talks)

“I do not regret anything either—“ he cleared his throat, “In fact, I’d appreciate if we would be able to interact more, especially outside of that cesspit.”

Was he...?

It didn’t matter.

She smiled the same dazzling smile she gave him at the dance. She nodded while laughing, “I’d love that.”

Everybody talks

The two stay talking, hidden within their secret alcove for the rest of the day. She texted her parents to say she was with a friend and would be back later that night. Damian didn’t bother texting his family, Marinette knew he had to be back soon due to his dorm’s curfew.

The sun was setting at they walked back together, he did the gentlemanly thing and dropped her off at her bakery door. She could see her mother behind the register inconspicuously looking over at the two of them. Damian’s lips quirked upwards, she was satisfied with his kinda-smile.

He walked back, hands in pockets and a neutral expression upon his face instead of a scowl. He reached his door and took his keys, he found that it was already open. Damn.

His family was splayed out within his two roomed dorm. Todd and Drake were fighting over a place to sit on his bed, whilst his father sat at his desk, watching the commotion. The three of them turned to him as he enter the room, they were the only family members able to attend on short notice; Cain had a ballet audition, Gordon & Brown had concert tickets for tomorrow, Grayson had to take care of Mar’i while Kor’i was on Tamaran and Alfred stayed to ensure no one died during their night time activities.

“We need to talk Damian.” His father stood, leaning onto the desk chair. “The school called and said you had an unexcused absence for half the day. Where were you Damian?”

Damian stared into his father’s eyes. He was fifteen, almost an adult, but was treated like he was ten again.

“I was with a friend.”

“Probably the girl from the dance. Marinette, right?” Todd mocked him. Damian snapped his head in the direction of his bed, glaring at both his brothers.

“That’s what I want to talk about with you Damian. Now I don’t know her personally but from what we’ve discovered through our investigation we have some concerns. What’s happened Damian?”

The youngest Wayne’s glare shifted off of his brothers to the floor, and then finally to his father; his family sitting in wait for his answer. Straightening his posture, his shoulders clicked as he rolled then back. His statement’s tone was sure and steady, “Everybody talks father.”

Everybody talks... back

#maribat #marinette x damian #mlb x dc #batfam salt #batfam is concerned #Daminette #the aftermath of ‘Like I did with you’#everybody talks by neon trees #max kante has blackmail and will use it #Alix will bite if provoked #dc x mlb #damian wayne x marinette dupain cheng #Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a meta?#supportive Dupain-Cheng parents ❤️

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ectonurites · 3 years

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idk how to quote tags on mobile where is the conner kent essay i NEED it

ALRIGHT OKAY! here’s 5k+ words plus panels & screenshots of me comparing and contrasting the two drastically different versions of Superboy (comics vs young justice cartoon) and going over what makes them such distinctly separate characters. someday i’ll refine this a bit more its kinda just a word dump that’s been living in my brain that i wanted to actually articulate after i read through Reign of the Supermen but here we go:

Pretty frequently I see the question “Why is Superboy so different in the Young Justice cartoon?” float around in DC circles. I think there are two main approaches to answering this:

Why did the writers of the cartoon decide to create a very different version of Superboy?

What factors make this Superboy so different from the comic version?

For the first approach the answer is relatively straight-forward, from the start Young Justice as a cartoon was never meant to be a direct adaptation of the comics. They just used the title and a few elements so they could create their own approach to the DC universe with a focus on younger heroes. For example, Artemis Crock in their show is also COMPLETELY different from her comic counterpart, Zatanna is aged way down to be a member of the teen team, and Kaldur’ahm was created for this show (and integrated into the comics as Jackson Hyde). They were always trying to do different things than the main comics universe, so them making a different version of Conner also makes sense. Their approach to him is also very clearly influenced more by how he appeared in the Teen Titans comic run that was still coming out as Young Justice started airing (his design, and some other elements we’ll discuss along the way), as opposed to his original version from the 90′s/the Young Justice comic.

So the basic “why” is that from the start they wanted to create something unique to their universe, which they definitely did accomplish.

The much more interesting subject to dive into, though, is looking at the differences in Superboy’s story that contribute to him becoming such a different person.

The drastic changes made to the following factors are what I view as the main source of his differences in personality/outlook/characterization:

The conditions and history of the world at the time he is introduced

The circumstances around him being introduced/leaving Cadmus

The reaction Clark has to him and how their relationship starts

The people he first interacted with & became close to, and how he interacts with the world

The timing of him finding out about his connection to Luthor

The State of the Worlds

In the comics, Superboy is first introduced in Adventures of Superman #500 by iconically saying “Don’t ever call me Superboy!”

during a 1993 event called “Reign of the Supermen”, a follow up to the 1992 event “The Death of Superman”. Based on the title of the 1992 event, I think you can, uh, guess what one major difference in the setting here was vs. the state of the world at the time he was introduced in the cartoon. Obviously Clark didn’t stay dead forever, but Superboy first comes onto the scene as a young clone of Superman who insists he is the new Superman (one of the four characters trying to do so during the event). This is in the main DC universe in the early 90’s, which means that heroes in general, including teen heroes, aren’t a new thing! Not only has the Justice League been around for a while but so has the Teen Titans. Once Clark is alive again, Superboy goes off on his own to establish himself as an individual teen hero.

So how is that different in the cartoon?

In the cartoon, Superboy is first introduced in the pilot episodes “Independence Day” and “Fireworks”

on the 4th of July in (what most people consider to be) 2010. This was supposed to be the day that Robin (Dick Grayson), Speedy (Roy Harper), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Aqualad (Kaldur’ahm) would get to see the true Justice League HQ at the Hall of Justice, which... doesn’t go exactly as planned.

In this world, superheroes are a newer thing, this is something that the creators have talked about before. At this point, while there is an established Justice League, there are no known teams of teen superheroes. Just the fact that as of season one Dick Grayson is still Robin is a pretty good indicator that this world is early in it’s time with a Batman. Now, the sidekicks aren’t a secret, as they appear very publicly in this first episode, but they are almost always seen acting with their mentors at this point. Again, there is no Teen Titans in this setting, and there never has been.

So when they do form the first teen hero team? It is kept covert-ops. They do not publicize that they act as a superhero team, and the members who weren’t already publicly known heroes (mainly Miss Martian and Superboy) end up being pretty… unknown to a lot of the world outside the hero/villain community! Again their existence is not strictly kept a secret, but they keep the fact that there’s a team of minors who are heroes going on independent missions VERY under the radar on purpose. Thus, those who aren’t going around doing super public hero activities just don’t have nearly as much of a presence.

So to summarize:

In the comics, Superboy is immediately put in a spotlight (he befriends a reporter and is all over tv and literally trademarks the name Superman) becoming known to the world and establishes himself as a solo acting hero YEARS before joining any teams.

In the cartoon, Superboy is kept relatively out of the spotlight, immediately becomes part of a covert-ops team and doesn’t act solo very often. The well known teen heroes in this setting are sidekicks working under a mentor, and Superboy does not actually act as a sidekick.

What does this mean for Superboy?

Superboy in the comics gets to, right away, act on his own and get a taste of what being Superman is like. In the cartoon, he’s brought into the world at a time where there already is a Superman. I think back to this bit from the therapy episode, where he says:

“See, from the moment I first opened my eyes in that Cadmus pod, there’s been one thing I’ve wanted, and feared. To know what it is to be Superman.”

Comics Superboy started out getting to do that! He immediately got a shot at filling that role, and he then makes the choice to relinquish it back to the original once he’s alive again. He (begrudgingly at first) understood that it wasn’t yet his time to be Superman, and knows he’ll someday fill those shoes for real- but in the meantime being Superboy is gonna be his own thing and he’ll embrace it and make it work.

Cartoon Superboy is left in a shadow, not ever truly knowing what it’s like to fill those shoes (except in a doomsday scenario training exercise gone awry that he then just feels intense guilt over). This leaves him a lot more frustrated and lost, and I think is a major contributor to how angry this version of Superboy is compared to his much more ‘chill go with the flow’ attitude in the comics.

Cadmus

In the comics, in that same issue he’s introduced, we find out that Superboy broke out of his cloning tube prematurely and left Cadmus with the assistance of the second Newsboy Legion, who also gave him his first leather jacket, before the programming that would allow Cadmus to control him was implemented.

He quickly gets up to speed with the situation, that Clark is dead. So he comes on the scene starting to save people and saying he is Superman, or at least the clone of the original one. A major thing that does influence his character here is the fact that… this is the 90’s. He is designed around the idea of what is ‘cool’ back in 1993. (look, even his original character design sheets call him cool)

So right off the bat he’s got a stereotypical ‘cool teen guy in that era’ personality, which is often played for comedy to add a little lightness to some of the dark things happening during this event.

Anyways, he has left Cadmus, he’s acting on his own, and he starts realizing that his powers aren’t exactly the same as Superman’s over the course of the Reign of the Supermen story.

After the main conflict is settled and Clark is fully alive and acting as Superman again, the two of them end up going back to Cadmus to find out what the exact deal is with him. I’ll go into this more in a later point, but they find out he’s not exactly a clone of Superman (or Lex- him being actually involved as a DNA donor is a retcon that happened a decade later). They agree to let someone from Cadmus (Dubbilex- the grey guy with the horns in this pic) leave Metropolis with him, as he sets out on a press tour to establish himself as Superboy now that he relinquished the trademark on the Superman name back to Clark.

Let’s pause and look at how this is different in the cartoon.

In the cartoon, when the trio of Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad decide to prove themselves to their mentors they run off on their own to attend to a fire at Project Cadmus when the Justice League got called off to do something else. Upon arriving, they accidentally uncover some weird things about Cadmus, like the crazy amount of sublevels, the creatures roaming around, and the fact that it’s not on the main power grids. They eventually find Superboy, still in his cloning tube. They break him out, but then get captured themselves.

When they are then put into tubes by Cadmus personnel, they manage to convince Superboy to help free them by promising him things like getting to meet Superman, and see the moon. The group of four now working together manages to escape from the building and it topples down, where they are then greeted by the Justice League who are Not Happy.

Superman flies away shortly after, and the group of kids explain to their remaining mentors that sure, they disobeyed orders, but they accomplished something good here, and they are going to keep doing it, whether the League likes it or not. The compromise is the formation of The Team, to be covert-ops while the Justice League acts publicly, and the boys are joined by Miss Martian.

So to summarize:

In the comics, Superboy leaves Cadmus pretty independently (with some assistance) to go act on his own as a hero immediately. He returns to Cadmus later for more information, and they reveal truths to him about his existence. After he knows his truth, he goes off to continue establishing himself as a solo hero but lets Cadmus still supervise what he’s doing through Dubbilex.

In the cartoon, Superboy is rescued from Cadmus by Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, without knowing pretty much anything about himself besides the fact that he is a clone of Superman, and is immediately put on the covert ops team.

What it means for Superboy:

Comic Superboy goes to act on his own, even after he admits he’s not the real Superman anymore. Yes he’s not 100% alone in terms of ‘he’s got people (Rex, Roxy, Dubbilex, Tana) around him’, but as a hero he’s a solo act and ends up taking residence in Hawaii. In the cartoon, by joining a team right away, he’s taking on a very different style of being a hero, especially because the team itself is covert-ops. Rather than regularly saving the day all on his own much like Superman, which can help comic Superboy feel like he’s still living up to the name more, cartoon Superboy is working under the radar in a group setting, while still wanting to desperately fill those Superman shoes.

He is overconfident in his abilities and wants to be the hero he was created to be, so him being put into this very different type of superhero situation is another major contributor to the frustration/anger. Even later on when comics Superboy is part of forming the Young Justice team, they were never a secret covert-ops team, they were always publicly known. (hell, a reporter is the one who gave them the team name Young Justice because he’d misheard Bart)

Superboy & Superman

In the comics, as we have established, Clark was dead at the time Superboy first came on the hero scene. Clark comes back to life, during a little bit of a lull in the middle of the huge conflict. He immediately accepts that Superboy is one of four who came forward to try to replace him, and one of the only two (Superboy & Steel) who genuinely only had good intentions in doing so. Clark, Steel, Supergirl, Hal Jordan, and Superboy then all work together in the big battle against the Cyborg Superman.

Once things are settled, Clark is curious about him, and where he came from and his origin, so they end up going to Cadmus together with Guardian and learning more about him, as I previously mentioned. Once it is established that Superboy is in fact a metahuman clone who was created to mimic Superman, but is not actually a clone of him, Superman still accepts him and thinks he’s earned his right to continue using the ’S’ shield and have the name of Superboy.

They part ways so Superboy can go on his press tour, but in general they have pretty positive interactions where they mutually respect each other! Not too much later in the comics even (I forget exaaactly when this happens but it’s definitely before the 1998 Young justice comic), Superman is the first one to give Superboy a real name, “Kon-El”, something he is so happy about he literally cries.

How is this different in the cartoon?

When the boys first escaped, and Superboy first meets the Justice League, Clark is standoffish. Other members of the league need to nudge him over to go actually talk to Superboy, and it’s not much of a conversation before he flies off and away, leaving Superboy frustrated and alone.

This… turns into the standard for almost the entire first season. Other characters constantly telling Clark that he needs to reach out and be support for the boy (like in this iconic diner scene with Bruce and Clark), but Clark consistently being too freaked out by the fact that someone made a clone of him without his knowledge to properly accept Conner. While this does over time get better, this being the immediate reaction when Superboy is brand new in the world definitely… has an impact!

He is rejected by the person he idolizes, and feels neglected and abandoned, and definitely kinda overcompensates with ego to try to make up for it.

So:

In the comics, Superman and Superboy work together from the start, not falling into a hero/sidekick situation but rather acknowledging each other as individual heroes with respect for one another. They grow to see each other as family much faster, and little tension between them. A crucial difference in situations, though, is that at the time these versions first meet Superboy is not actually a clone of Superman.

In the cartoon, Superman at first avoids Superboy, and does not offer guidance or mentorship or anything the boy needs. It is clear that he wants to work with Superman and be like him, since it was what he was created to do. It takes a lot of time for Clark to accept Conner in this setting, and there is a lot of tension for the first several months Conner exists. (they seem to settle this towards the end of season 1/during the gap between season 2, but it still has it’s impact on who Conner is early in his life)

What does this mean?

I feel like this is another major factor that contributes to Conner being so angry all the time in the cartoon, he feels immediately rejected by the person he’s supposed to be someday, rather than accepted by him. Again, very different from how comics Superboy got a chance to be Superman, and a chance to then work with the real deal as equals.

Friendships, Relationships and Identity

When Superboy is freed by the second Newsboy Legion, it’s primarily out of a ‘we’re clones who are stuck here, but you need to be out there, you’re what Metropolis needs right now!’ kind of idea. The first person he actually becomes close to is a reporter named Tana Moon.

Tana and Superboy’s relationship is… bad once it actually becomes romantic due to their huge age difference (she’s around 23, he is for all intents and purposes 16), but during the Reign of the Supermen where they’re still just friends for the most part, it’s not as bad. Tana becomes the GBS correspondent who focuses on everything Superboy (at this time still insisting he is the new Superman) is doing as a hero, and they become close friends.

GBS then also brings in Rex Leech (and his daughter Roxy) to be his agent, to promote Superboy and manage things for him. Rex is exploitative as hell, but Roxy does become another really important person to Superboy. These characters along with Dubbilex are his main supporting cast at the start of his solo comic when he’s in Hawaii.

In this whole era, Superboy is pretty much a celebrity. He’s cool, he’s a superhero, and I think it’s very notable he does not have a secret Identity. For a decent chunk of time, he is always just ‘Superboy’ (until, as I mentioned earlier, Clark gives him the name Kon-El. Even so, he doesn’t adopt a regular secret identity [Conner Kent, although he actually used a different one, Carl Grummett, before that!] until he begins living with the Kents in the early 2000s). By the time he joins any teams, Kon is pretty damn confident in who he is as a hero and has a relatively good grasp on who he is in general, if anything he’s a little too confident.

Young Justice was created in the aftermath of World Without Grown Ups when the trio of Superboy, Robin (Tim Drake) and Impulse (Bart Allen) had teamed up. After they saved the day they realized they worked well together and formed their team, utilizing the old Justice League base in Mount Justice. They were eventually joined by more members, especially relevant here is Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) who Kon later dates for a portion of the Teen Titans run that these four are in after Young Justice ends.

The four of them become close, and when Kon dies during Infinite Crisis it rips a hole in everything they had established growing up together over the past several years (Cassie joins a cult dedicated to bringing him back, Tim tries to clone a new Kon, Bart got aged up and took on the mantle of the Flash, etc) and Bart’s death that followed similarly shook the remaining Cassie and Tim. This group eventually does get to reunite, with Kon and Bart coming back during Final Crisis, solidifying how even things like death don’t keep them apart for long. It’s hard to look at the comic book versions of these four characters and imagine how they would be without their connections to each other... until you look at the YJ cartoon and see a world where they’re not even all part of the same generation, let alone a friend group.

Now in the cartoon…

The first people Conner primarily interacts with are Dick, Wally, Kaldur, and M’gann, along with the League members who interact with The Team pretty regularly, Red Tornado, Batman, and Black Canary. He’s shown to be friends with the other memebers of the team and get along with them relatively well, but in general he’s not much of a social person.

Much like in the comics, Superboy is considered very attractive, and immediately upon their meeting, M’gann is interested in him. Very, very interested in him.

At first it definitely does seem more just like an innocent crush, but it’s later revealed to be a little more… concerning than that. As in ‘Megan subtlety influencing Superboy to become her dream boyfriend based on a TV show she likes’ concerning. Like… she literally gives him the name ‘Conner’ after the TV show character that was the boyfriend of the character she bases her human self and entire identity on. The two date and once that becomes a thing, a lot of their plot lines in the following seasons revolve around the ups and downs of their relationship.

In general in this show, Superboy doesn’t really get much of a chance to establish himself on his own terms. Within months of him leaving his cloning pod, he and M’gann start going to high school with secret identities, so he’s already having to hide who he truly is to blend in with other people, before he even knows who he truly is.

So to compare:

In the comics, Superboy gets to figure out who he is as Superman’s Clone/Superboy very publicly, has multiple love interests and a celebrity status, and over time becomes part of a tight-knit group of friends. He doesn’t use a regular secret identity for the first several years he’s active.

In the cartoon, Superboy has one love interest with a very large impact on him, not nearly as much focus is given to his other friendships, and he immediately adopts a secret identity meaning he needs to hide who he is from the start.

What it means:

These factors play a big difference in his attitude, particularly highlighting how extroverted his comic version is and how introverted his cartoon version is. Comic Superboy never really needed to hide who he was until years into his career, vs being told to do so early on in his life. When you get used to needing to hide things so early, that can definitely lead to being more private/disconnected from others. Also somewhat related- in the comics, when Kon is given knowledge in his cloning tube, more pop culture got included. He mentions knowing Star Wars without having seen it, and references a ton of TV and Movies, vs the cartoon version of him that seems to have been given a lot of history of the world but not the current fun stuff. It’s the difference between knowing what’s going on in the world and what’s popular, vs only knowing the past and what’s fundamental. Not knowing pop culture like this can also really contribute to feeling alienated and lead to introversion. (I just... I think about how in the comics Kon’s favorite TV show is Wendy The Werewolf Stalker, in the cartoon Conner just... watches white noise static)

Also, having a completely different set of friends with different personalities has a big effect, people are always gonna be influenced by the people they’re close to to some extent. Bumping Conner up to Dick’s generation of heroes instead of Tim’s not only gives him completely different friends, but it also puts him in this position of being one of the ‘Original Team Members’. By this I mean, a member of the first iteration of the only teen team, one of the people that younger heroes coming onto the scene and joining the team in later seasons see as an experienced and older team member to look up to (despite the fact that cartoon Conner is permanently 16- they never fixed that for him like in the comics). That just creates a different dynamic entirely, because in the comics even when the Tim/Kon/Cassie/Bart group are more experienced on their team late in the Teen Titans run, they are still always going to have heroes like Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, Wally West etc as the older generation of ‘original teen heroes’ who came before them.

Also, while I am talking mostly about in-universe reasoning here, I do wanna bring up one slightly more meta reason that might also have contributed to them choosing to go for a more ‘introverted brooding hero’ characterization with him: the fact that their version of Wally already filled the ‘flirty jokey’ archetype original Comics Kon fits into. Having two characters like that in the show from the start would definitely get... overwhelming. And at the time this show was first airing, in the comics, he was relatively devoted to Cassie and not nearly as flirty anymore anyways.

Lex Luthor / Details of Cloning

In the comics, as I have already mentioned and will now actually explain, when Superboy was first introduced he was not the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor as we know him to be today. Kon was a metahuman clone, made with the DNA of Paul Westfield who worked at Cadmus, that they genetically altered to look like Superman, and gave powers based on the energy aura they discovered to exist around Clark’s dead body. This telekinetic field gave Kon the distinct powers he had for his first decade of existence: His Tactile Telekinesis (often referred to by him as TTK)

Lex Luthor was originally not directly involved in his creation, but he was aware that it was going on as is revealed during the Reign of the Supermen arc. Kon’s TTK allowed him to mimic Superman’s flight and strength, but not all of his powers. TTK also gave him powers Superman DOESN’T have, such as his ability to dismantle machinery or mold materials he is touching into different shapes. (The reason this is called Tactile Telekinesis is because there needs to be a tactile element, he needs to be touching the things)

It is not until 2003, a decade after Superboy was created, that writer Geoff Johns in his Teen Titans run decided to alter Superboy’s origin. He established that Lex Luthor had been the real human DNA donor and that Superman’s Kryptonian DNA was actually used in the cloning process. Around this time, Conner also begins to exhibit more of the typical Kryptonian powers, like Clark did around this age.

This information is at first only known by Conner and Tim, because the email had actually been sent to Tim directly. The two keep it a secret as Conner was not ready to tell the rest of the team, because he fears the implications it has, and is afraid of becoming evil or being rejected. This revelation about Lex being one of his ‘parents’ DNA-wise coming years into his hero career changes a lot of things for Conner, and makes him begin to question who he is. Unfortunately, Lex does at one point take control of Conner and force him to break Tim’s arm and attack Cassie directly (as well as the rest of the team, but these two specifically are what Conner expresses the most guilt over after the fact). This era of Conner in the comics is where he’s definitely closest to his cartoon counterpart, because he’s very troubled and dealing with a lot of heavy stuff regarding himself as a person. Yet there’s still traces of who he has always been in there. I mean, if you’re only familiar with cartoon Conner, can you really imagine his final words as he’s dying after saving the world being “Isn’t it cool?”

Now, looking at the cartoon…

Conner finds out about his connection to Lex in November, only a few months after having existed outside of a cloning tube. He finds it out on his own, from Lex speaking to him directly, after Conner went back to investigate the remains of Cadmus and ended up having a fight with Match (another clone who is able to pass for Conner’s duplicate who they… their version of Match is another thing they drastically changed from the comic version but as we’ve established that’s something they like to do so I’m not gonna dwell on it).

In the cartoon, Conner’s powerset is, from the start, different from both Superman and comic Superboy. Here he has heightened senses and strength and the ability to leap really far, but he lacks actual flight and some of the other standard Kryptonian powers, and has no TTK. The cartoon explains these gaps in his powers as being due to his half human DNA, and they introduce these patches that are able to suppress his human DNA and give him temporary access to full powers. Lex uses these patches as a way to manipulate him. Much like in the comics, Lex has a code word programmed into Conner that effects him, although it isn’t quite used for the same amount of ‘total mind control’, and he doesn’t get fully brainwashed and turn against the team or anything. Instead, the code word (here “Red Sun” rather than “Aut vincere, aut mori” [Translated as “to conquer or die" / "victory or death”]) just leaves him stuck in a hypnotic trance.

So:

In the comics, Kon finds out after years of believing he was a metahuman clone who was given powers to mimic Superman, that he is actually a clone of Lex Luthor and Superman, which alters his entire perspective on himself! This causes him to become a lot more unsure and anxious about who he is, in stark contrast with how confident he was before. There are still traces of his old self within him, but this is a development in his character that influences him moving forward, making him a bit more serious but still at his core the same person he used to be.

In the cartoon, Conner finds out after months of thinking he was a clone of just Superman, that he has half human DNA and the donor was Lex Luthor. While he always had confidence in his abilities, he was still somewhat lost as a person in knowing who he really was outside of things other people have assigned to him (teammate, boyfriend, superhero, etc), and finding out this information about himself just adds to the uncertainty and frustration.

What it means:

Having this struggle be something Conner has to deal with so early in his existence is one of the most fundamental changes in my opinion. Finding out that Lex Luthor is one of your clone parents is something that will alter your entire perception of yourself and who you are! In the comics, Conner had already been confident in who he was so it shakes his world in a really big way, but in the cartoon he still didn’t know who he really was so it just adds to further confusion.

I think that even with the more serious characterization Kon starts getting in the 2003 Teen TItans run, his history and past as the fun cool 90′s Metropolis Kid isn’t entirely forgotten, it’s still a part of who he is/was. Sure, maybe he’s sometimes even embarrassed by how he used to be, but it’s not treated as though it didn’t happen. All of his history comes together to create the character and who he is by the time he wears just a T shirt as a costume.

By skipping over the fun era of his life and jumping right into who he was when he started facing these huge changes, it creates such a completely different set of challenges for him and that contributes directly to how he’s characterized.

Putting it all together

The ultimate point I am trying to reach in all of this is that, beyond just ‘they made a writing choice to make him different’ the environment that Superboy was brought into and the events that took place right when he came into the world greatly influenced the type of character he would become. Every time an adaptation is made of something like comics, there are going to be changes and alterations to fit the world the creators want to make. Sometimes these changes are minor and don’t actually change who a character is (an example for the YJ cartoon’s universe itself: In the tie-in comics [issue 6] it’s established in this universe that the Flying Graysons weren’t just Dick and his parents, but other family members were active parts of it too. One was an uncle also named Richard, who actually survived the fall that killed the rest of his family but was left paralyzed and thus unable to care for him. This uncle already used the nickname ‘Rick’ which is likely why Dick ended up using ‘Dick’ as a name in a modern setting even though it has fallen out of popularity as a nickname because uh, connotations. This is something that is mostly unique to their world and helps to explain some things, but it’s not like tragically losing a few more family members changed their version of Dick and his backstory that drastically. At his core, he still has many similarities to his comic self) but they’re still changes, and that’s okay. Superboy, though, is such an extreme case where they made so many changes that at his core he really does become a completely separate character. Sure he has the name and design, but I was able to write five thousand words about differences here and am struggling to come up with more similarities beyond that.

I think there still could be specks of the original Superboy buried inside cartoon Conner, and that maybe he could have been more like his original version under other circumstances. Looking at these differences and where they come from is, I think, a cool way to begin to understand what elements contribute to who each version of Conner Kent really is. I think it’s clear from how I wrote this that I prefer the comic version, but there are definitely things that are fun to look at and think about with both.

if u read all of this UH thanks for listenin to me ramble! sorry if this is incomprehensibe!

#rainbowroadimpulse #sam writes #conner kent #superboy

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incorrectcomicbookquotes · 3 years

Text

Superboy: Tim, do you know why I called you here?

Robin: Yeah, because I accidentally sent you a dick-pic. Sorry, it was meant for Steph.

Superboy: (holding a bottle of lube and a box of chocolate-coated strawberries) Accidentally?

#incorrect comic book quotes #tim x kon #superboy #conner kent #robin #tim drake #source: tumblr

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behindheremeraldeyes · 3 years

Text

title: Empty Nest

summary: It’s been a peaceful week for the Titans, as nothing bad has happened in Jump City. And although she knew she should be enjoying that while she could, Raven just couldn’t rest until her little Robin returned to his nest.

a/n: okay... This is my very first DamiRae fic and I’m really really excited-slash-nervous about this! To be honest, it was very hard to work with their own particularities and I guess that was why I had such a great time writing this fic! It’s a fluff, not very complicated (but definitely longer than I had originally planned), and I do hope you guys can enjoy it! Constructive criticism is VERY MUCH appreciated, please! It’s a new experience for me, English is not my main language and I would love it if you could tell me your honest opinion (especially since I’m not really familiar with the comics yet). Have fun!

Also, I would like to thank @ravenfan1242 for being so sweet and for always making my dash so beautiful! Thank you so so much for making me feel so welcomed!

Pairing: Damian x Raven

The clock was striking 3:07 am, but her amethyst eyes were still wide open as she flipped yet another page of her newest, mystery book. The tower was quiet, as most of its inhabitants were asleep, and from her large window, she could see the dim lights of Jump city flickering across the distant shore. For an entire week, there had been no reports on villainous acts, and apparently, that night would be no different.

Life seemed to be oddly peaceful, and for she knew better than to believe that would last forever, Raven was determined to enjoy every second of that temporary peace. It had been ages since she had last stayed up late reading, hence, the empath figured that would be the perfect opportunity to share such a delightful night with a hard-covered book.

Yes, that was definitely the reason why she was awake at such late hours of the dawn. Or at least that was the lie she had been telling herself for the past 6 hours.

Though it wasn’t really unusual for her to get lost in the pages of a good novel, Raven was just too stubborn to buy her own excuse. She knew the book was but a mere consequence of her insomnia— the sole whiteness of what has become of her nights whenever her little bird was summoned by the bat.

Yes, as embarrassing as it could be, Damian Wayne was the reason why she was up at such late hours. Though she knew better than to doubt her boyfriend’s impeccable combat skills, it was inevitable for her not to lose sleep whenever he had to go to Gotham in order to aid his father in yet another dangerous mission. Even with Bruce and Dick constantly patrolling the streets, she has never liked that cursed city, and knowing he was there fighting against A-class criminals such as the Joker and Bane was more than enough to leave her worried.

Her heart was beating incredibly loud in her chest, the air in her lungs felt heavier and even if she had technically read over 50 pages of her book, her eyes were constantly glancing towards her phone, waiting for the only notification that could make her feel less like a ticking bomb. Raven needed to know he was safe, and that would only happen when he had time to answer the message she had strategically sent him a couple of hours after he left for his mission. She would always choose her words carefully, making sure he wouldn’t notice her real intentions, and eventually, he would end up saying he was on his way back home to the Wayne mansion or anything that would imply it.

Most of the times, Raven would just ask him to send a pic from something she knew he could only find in the mansion, such as Titus, Alfred or even a picture of himself after a warm shower. Even if she could just ask him directly about his whereabouts, the empath didn’t want him to know she was actually worried about his safety, or else his ego would certainly explode.

He is a Wayne, after all.

That night, though, instead of a not-so-random pic, she had asked him to bring her a pack of chocolate chip cookies she has only ever found in Gotham. It’s a special recipe from an old man that lives a couple of blocks away from the police department, and even if he has once shared his secrets with Raven, that delicate taste of cinnamon is still a mystery to the empath. Those cookies are probably the only good thing about that forsaken city, and if they could help her keep track on him, then they were really the best cookies she could’ve ever asked for.

An annoyed sigh escaped her lips as she could now feel her stomach growling inside her belly. If just that stupid anxiety wasn’t already enough, now Raven was also growing hungry at the thought of her cookies. At that moment, she also realized her reading wasn’t taking her anywhere, therefore she chose to shut the book and let it rest over her chest. She closed her heavy eyes for a moment, then, taking a deep breath before picking up her phone from her nightstand. It had been hardly 16 minutes since she had last checked it, and she could feel anger running through her veins.

How much longer was he gonna take with those bandits? Had Batman never heard of curfew?

Apparently, not even all of those years of meditating seemed to have prepared her for dating a Robin. She was growing impatient with every passing minute, and as she held her phone in her hands, a new, desperate idea crossed her mind.

Raven was going to call him.

Even if she rarely ever used that phone for such purposes, and even if she knew he might be busy, the purple-haired girl had made up her mind. She was going to risk inflating his ego so she could check on him, and if by Azarath she discovered he had ignored her message and was already fast asleep back home, chances were that she was going to teleport to Gotham just to scold him— even if theoretically she knew he didn’t really deserve to be scolded.

Yes, that was exactly what she was going to do. She was going to call him, and he would better have her damn cooki—

Her cellphone buzzed. A new message was displayed on the screen, and as soon as she saw his name there, her amethyst eyes widened. Quickly, the girl sat up on her bed, the book sliding from her body, and it took her less than a second to unlock her phone so she could read the words her boyfriend had sent her.

‘Long night. I’ll ask Alfred to get it for you tomorrow. On my way home now.’

Her eyes read that message at least three times so she could make sure she didn’t misunderstand his words. Once they entered her head, though, it was as if a wave of relief rushed through her system. Her heart settled, a soft smile took over her lips and it was as if she could breath normally again.

He was going home. Finally.

At last, Damian was out of the dirty streets of Gotham and on his way to the safety of the Wayne mansion. She didn’t need to worry anymore— at least not for the rest of that night— and now, she could finally allow herself to fall asleep.

But not before a warm mug of tea.

A satisfied sigh escaped her lungs and in one, swift move; Raven was standing on her feet, stretching her arms above her head. Her short, purple hair framed her small face, slowly brushing her cheeks as she walked out of her room and towards the kitchen. For everyone was already asleep, she made sure not to make any unnecessary noise as she boiled the water in the electric kettle. She opened the cabinet to get her black mug, and soon, poured the water with the tea-bag already waiting inside.

The relaxing scent of chamomile invaded her nostrils, and maybe it was because she was still trapped in that rare, blissful moment of pure peace; but that lazy smile refused to leave her lips, as she carefully made her way back to her room with her tea in hands. At last, the empath was ready to sit back, relax and even read a couple more pages while the tea lasted. Perhaps, she could even go back and try to understand what she had supposedly read in the past couple of hours so she wouldn’t waste a good book.

Yes, that seemed like a nice idea, indeed. She nodded to herself, accepting her newest decision, and expertly, she used her elbow to activate the sensor so the automatic door could slide open. Her semi-dark room quickly came into view, a soft breeze blowing her locks away, and once her amethyst eyes landed on her bed, her heart skipped a beat.

Lips parted, eyes widened and knees slightly shaken. Though the sight of that green mask on his face was far from unpleasant, Raven would be lying if she said his presence didn’t startle her.

Damian has that effect on her. Always had and always will, she knows.

“You really have to stop sleeping with your window unlocked, Rae.”

His voice filled her ears and unconsciously, her chest grew warmer at how casual that short version of her name escaped his lips. Her eyes were set on him, watching as he took off his heavy boots. His eyes weren’t looking at her, but if they were, the raven haired boy would’ve noticed the way her shoulders tensed at his presence and the way her hands had turned slightly paler around the mug. The ceramic was still hot, but at that moment, she didn’t seem to care about that, no.

Unexpectedly, her boyfriend was back. And though that was far from an emergency, nothing else seemed to matter anymore.

“Damian...” His name rolled out of her tongue almost as a whisper. What was he doing there? Why didn’t he return to the mansion where he could get some proper rest after the night patrol? Did something happen?

Slowly, the empath realized her thoughts were leading her to think about bad scenarios that could explain the whole thing, and even if she was trying not to overthink, she knew better than to believe that was even an option at such hours.

Her eyes were now clinically scanning him, and physically, he seemed to be okay. There were no signs of major bleeding and all of his limbs were where they were meant to be. Could it be that something had happened to Bruce, then? Did they have a fight and that was why he didn’t go back home? Maybe Alfred—

The sound of her room’s automatic door closing suddenly brought her back to earth, and she could finally get a hold on her thoughts. She swallowed dry, releasing a sigh she didn’t know she was holding, as she took a couple of slow steps towards him. He had finally freed his feet from those boots, and judging by the way his lips curled up, it was easy to deduce that freedom felt nice after hours of kicking bad guys.

“You—” She spoke, his face now lifting so their eyes could meet behind his mask. Perhaps she really could just ask him why he was back so soon. “What are you—“

“Even if I doubt bad guys would even consider using your window to invade the tower, I’m pretty sure Kori wouldn’t like to wake up in the middle of the night with the intruder alarm.”

“What?” She asked, confusedly, as she had clearly not payed any attention to what he had been talking about before. “The window? No, that’s not important. I—“

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m probably the only one who uses it to enter your room anyway.” He chuckled, a smirk now playing on his lips. His elbows were now resting on his knees as he moved his neck to relieve some of the tension. “And besides, we can always blame Gar for the—”

“Damian!” She started, her voice an octave louder, cutting his train of thought. Once he noticed how serious her face looked, his smirk suddenly disappeared. He was definitely listening now. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes squinted under his mask, a wrinkle forming on the bridge of his nose, and Raven realized he looked genuinely confused at her question. For a couple of seconds, the room grew silent around them, and slowly, she felt her patience dying inside of her. The clock was about to strike 4a.m and she just didn’t feel like playing games anymore.

“... I live here, remember? The Robin of the team... The future leader of the titans. Are you okay, Rae?”

“No, that was not— Tch.” She scoffed, using a hand to massage her temples. That was really not her night. “I know you live here. I just meant to ask why you’re here and not in Gotham. You usually spend the night there after patrolling with Bruce. Did something happen?”

“Oh, that.” He started, his voice now holding a calmer tone. His lips were now slightly curled up, and judging by the way he stood up and tilted his head to the right, she could tell he was trying to read her as if she was an open book. Even if he refused to admit so, Damian was very much like his father, and that certainly included Bruce’s impeccably annoying, detective skills. “Nothing happened. I told you I was coming home.”

“I-I know you did, but...” She asked, taking another step closer and pointing an accusing finger at him. Her brows were knitted, as she was clearly not in the mood for jokes. “You better not be hiding anything from me, Damian.”

A smirk crossed his lips at the sight of his girlfriend all fired up, and if anything, he didn’t back off a single inch from her. Even if she could still not see his green eyes, she knew they would be holding that sly gleam that is so characteristic of him. “Don’t worry, okay? Nothing bad happened, I swear. The patrol was quite boring tonight so I just decided to get the jet and come back a bit earlier.”

“Really? Simple as that?”

“Yes, simple as that. I give you my word.” He lifted his right hand as to illustrate his seriousness, and at that moment, after analyzing his body language, Raven thought she could believe him this time. His voice sounded calm and she couldn’t feel any turbulence in his emotions, so, perhaps, she could accept the simple answer this time. Unconsciously, then, her expression softened, and she decided she could just be happy to have him back and they could finally get some sleep together.

Simple as that, she thought.

But maybe, Raven had made up her mind too soon.

“Why are you so surprised, though?”

“What?” Her eyes widened, a confused expression taking over her face.

“Well, you seem quite surprised that I actually chose to come back. Is there any particular reason for such reaction, Raven?”

Shit.

Though she had first believed to be the one in charge of their little argument, only now Raven could see how he had so smoothly turned the tables. At his words, she could feel her throat growing dry and she knew he was coming too close to the truth she was trying to hide.

She hated whenever he did that. Whenever he started to press her into voicing something they both already knew — because he knew, she was sure of that. He knew she was overthinking and that she was worrying over nothing. He knew she was trying to understand his reasons so she could accept her own answers.

He knew she was hiding something stupid. And he wanted to know what.

“Tch, don’t be ridiculous, Damian.” She tried to dismiss him, which was clearly to no avail. Raven crossed her arms across her chest, looking away from him, but she could still feel his eyes on her, as if they were stripping her from her own facade. “I’m glad you’re here. Just curious on why you didn’t use the door like the rest of us.”

“Well, it is 4am, Rae. Kory and the others are still asleep and I didn’t want to wake them up.”

“Oh, but waking me up was fine, then?”

“But you weren’t really asleep, were you?” He grinned. “Judging by how wide your eyes are and by the fact that you’re drinking tea instead of water; I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that you’re still up.”

The teasing tone of his voice made her want to punch him in the face at that moment. She had fallen right into his trap, and she knew she didn’t have much time to come up with a plausible answer if she didn’t want him to grow even more suspicious than he already was.

Raven had to say something. Anything would be better than to give him that chance to tease her into admitting the truth that she was, indeed, awake and waiting for him to get home safely. Even if that wasn’t really an interrogatory, she knew her boyfriend was using his elevated IQ to get the answers he wanted so he could use that against her in the near future. She couldn’t give him the taste of victory, no.

He would be insufferable if she did.

“I lost track of time while reading a book, that’s all. Most days you would find me asleep by now.”

“A book, sure...” He started, clearly not buying her excuse. “Are you sure you weren’t awake because you were worried about me?”

“You wish.” She said, turning to face him once again, as their eyes stubbornly battled for dominance.

Neither of them gave any signs of backing down anytime soon, and even if that could be slightly frustrating, both Damian and Raven enjoyed that little game of push and pull. It was exciting, the thrill of their little competition, as it showed just how intense their love could be. They flirted with very narrow limits and took advantage of slight changes on each other’s body language; and if anything, that only showed how deeply they cared for one another.

How deeply they loved.

“If you say so...” He started, the words slowly leaving his lips. He was smiling softly now, his tall body towering over hers as he took her left hand in his gloved ones. “Either way, I’m glad you’re up. It’s like you’re welcoming me home and it feels really nice. Thank you, Raven”

At his pure words, Raven couldn’t help but feel her knees shaking under her weight. Her heart skipped a beat and her chest got so warm that something inside her melted.

That little bastard.

Now he had really done it.

Even if the empath knew better than to simply believe those words held no deeper meaning, she knew he had carefully chosen them just to mess with her feelings. After giving up on teasing her with his standard strategy, Damian chose to use his secret weapon that would only work against her. It wasn’t meant to cause her pain or anything of the sort, but it sure was a powerful enough to take her down.

Damian was being soft, to the point where she couldn’t really resist. He was being sincere and true to his feelings, and perhaps, that was the main reason why she couldn’t find it in herself to even fight back. She knew about his past and his deepest struggles regarding his future. She knew about all the things he had to go through in order to be where he is now, and it’s impossible for her not to feel touched whenever he voices his true emotions.

For years, he had to walk his own, merciless path alone, not knowing for sure he had a place to call home. The expectations he had upon himself were too heavy for him to carry alone, yet, he never stumbled or complained about them. He has always been so hard on himself, never accepting anything but perfection— he was raised as the perfect child, after all.

He was never accepted. Never loved or even welcomed for most of his life.

But now—well...

Now his life was so much different than before. He has a father, a brother, friends and a place where he can be himself and make as many mistakes as he wants.

He has a place to call home and a person waiting solely for him. And the best part in all that is that he knows.

He truly knows.

As realizations stroke her, the empath released an exasperated sigh. It was really late—not that she was even planning on sleeping anymore— and there was no way she could beat him anymore. Her heart was moved by his low move, and the only thing left for her was to silently admit defeat and properly welcome him home.

Her mug of tea— now colder than Dr. Freeze’s ice beams—was soon enveloped by her magic as it floated around the room until she placed it on her nightstand. She freed her hand, then, and slowly, she reached for his face, her fingertips touching the edges of his mask. He didn’t flinch, she noticed. He never really does whenever she touches him. His silence was the only permission she needed, and soon, Raven removed his mask, finally being able to look deep into his emerald eyes.

They stared at each other for a little too long, examining every change and every flicker hidden behind those orbs. Her amethyst eyes were looking at him softly, and she watched as all that bold malice disappeared from his lips. Damian was offering her a delicate smile, and before she knew it, her lips were also curling up. A soft blush tinged her cheeks, and at that moment, she could sense their emotions mixing together.

They were the same. Perfectly connected by one feeling called love.

“I’m glad you’re home, Damian.” She spoke, simply. “It made me happy, too.”

“TT” He scoffed, bitting his lower lip in order to suppress a smile. “And you still wonder why I chose to come back.”

A chuckle escaped her lips, and before she could even answer his statement, Raven felt his hand on her lower back, carefully pulling her closer to his body. It was a soft and slow move, but soon, she found herself on the tips of her toes and their lips were pressed firmly against each other. In one hand, she was still holding his mask, and with the other, the empath reached for his cheek, caressing his skin and holding their faces together in a chaste and puerile kiss.

It wasn’t needy, sloppy or rushed; for they knew there was no need for that. They had all the time in the world to enjoy their shared kisses, and thankfully, they knew exactly how to enjoy that time.

“You know...” He started, pulling back just a few inches from her lips, his hand now resting on her hip. “I could get used to this. Maybe I should start giving you a new book every time I have to go to Gotham.”

“Though I would love the new books, I also need to sleep. I can’t keep doing this every time you have to go to Gotham or else I won’t be able to keep up with morning practice, and we both know Kory is going to get really pissed.”

“Yeah, you’re right...” He nodded, a new smirk taking over his lips. “I really need to hurry and become the leader of this team.”

“Keep dreaming, Wonder Boy.” She chuckled, playfully patting his cheek before walking away and towards her desk, where she carefully placed his mask. After that, she reached for a big drawer near her dresser, picking a white towel and tossing it at him. “Now go clean yourself already, Damian. A true leader can’t smell like Gotham.”

“Heh, well, we did go check the sewers tonight.”

“Ugh, gross.”

“Perks of being a super-hero.” He nodded, folding the tower in his hands. “Do you wanna take off your pajamas and join me?”

“It’s 4am, Damian. The only people showering now are the ones who really need it.”

“You have a fair point.” He stated, detaching his cape from his shoulders and unbuckling his upper armor.

“Of course I do.” She said, watching as he turned his back to her and walked towards the bathroom. He turned on the lights and placed the towel on the cabinet, as he was now focusing on removing his gauntlets. Though it seemed to be a simple uniform, removing the accessories was a real pain in the ass. “Do you need help with the zippers?”

“Nah, don’t worry. I got this. Get to bed and I’ll meet you there soon.”

“Okay.” She nodded, pulling the sheets so she could get under them. She looked at him one more time, his shirt now removed and exposing his defined muscles and battle scars. Damian has grown into a handsome man, for sure, both inside and out. Looking at him like that, in such a casual condition such as taking a shower in her bathroom made her heart flutter with joy, and though she could now feel the lack of sleep taking its toll on her, Raven couldn’t wait until he was finally sleeping safely by her side.

They both deserved a good night of sleep. And even if they would have just a couple of hours to enjoy it, it would still be enough. It had to be.

“Damian...” She spoke, making him turn to face her one more time before closing the bathroom door so the steam wouldn’t invade the room.

“What?” He asked, curiosity spread across his face.

“Don’t take too long... I’m waiting for you.”

Slowly, a genuine smile took over his lips and he nodded before closing the door behind him. She turned off the lights, then, and soon, her head was resting on her pillow and her eyelids closed over her eyes. Raven took a deep and relieved breath, then, and slowly, felt her muscles relaxing against the mattress.

Now that he was back, she could finally rest.

Now that he was back, she could finally sleep.

As her ears captured the sound of water running down, a genuine smile took over her lips, and if anything, she knew it would be there by the time she woke up again.

fin.

#damirae #robrae #demonbirds #rachel roth #Damian Wayne #mydamiraefics

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fandomlifechoseme · 4 years

Note

Your blog is adorable 🥴. Very saccharine~ Now, I have a question, how would Dick, Tim, and Jason react to their s/o reading fanfics on them?? Thank you! ❤️🖤❤️

Thank You So Much!!! I’m glad you like it!!!

Oh my gosh, I never realised how great of a fanfic this idea would be. Now because you didn’t specify I did some headcanons and a small scenario for each.

(H/n = Hero Name)

Dick

Ok, It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Someone just sent a link of a Kid flash x Nightwing

It was a quick read and lets just say...It spiralled

It could be classified as an obsession once you started googling x reader

He knew about it ever since he opened your laptop when you asked him to email himself a pic

His reaction was like a whole new world had opened up to him.

Now he emails you random fanfics he found.

His favourite ones are the Nightwing x H/n

I was at home one day and Dick was out being himself so I decided it was time to check out the Nightwing x H/n I’ve had in my recommended for like years. I got so deep into the story I didn’t even hear the front door open until Dick walked into our shared bedroom.

“Hello hot stuff” I say closing my laptop. I walked over to where he was awaiting his hug and I gladly gave him what he wanted. Without realising I quickly snapped a selfie. We looked hot.

“Dam babe look at us” He quickly glances at it and asks me

“Dam. Can you email that to me? I broke my phone on patrol tonight” After scolding him for breaking his phone for the third time this week, I tell him to email it to himself as I was gonna take a shower. As I hopped into the shower it clicked that I had told him to look at my laptop. Which currently was open to a NSFW chapter. I quickly raced out of the shower to Dick. Who was chilling on our bed scrolling through the page.

“I’m sending myself this too, Ok? Then maybe we can reenact it”

Tim

Here’s the thing about the fanfiction

You were scrolling through Tumblr, Just chilling

When a Tim Drake x Reader popped up

This got you interested because

You expected there to be Red Robin fanfiction but not any Tim Drake Fanfiction.

It was pretty well written so You clicked on the blog where you found a jackpot

Red hood x reader? Check!

Nightwing x reader? Check!

Red Robin x reader? Check

But almost all of the blog was covered in

H/n x Tim Drake or

H/n x Red Robin or

H/n x Reader.

Well since it was a fan you decided to read them.

They obviously shipped you with Tim so you decided to share it with him.

When he was blushing like crazy you thought he was embarrassed about there being fanfiction about him until he muttered.

“That’s My Blog”

Running into Wayne Manor at full speed. I was lucky Alfred opened the door because I had my laptop open and I would of broken it if I ran into the door. I might of gotten hurt but I’m focusing on important stuff. I continued my run until I located Tim’s room. As per usual I opened the door not expecting to see almost the entire family minus Alfred. Pretending socialising didn’t bother me I ran over to Tim.

“What’s Wrong Y/n?”

“Nothing's wrong, I just found this blog on Tumblr, It has Red Robin fanfiction and Tim Drake Fanfiction. It also has Fanfiction about you guys. But like it’s weirdly specific.”

“What do you mean, Weirdly Specific Y/n?” Says Dick, Who is used to fanfiction written about him.

“It says here, I headcanon that Nightwing has a daughter who came from the future, Named Nightstar” That shut him up completely.

“We have to check the entire batcave. Someone is getting intel out to th-” Bruce started to say. He got cut off by Tim

“There’s no need Bruce.” His face was redder than a tomato peel. We have to question him before he blurts out

“IT WAS A DARE! STEPHANIE AND I WROTE FANFICTION BECAUSE WE WERE DARED TO! AND I KEPT WRITING H/N X RED ROBIN BECAUSE I LIKED IT!!!”

Jason was the first to start dying of laughter.

Jason

Jason had been away for too long

You started to miss him

So you may of typed ‘Red Hood X Reader’

It may have been your coping method for when he went away for a long time

Reading may of become writing...

Then your fanfictions began to grow in popularity

So one day while you were reading some Red Hood X Arsenal,

You got a text message from Kori

‘Jason is almost home’

You expected that meant at least two minutes so you kept reading

But he waltzed into the room nearly ten seconds later.

When he realised what you were reading...

Expect LOTS of teasing.

I was finishing the last chapter of a really good Red hood x Arsenal when I got a text message from kori, She told me Jason was going to home soon. I got really excited because he had been gone for so long this time. But my brain wouldn’t let me continue life until I knew Ro- I mean Arsenal lived in the fanfiction. So I quickly started reading it. Before I could click off the tab tho, Jason waltzed into the room like he owned the place. Well he owned 50% of it. I went to shut my laptop very quickly but his hand held it open.

“What have we got here?” His eyes quickly scan over the screen. I tried to distract him with a kiss but he already saw it.

“Oho? What’s this y/n? You do this a lot when I’m gone, Don’t you” To spare myself from the teasing I did the one thing I knew would distract him. I leant over in my most seductive pose and said

“I was really excited for your return Red Hood” In my most lustful voice. As I expected it worked. He threw my laptop onto the other side of the bed and pulled me close so his mouth was at my ear.

“We will discuss that later”

#batfam #dc #dick grayson #nightwing #tim drake #red robin #jason todd #red hood #batfam x reader #dc x reader #dick grayson x reader #nightwing x reader #tim drake x reader #red robin x reader #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #batfamily #batfamily x reader

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currentfandomkick · 4 years

Text

Marinette did not sign up for this part 8

first part here previous part here ao3 here

update at last!

Marinette almost screamed when she saw the knitting needles on her balcony. It wasn’t even her birthday yet. Was he around? Taunting her?

School wasn’t helping. She kept her eyes on the windows.

It didn’t help her team was scanning the area constantly… and she was certain that Kagami somehow got out of school as she could spot Ryuuko before school even started, and her shadow had’t moved often.

Alya, Nino and Adrien weren’t leaving her side. Kim had taken to joining them (and with him, Max and Alix) with Kim determined to get Marinette to wear one of his hoodies since “you look cold.”

She knew that was code. ‘Let me help.’ She wasn’t sure this was something safe for them to help with.

“Thanks but I’m good!” was highly ineffective.

Before lunch Kim had his hoodie on her. It made it harder to find her with the change from her usual outfits once Adrien and Alix stole her hairbands.

They were doing a plain sight disguise. She knew it.

Going to Alix’s after school helped a bit with that.

She still felt eyes on her. She couldn’t tell who’s.

Alix was the one to break out the guardian translations with her dad. The Kubdels knew more than most of her team—time travel side effects after all. It was a big part of why she could trust them in the first place: Alix wanted to help and her father knew there would be a Ladybug in Paris before giving Alix the family heirloom. When Marinette saw it after studying the miraculous for a bit and asking Fu if there could be two rabbit miraculouses… it lead to Fu merging the two (from two separate timelines).

In the one Mr. Kubdel was from, a girl named Bridgette took up the role of Ladybug and was followed around by a questionable Black Cat. Mr. Kubdel’s grandfather prevented that timeline from happening—changing key events and all—but was prepared for the chances another rabbit would be needed. His son was not a good fit… (poor research, questionable retention, and overall bad at delicate work) meanwhile Alix had street art done quickly and intricately, fast reflexes, and adored learning history to the point some topics had been re-written in the curriculum for “the complete BS this hack is pushing” and “obvious refusal to stick to the facts” among other objections with heavily cited and sourced works to back up her claims. To a truly terrifying degree.

Its also why once they were out of sight, Alix and Mr. Kubdel and her escaped to one of the secret passaged kept off the current schematics for Miraculous related reasons (escape without being seen leaving) and Alix brought them into her burrow sans ‘time windows’ for her peace of mind.

“What do you want us to do Ladybug?” Bunnix asked.

That was the question…

They tracked that the issue began with what let Robin identify her in the first place. The most likely culprit was the flaming akuma… if Alix went as Bunnix and helped Ladybug catch the butterfly or got it someone else, then Robin would never have identified her, and their current situation wouldn’t be happening.

She wouldn’t be hunted by the Ghosts of Gotham.

But then… her team wouldn’t exist, not as it does.

Chat wouldn’t know who she is.

She wouldn’t exist.

She… she wasn’t willing to give that up.

“We’re not undoing the past.”

Bunnix nodded, gliding around the empty space.

Mr. Kubdel opened and closed his mouth before finally offering his own suggestion. “Perhaps, we could capture them.”

Marinette ran over that option. It wasn’t bad. Not by a long shot… but the capture would deprive Gotham of its vigilantes…

“We only keep Robin, any others captured are cut loose as soon as possible and removed.”

“But Robin is the one that knows your identity,” Bunnix reminded her.

“The others probably figured it out already. But that’s not why we’re keeping him.”

Mr. Kubdel gestured for her to clue them in.

“Remember what the Aesir and Vanir did to end their dispute?”

Mr. Kubdel searched his memories until it hit him. “Ah. That.”

Marinette nodded. “Add in a game of chase, move to the home turf, and we have our plan.”

“And you’re bait?” Bunnix checked, no longer moving about as she absorbed the plan.

If you were a civilian in Paris, you might catch sight of what must be someone’s idea of a joke. As not only were there Big Justice Members running around with your local heroes—who up until this point had only worked with one other group (Quantics) who were Europe-based.

But seeing some guy in black with a bluebird on his chest go head to head with Rena, Miss Sting and a very pissed off Monkey King and Pegasus (since when does he get mad like that? Kid looks like he’s going to end Bluebird) was not a sight you were able to process at the moment. Wonder Woman joining the group was the cherry on top. and Carapace was moving civilians out of the way and sometimes caging them all in Shelter.

You also catch an enraged Chat Noir and Ryuuko tearing after some fashion disaster in a cape down the street. A cape for godsake. In broad daylight. Green Lantern was flying after them, and since when does Chat’s suit… move? Like, you’re pretty sure that’s not normal… at all.

Ryuuko and Fashion Disaster (FD for short) are sword fighting. Chat is attacking FD at any opening. Viperion is with them, sometimes shouting directions. Green Lantern seems to be keeping the fight from spilling over.

A check on the Miraculous News App shows pics of Fashion Disaster trying to get too close to the baker’s daughter. You know, the one that kind of slips the heroes snacks and is seen with Chat randomly at her balcony? The one you’re 30% sure he’s crushing on and in some war with Ryuuko for the heart of. Why else would the two be seen so often around it?—Akuma school is across the street.

You blink a few times when you realize that baker’s daughter is visibly scared of FD (and you’d be too if a random Mask with a sword showed up) and apparently had Bunnix with her at the time to help move faster.

That meant whatever happened in another time had to be bad…

Bunnix mentioned that in the world where she went Princess Justice there wasn’t much to stop her…

You can see why the team is a tad… okay, really overzealous. You’re pretty sure Chat tried to cataclysm FD after Ryuuko sent him flying with the air attack.

You manage to get a better view (For the People! and not to mock the villain later—no siree!) of the Bluebird fight. Dude gets taken down by a combination of things in short sucession—Monkey King landing a hit with his power, Wonder Woman’s lasso (through a portal—good on you Pegasus!) that he got pulled through, a flute to the head by Best Girl Rena, and paralyzed by your favorite striped heroine.

The take down shocked FD and Green Lantern caged the guy (teen? Kid? They look small.) and moved them over by Wonder Woman and her group, some of whom dispersed to recharge.

Never claim Bruce is not a dedicated parent. The best? He hopes not. The worst? He has met Stephanie’s parents, and he is far from them. And Cas’s. And he knows he’s not as bad as Rah’s. He is dedicated (and a serial adopters, but shhh). How does he know this?

He managed to reactivate his kid’s trackers and noted where they intersected and looked into properties, deeds, and children in the school across from the bakery Stephanie and Cass had taken to camping out in when not at their hotel rooms. So far, he narrowed down his daughter to three possible candidates—Mireille Caquet, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Laura Pretre. The only three girls in the age range he suspects Ladybug is in (he paid attention to the early videos and crossed her references, videogames and knowledge of the teens’ involved (re: knowing their names before the class became an akuma gold mine). They are also the only three from his candidate pool who were adopted or single mother of the right age to have caught his younger self’s attention—a few interviews of the heroes let slip that Ladybug’s parents and her team’s parents are unaware of what they do, and her vicious support for child support and adoptive parents in a few akuma instances gave credit to her belonging to one of those two groups.

It was between Marinette and Laura in his opinion—they both ran a fashion boutique online. Mireille was a model the two shared, but still a possibility.

Jason was helped him narrow it down—a consolation for being stuck in bed and not allowed on patrol for the night. Apparently he was also trying to call off the identity search in-person to prevent any accidental identity reveals and prevent further stressing of “Lady Bat”.

Bruce may have smiled at the nickname. He doubted his daughter would appreciate it, but nicknames had a strange habit of sticking if Jason gave it… for better or worse in Tim’s case. (He was glad that Replacement was replaced with Tiny Tim, Timbo and Timmy).

He also noted that the girls were intent on Gabriel Agreste being Hawkmoth… and had a strange obsession with his relationship to Mayura given their search histories. Tim was still deciding between designers, and he did note that Marinette ranked highly on there… which was both a relief and terrifying.

That meant everyone but his daughter’s “business conduct supervisor” (Adrien Agreste, only son of Gabriel Agreste, primary candidate as Hawkmoth) had been akumatized and someone she had to personally fight while they hurled who knew what at her. He doubted it was good for her mental health. (Not that he has much room to talk, but still.)

Damian and Dick were refusing to respond to his messages, and likely engaged in something.

Until Green Lantern lit up his screen with a pained look. “Bats, this is not what I meant by get your house in order.”

The view panned to Nightwing and Robin currently held by a very pissed off Wonder Woman. With Chat Noir glaring at Robin, something off with his suit.

Batman sighed deeply. “I told you those two weren’t responding since Robin returned with Red Hood last night.”

Green Lantern looked at someone off screen, clearly taking commands from them.

“Uh, yeah… We’re having Supergirl get the other three back Stateside. Miss Sting and Chat want to interrogate these two since Robin was caught around a civilian they keep an eye on.”

Batman could hear what wasn’t being said. Robin went to talk to Ladybug’s civilian identity and it blew up in his face.

“… are any of you allowed to be present to monitor the interrogation?”

He doubted the teens would get violent. (he hoped) but there were too many unknowns.

A hiss from Chat Noir ended his ‘not likely to get violent’ train of thought. His one of his sons was caught stalking their leader, who he has previously tried to kill, and another aimed a gun at a member of their team. Violence was on the table.

And he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

“Ladybug will choose who comes.”

Robin looked up at him from the background. “Permission to ask Father a question?”

There was a moment when everyone turned to the figure off screen, likely Miss Sting given Ladybug’s refusal to be in the Justice League’s presence.

Robin turned back to the screen, Hal moving closer to give him a better view of Robin. HE was largely unbruised on his face and his breathing was even. Positive indicators.

“Am I allowed to unmask?”

Batman froze. Jason looked up from his spot. He could feel Babs choking on something in shock.

Hal and Diana reacted somehow, but they weren’t in screen.

He meant to do this far later. When she adjusted. To her alone, and later let her team know. ease them into it—there was no knowing one of their identities without knowing the rest. Not with how Ladybug’s mind worked. And he doubted she kept many secrets from her team.

“…I am not opposed to it. Preferably keep it to those you trust with that knowledge alone.”

Robin nodded. “Understood Father.”

When Ladybug showed up, she could feel everyone’s eyes on her. She ignored it as best she could, especially the silent Nightwing and Robin… possible assassins. Sent by her biological father who never even met her. it was going to be a long plan execution (and gods, she still needed to double check on the Hawkmoth as Gabriel theory and work out how to remove him from the company without screwing over a decent chunk of the fashion industry workers from design, store front to manufacturers and suppliers. And emotional whiplash of Hawkmoth trying to kill his own son twice. And the times he tried to manipulate her into Princess Justice and have it Stick in the timeline).

All it took was one look at Pegasus. One look and she blocked all the other issues swimming in her mind.

“Ah, we’re going there then… It’s a good thing Cowboy is resting for the moment…” Pegasus shook his head. “Voyage!”

Ladybug looked them over.

“Chat, Miss Sting, Rena, and Pegasus, I need you with me. The rest of you, patrol or return to civilian life until I return. If you come across an akuma, jar them. Contact us if you need a fix only.”

Carapace nodded, looking over at Kim and Alix. “We won’t let you down.”

Ladybug nodded, her eyes narrowing at the two League members present. She was still debating contacting the ‘only in an emergency do you contact this rogue branch’ group… they were once lead by a Chat Noir candidate, or still were… she wasn’t clear on that detail. What she did know is they went by League of Shadows in the book, but it was noted they favored violent forms of destruction, and she wasn’t sure if they needed that method… didn’t want them to need it either.

But the book stated the Amazons were loyal to Ladybugs. “Wonder Woman, please ensure the Bats are out of my city before we return.”

“Of course Ladybug.”

She turned to the Green Lantern. A shakier alliance with the lanterns historically, but also known to tell the Ghosts of Gotham off, and so far he’s shown a high favor of her team’s stance over his technical ally’s. Perhaps a personal grudge, or maybe the Justice League operated more like Gabriel’s company—a chain of command, specific roles somewhat dependent on each other, and no one had to like one another…

Wonder Woman was better to ensure the Bats left.

Green Lantern was the one holding Robin in his ring. And his “Core” as the book said, was most responsive to Ladybug who didn’t hesitate to protect others and themselves at once. That they showed a level of comradery during times when the Order followed philosophies that could be linked the idea of “personal and individual impact upon others with one’s actions and choice” was the exact wording.

She hoped she was doing this right.

“Green Lantern, if you would be so kind as to come with us and bring Murder Robin? You are free to roam once we get there, but don’t try to locate where on earth we are then. It’s the one place Hawkmoth hasn’t been able to reach, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Green Lantern and Robin both agreed readily.

Nightwing looked like he really wanted to argue. A lot.

Wonder Woman somehow kept him from speaking as they left.

Marinette could finally breath when they entered the Temple. She wasn’t able to bring back the Guardians. She could bring back their scrolls, the library, the training rooms. It also meant they were far from Paris, from Hawkmoth’s reach, and that now the real plan had to be put in action… how to keep the bats out of Paris and her secret identity a secret. (Hawkmoth could wait. She needed time to work that out, and once she was sure, once the nagging doubt and what ifs stopped plaguing her… then she’d look for that solution… maybe Adrien could inherit early or they could arrange for his father to be caught committing tax fraud or something after getting Nooroo and Duusuu? Anything to ensure he was punished for his actions and that Adrien isn’t caught in the crossfire. She can’t lose the literal other half of her soul. She just. Can’t.)

Ladybug paused when she looked over Chat. His suit was… moving. Shadows were moving on his suit. That. That can’t be good.

“Chat, bring Murder Robin somewhere he can’t find a weapon, Miss Sting, make sure no one attacks anyone in any way, am I clear?”

Miss Sting gave a curt Nod while Chat hissed, but relented easily enough.

Green Lantern put a hand on her shoulder while Pegasus ran off to the library, likely to check up on his own additions to the place… bringing it into the twenty-first century was not easy.

“Going to check-in with what’s going on with your Cat?”

Ladybug glanced at him. “He’s my partner.”

“Pretty sure that’s what a Black cat is for a Ladybug,” Green Lantern said.

Ladybug didn’t respond, moving away from him and Rena to message Alix to find out what shadows have to do with the Black Cat… and if she needs to worry about a second Atlantis event.

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

so things are happening because Mari is Smart Strategist, Protect Mari Squad is a force to be reckoned with (teen superheros love local baker daughter that gives them food and lets them hang out), Kubdels Know Their Timelines (Sort of) and Wonder Woman and Hal know better than pissing of a Ladybug while Bruce is off Suffering and Putting Shit Together.

and yeah, Damian is both the one who started this, and the one that Marinette wants to confront, (plus respects her secret ID rights unlike Certain Bats who made it a competition) so he gets First Meet rights in the way None Of Them Wanted.

anyone who wants to add to the madness, feel free to comment possible things and i'll see what sticks and doesn't.

fight scenes are Not My Best so i tried where I could (Sorry to batfam fans who wanted Dick to be Badass. he's up against Diana and four miraculous members directly PLUS carapace 'i am locking you into this space now' shelter? he's good but its Wonder Woman and five demi-god level heroes raised on adapt and overcome heroing. long battle but he was going to lose.) Damian's fight is left up to interpretation but Team-Work makes the Dream Work for this story.

@heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace@jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04 @bisha43rbs @izang

#maribat #bio!dad bruce #marinette did not sign up for this #part 8 #long post #how does one tag?#ml au #my writing #my fic

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