#the whole batfamily need hugs actually

[sugarlesswriting]

After the leak for the new Batman issue came out I've seen some Batman fans make some.... choice opinions.

Be to be fair they always have some... choice opinions.

Like guys idk how to tell you but the writing is not making him the good guy here. It's like the whole Tower of Babel incident and how fans misinterpreted the plot.

Some of the things that I have read and made me roll my eyes

'Jason deserved it.'

He did in fact not deserve to be mind fucked because he decided to work with Selina. Batman made him a god damn agoraphobic. We see him sitting down, in a prison cell, trying to convince himself to get up but can't because he is in so much fear. Have you guys ever been in a position where you know you need to move but can't because your anxiety won't let you? Let me tell you it sucks and I know that this is fiction but it just rubs me the wrong way to see how people treat this situation. (Probs because that type of anxiety hit to close to home)

'Bruce has been betrayed by his entire family so of course he's going to fight them.'

Shut up. Just shut up. We all know that it's Zur en arrh that's making him think that what he's doing is rational but no it's not. The writing shows that he is not in the right for doing so. Reading comprehension is nice and you guys would be lucky to have it.

'Selina's a dumb whore and Tini Howard is the one who made this plot happen.'

Selina's plan is dumb but your misogyny is just POPING with that one. And you guys know how I feel about people saying Howard forced the Selina plot. No Editorial told them that they wanted an event with the batfamily because it would sell a good amount of comics. That's what these events are for. Please, guys, you have to understand how marketing works. Comics have been doing this for a long time.

I feel the same way when fans bitched about Tom King and how he ruined the wedding. No editorial ruined the wedding because THEY WANT TO SELL COMICS 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. (And this is said by someone who also doesn't vibe with Kings Batman)

I just think Zdarsky had more to work with when it came to the plot because he wanted to continue his Zur arc. Idk if Howard had anything to bring with Catwoman, but if someone who's read her work let me know if she could have done something else (genuinely curious not being a jerk lol)

I also find the premise of the batfam going against Bruce himself interesting. I just think it's neat. I liked to see how everyone reacted to what Bruce did to Jason. Like, when Dick came down HARD when he found out about Jason. How he was about to just beat the shit out of Bruces face even if he passed out. Dick had to be stopped by Tim who was trying to be the voice of reason. Damien was ditched by Bruce and we had the moment with Tim hugging Damien and telling him it's going to be okay. Then you have Bruce slightly coming back to his senses by throwing the batarang down for Dick to use.

Was the Selina vs Bruce a bait and switch to what the actual war was going to be? Because the Gotham war that involves the batfam going up against a Batman who's a danger to himself and others is a plot that I like.

[wondersinwaynemanor]

Inspired by I Turn to You song cus I was listening to it while thinking of a Batfamily prompt entry and here it is:

I Turn To Bruce, To Dad/Father

For a shield from the storm - Tim

Timothy Drake was neglected by Janet and Jack Drake. Tim rarely spent his time in his own house as he went to stalk the Bats, taking photographs with his precious camera. So, when he discovered the identities of Batman and Robin, and the death of Robin happened, he was able to convince Batman that he needed a Robin and that he, Timothy Drake, was the right choice. When he had rough nights with his parents, Tim often found himself running to the Wayne Manor. To Alfred Pennyworth. To Dick Grayson. To Bruce Wayne.

When Janet and Jack were angered by how much Tim was spending time with the Waynes, Bruce Wayne came to the rescue - he explained that they were missing on Tim's intelligence, creativeness and talents. He mentioned how they were poorly treating the kid and that's not how parents should raise a child ever. When Janet and Jack faced their tragic fates, Bruce was more than willing to take Tim in the family.

Every time Bruce embraces Tim, he feels like he could withstand anything. Bruce Wayne is a greater man, even more so than his own dad could ever be.

For a love to keep me safe and warm - Damian

Damian al Ghul Wayne was the heir to the League of Shadows ; the rightful heir of the Demon's throne. As a young child, Damian only knew how to become a soldier - to fight and concur. He never knew the true meaning of love. Sure, his Mother, Talia, would give him assurances and words of appreciation, but he never truly felt it. And from his Grandfather, well, he only saw his Grandson as a tool that he should train so he can lead the League at the rightful age.

Damian only felt true love when he met his Father, Bruce Wayne. He raised Damian the right way a Father should. And even when he was trained as Robin, he didn't feel the weight of it as a soldier or merely a sidekick of the Great Batman. Damian actually loves being Robin and Batman loves Robin. Bruce allows him the right ways a child his age should live life - a child who goes to the carnival with his friends, a child who watches movies with his siblings on the weekends when homework was done, a child who enjoys sweets every now and then, and a child who adopts animals without being judged. But mostly especially, a child who deserves to be called "Son" with a few forehead kisses and "I love you" s.

For the strength to be strong - Dick

Richard Grayson was initially scared when the famous billionaire, Bruce Wayne, took him in as a ward. When he had frequent nightmares of his parents' death, he was surprised to see Bruce by his bedside, ready to comfort Dick until he fell back to sleep. When he was thoroughly comfortable, Dick often found himself on Bruce's bed, who whole heartedly hugged him and told him how strong Dick is and that nightmares only test a strong person.

Dick was eventually trained by Bruce, became Robin and the sidekick of Batman. Dick was hesitant at first to continue being Robin as he was still learning to fight, scared of the villains. Bruce assured him, "Chum, no one is as capable as you are. You are very strong, even stronger than me when I was your age." He was also given the choice to discontinue being Robin, but Dick found his footing and enjoyed being Robin.

Dick grew up to be his own leader and found the Teen Titans which became the Titans. But Dick realizes that no matter how much he has grown, he always finds himself back to the Manor, back to Bruce's arms asking for support. He asks for advice on how he should run a group like Bruce being a leader of the Justice League. He carries Bruce's words in his leadership. But even when he isn't asking for advice, Dick still finds himself going back to Bruce, to Dad, finding strength like he was a kid again because a son always looks for the strength of his dad.

For the will to carry on - Jason

Jason Todd had a rough childhood. He lived at Crime Alley where crime was always present. He needed money and so in any way possible to get that, Jason would try. When he stumbled into the Batmobile to sell its tires and the Batman found him, his life changed.

He was healthy, happy and loved when Bruce Wayne took him in. Most especially, he adored being Robin. He was free. But a tragedy happened and he died... Years after, he came back to life. The dead walking among the living. Years of being a teen taken away from him. Robin taken away from him. Bruce was taken away from him.

But now he's the famous, crime lord, Red Hood. He's slowly patching things up with Bruce. And sometimes when the fury of the Lazarus Pit finds its way back to his system, triggering pain and rage, he sometimes thinks maybe it was for the best if he wasn't resurrected. But Bruce always remains hopeful and gives him reasons to love life, that this was just another challenge for him to appreciate life. So he pushes forward. When he stumbles back slightly, Bruce lifts him up and guides him to the right path. And when Jason is surrounded by his family in his home at the Manor, he thinks, "I'm glad I'm alive."

[thatthirdtriplet]

Relationships:

Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Dick Grayson & Jason Todd Tim Drake & Jason Todd

Characters:

Jason Todd Tim Drake Bruce Wayne Dick Grayson Alfred Pennyworth Original Characters

Additional Tags:

First Meetings alternate Universe - Different First Meeting kid Tim Drake Kid Jason Todd teen Jason Todd High School alternate Universe - School protective Jason Todd Jason Todd is Robin hurt Jason Todd POV Jason Todd Jason Todd Feels good Sibling Jason Todd brotherly Bonding brotherly Love Tim Drake-centric Tim Drake Needs a Hug Jason Todd Needs A Hug hurt Tim Drake good Sibling Tim Drake protective Tim Drake BAMF Tim Drake Tim Drake Has Issues Tim Drake Gets a Hug Jason Todd Gets A Hug child Abuse Good Sibling Dick Grayson Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent bullying not for the whole fic Abusive Parents absent Parents child Neglect abusive teacher angst fluff/Comfort emotional Hurt/Comfort Tags Are hard auther Is Sleep Deprived theater Nerd Jason Todd theater Nerd Tim Drake sadly i knew that wasnt going to be a tag rated for Jason's Language rated For Violence POV Tim Drake POV Alternating Genius Tim Drake manipulative Tim Drake crime Boss Tim Drake mafia Boss Tim Drake case Fic only some chapters bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake bad Parent Janet Drake bad Parent Jack Drake bad Parent Willis Todd Tim Drake Lacks Self-Preservation Instincts Tim Drake Joins the Batfamily Early corporal Punishment Alfred Pennyworth is the Best Jason Todd Loves Classic Literature accidental Baby Acquisition accidental Sibling Acquisition

Summary:

I think the title really explains it all? But anyway:

Jason knew that attending a rich ass school was going to be the toughest and most mind-grating thing ever. His beliefs were confirmed when he got cornered by bullies on his first day. The only thing he was surprised about was that it took them so long to find the school's new street rat. Just as he's about to be punched, a fucking 10 year old (he's actually 12) steps in and... starts threatening the bullies? And they actually listen?? What the fuck???

And that isn't the only surprise that's waiting for him.

[lusty-kopfkino]

Batman Prompt 8 - New Dad / 2.3 - Young Bruce

Bruce adopted Dick when he was young, if he were his actual kid Bruce would have been a child or a young teen when Dick was born.

*Dick can either be adopted or Bruce's ward, but I feel like adopted would fit better.

Bruce was in his early 20's (20-24) when he got 9-year-old Richard 'Dick' Grayson.

I have always imagined that Bruce impulsively decided to adopt Dick without consulting anyone. He saw his parents die and got hit with that good ol PTSD, and how that probably affected Dick in a similar way it did him. Also, the fact that the kid got sent to juvie instead of an orphanage because of "it being too full," and him getting beaten there.

Bruce doesn't regret adopting Dick, but he wished that he would have thought about it more before making that decision. Don't get me wrong the outcome would have been the same either way. He doesn't have anything prepared for his arrival at the manor. Alfred is "magical" and always cleans the whole Manor, so a clean room won't be a problem, and there are clothes from Bruce's childhood that he can wear.

So what is the problem?

The problem is that Bruce did not tell Alfred; he is the type of man who would like to be prepared for things. Bruce is the same way, so I don't know why he wouldn't tell Alfred! But just like Bruce, Alfred is one to come up with things on the spot.

Bruce is having a hard time getting Dick to be comfortable with him. He seems a bit better with Alfred though, which does NOT hurt Bruce's feelings. Alfred suggests showing that he is vulnerable too, not just to tell, but to SHOW that he trusts and loves him.

*He connects with Dick about both their parents dying, but I feel like they need something other than that for them to become family.

Bruce lets a curious Dick to draw on his scars.

I can imagine it so well. Bruce lets Dick pick from an assortment of markers, hoping that he will choose the washable ones, but he does not, he goes straight for the permit Sharpies because he knew for sure that those were the permanent ones.

Tiny, small Dick thought it was kind of weird for Bruce to suggest this, but once he started he got into it; he was moving all around to get to different spots. Dick does not draw on his face even though he really wanted to.

By the end, Alfred had taken many pictures and it was past time for bed; Dick was very tired from making his "Great Masterpiece," so Bruce went to put him to bed.

This was the day that started "Dick Grayson has the best/warmest hugs!"

Bruce was the first one to experience it, and he definitely holds it over the rest of the Batfamily's heads. (He is very happy he was the first)

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Dial Tone

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/AZ6GgeM

by Hidden Under Lock and Key (Hidden_Under_Lock_And_Key)

After months of lockdown from the Ghost Investigation Ward Danny makes a call.

Danny's breath caught when the line went through, “Hello, Justice League Tip line.” a woman answered. Nearly in tears, Danny whispered, “Send help, they have the whole town hostage.”

“Who's they?” “It doesn't matter just please come-”

Words: 1624, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Justice League - All Media Types, Batman - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: Danny Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Jack Fenton, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Clark Kent, Damian Wayne, Justice League (DCU), Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Operative K (Danny Phantom), Operative O (Danny Phantom), Barbara Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Various other Batfamily members

Relationships: Batfamily Members & Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton & Justice League (DCU), Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson

Additional Tags: Guys in White - Freeform, Ghost Investigation Ward - Freeform, Amity Park Under Siege, Danny Fenton Needs A Hug, Slow To Update, i work two jobs, updates could be SLOW, Crossover, Protective Tim Drake, he is ready to adpot danny if bruce dosen't, Pround Mr. Lancer, Good Teacher Mr. Lancer (Danny Phantom), I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Beta Read, How Do I Tag, Teen and Up because of language and themes, Danny dose his english homework, I know shocking, he can actually study

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/AZ6GgeM

[geekkatsblog]

Things the batfamily have done after being woken up too early. (Headcannons)

Because we all know the bats would sleep though the day if they could. They're literally up all night kicking criminals asses. Everyone's sleep deprived.

Dick

He's actually the only bat who doesn't mind being woken up early. He likes the morning. It's the only time no one can judge his overindulgence for cereal.

Jason

Tried to throw Roy out of the window of his apartment because he was using the microwave and the beeping woke him up. Jason got out of bed and literally threw the microwave out the window. But the day after he ended up feeling bad and brought a new silent microwave to replace the old one, he damaged.

Shot two bullets at Tim who had only come because he'd forgotten his laptop at Jason's apartment. Jason was still sleepy so his aim was a little sloppy, the first one narrowly missed Tim but he ended up grazing him with the next one. Which was how Bruce ended up switching his bullets with rubber ones. He always manages to replace them without Jason knowing and eventually just gave up trying to stop him. Watching the criminals curl up in pain from the bullet hitting them was much more fun anyway.

Tim

Sleeps like the dead, the only way he will wake up is if the person has a fresh cup of strong coffee waiting for him, the smell alone will lighten his sleep. He once managed to sleep though an entire kidnapping at the manor. The kidnappers swiped Damian from right under his nose while Tim slept peacefully. Damian still hasn't let it go 2 years later.

Damian

He didn't have a problem the first year, when he moved into the manor. He slept like if he was in a coffin successfully scaring the crap out of everyone and making them avoid his room in the mornings.

Threw a dagger at Bruce when he tried to wake him up for school. His actions caused Bruce to enforce the rule of no weapons being allowed to leave the batcave unless it's an emergency or it's time for patrol.

Cassandra

Where does she sleep? no one knows by the time anyone can try to wake her up, she's disappeared. Sometime in the middle of the night, Cassie manages to hide and finish her rest undisturbed no one has figured out that she sleeps in her laundry basket to avoid people waking her up.

Duke

Threw an alarm clock directly at the victim's head it broke and the person ended up with a mild concussion. Jason (the victim) had to spend a week of the manor with everyone doting over him. He'd sooner die for the 2nd time than admit he enjoyed it.

Duke in a sleep haze one offered the person waking him up the secret identity of Batman if they would just let him sleep for an extra half an hour. Needless to say Bruce almost flipped out and Duke was forced to do extra endurance training for a month.

Stephanie

Threw a bottle of nail polish at Dick who wanted to wake her up and be the first to wish her a happy birthday. The nail polish bottle wasn't capped tightly enough and the sparkly purple paint landed right in Dick's head. He legit cried when he had to shave off all of his hair and start from scratch..

Bruce

Once Clark tried to wake him up for an emergency Justice League meeting. Bruce staggered out of bed down to the cave and returned with a Kryptonite glove and decked the crap out of Clark, since then Clark would rather watch Bruce sleep and wait for him to wake up before he tries to disturb the man's sleep again. To Bruce the staring is creepy, but atleast he gets to sleep.

In attempt to prank Bruce Jason was all ready to draw on the man's face and body with sharpies when Bruce suddenly got the upper hand and hugged him in his sleep. Jason had to stay there for a whole hour cuddling with Bruce while the older man slept. Jason claims the whole ordeal was more traumatizing than the Joker beating him with a crow bar and blowing him up but Bruce knows better. He and Jason used to cuddle up all the time whenever the boy was sick, had a nightmare or just needed to feel safe and Jason loved it then, plus there's the fact that Bruce was pretty sure Jason would have been able to escape his grip at any time.

Alfred is not involved because no one can touch him.

Last one was inspired by a comic I read where Jason was sick and Bruce sat on the couch and watched tv with him.

And I'm still upset about the whole Ric story arc so I made up another explanation for why he cut his hair. (Forgive me I have problems.

[princessjaqulinechess1031]

by the bedside

Characters: Damian Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste, Jason Todd

Summary: A job goes wrong, and Marinette fears the worst until Damian wakes up. 

Notes: Cross-posted on Archive of Our Own. 

Sequel

"À la claire fontaine," a soft voice sung, pulling Damian out of his hazy daze. "M'en allant promener, j'ai trouvé l'eau si belle…"

Damian groaned and tried to turn on his side, to try and reach whatever it was singing, but the moment he did, the song stopped and was replaced by a gasp. Damian blinked his eyes open, ignoring the sting, and saw sitting next to him was a disheveled and red-eyed Marinette sitting next to him.

"Damian….," she whispered. Damian tried to reach out a hand to her, but found that it felt like lead. Moving it felt like a splitting pain, and it was weighed down by a cast. Damian shut his eyes and leaned back into the pillow. The building, the explosion, and –

"Adrien?" Damian croaked. Marinette nodded her head and took the hand not enclosed in a cast in her hands. She gave it a gentle squeeze and smiled.

"He's fine," Marinette said. "He's doing damage control with your brother."

Ah, yes. Dick. Nightwing had come to Paris as one Dick Grayson, something to do with Wayne Enterprises or other, when he had realized what Damian was up to. Robin had become an unofficial third member of Paris's own dynamic duo, Ladybug and Chat Noir once all their allies identities were exposed. Hawkmoth was long gone, so it was just petty criminals and the like, but adding a fourth member to that so suddenly had thrown everything off. Even if it was for one mission. A bomb was missed, and now –

"How long was I out?" Damian asked. He narrowed his eyes and looked around and saw a familiar location had enveloped him. "And ho-how did we get to the Batcave?"

"Two days," Marinette said breathlessly. "And a Zeta tube."

Ah, Zeta. He should have known. Damage control probably meant making sure Paris still had someone patrolling and keeping it's citizens safe.

"Nightwing insisted we bring you back here," Marinette said. "Said you should be with family."

That meant it was touch and go for a moment. Damian felt unfrazzled by the brush with death, how many times had he had one since he was born? Not to mention he actually had died once. He looked down at Marinette's outfit, and saw she was wearing the same purple sundress she had been wearing before her transformation two days ago.

"H-have you been here the whole time?" Damian asked softly. Marinette looked down at her fingers sheepishly.

"I-I had to be sure," Marinette said. "When the Lucky Charm didn't work, and –" Marinette cut herself off with a chortle of tears. "Ma moitié, I had to make sure you weren't dead."

Damian shut his eyes. This was what frazzled him. He knew in their line of work, one got hurt. Sometimes you didn't walk away. But to hurt Marinette, to make Marinette feel hopeless and lost as Damian fought on a hospital bed. Marinette was the one good, pure thing he had ever been able to keep, and to make her feel pain felt like a betrayal.

"You should have gone home," Damian said slowly. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

Marinette shook her head and squeezed his hand.

"If you expected me to do that, then you don't really know me."

Damian turned his head to the side, and tried to ignore the sharp burst of pain at the top of his back from the movement. But try as he might, he still winced. Marinette reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder to try and steady him again.

"Be still, ma moitié," Marinette said. "Monsieur Pennyworth said it was best for you to remain as you are."

Marinette was so polite, and despite Alfred's continued insistence, Marinette continued to call the man by his proper name. Damian found it was one of many adorable things about her to love.

"Nawaret aynaya," Damian said, "I promise I'm fine –"

"No you're not!" Marinette busted out. "You're hurt, you- you nearly died! All because I couldn't keep my team – I got distracted and –"

The young girl burst into tears, and Damian took his hand from her grasp and reached up to caress her cheek. Oh, Marinette. She always took ever mistake, every misstep, as some misgiving on her part. To Marinette, the safety of all Paris and all of her friends sat squarely on her shoulders. She might shoulder that responsibility with her brother Chat Noir, but Marinette would always hold it as a personal stake in her heart.

"It's not your fault, nawaret aynaya," Damian said softly. "This – this comes with the mask, you know that. If you had or had not been there, this would have happened eventually." He wiped away a tear form her cheek, and Marinette reached for the hand still caressing her. "I love you Marinette. And I know you would never hurt me. So stop blaming yourself."

Marinette gave a weak smile.

"If you expect me to stop just like that," she hiccupped, "then you don't really know me at all." She sucked in a deep breath and rubbed her thumb across his wrist.

"I love you too," she said. Damian's heart sang. For seventeen years he had waited for something and someone that would look at him and not see a monster. Not see an assassin or a danger or someone to fear. And by some miracle, that person turned out to be the love of his life.

And he'd be damned if he let her go.

"He's flatlining, I'm calling it," a voice said, breaking the moment around them. Damian retracted his hand and Marinette wiped away a last tear. In the doorway stood one Jason Todd, mask gone but still wearing spandex and his leather jacket. "Mari, time of death?"

Marinette bit her lip and looked down at her hands, but Damian could see the beginnings of a smile on her face. Jason stepped into the room and dragged a chair from the corner and sat down next to Marinette with a loud thud.

"Papa Bat should be here in a little bit, Brat Bat," Jason said. He took out his gun and began to fiddle with it, probably to clean it since he pulled out a white cloth from his pocket. Damian frowned.

"I'm not a brat," Damian said. Jason rolled his eyes.

"You might be seventeen, but you're still a brat sometimes," Jason said. Marinette looked up from her hands, that familiar mischief shining in her eyes.

"You're kinda. Sometimes," Marinette said softly. Jason laughed and slung an arm around the girl's shoulder.

"Ah! I got the girlfriend on my side!" Jason said. "I win!"

Normally Damian would keep going and insist he wasn't a brat, but Jason was as transparent as a plane of glass. Jason was trying to cheer up Marinette with this joke, and Damian was not going to try and ruin that. Marinette was going to be happy and not worry too much about Damian, that was his mission.

"What did you win?" Adrien asked, popping his head into the med bay. His blonde hair was still damp, meaning he probably just got out of a post-patrol shower. He came up behind his adopted sister and hugged her from behind, placing a kiss to her temple.

"Marinette admitted Damian was a brat sometimes," Jason said.

"I am not!"

"Yeah, you are," Adrien said. Tim and Dick entered the room, and Tim was texting someone on his phone. Probably Stephanie, telling her he was okay. Dick pulled a chair over to the other side of Damian's bed and leaned back, his long legs stretching out underneath the medical bed.

"Be nice to the injured child," Dick said. Damian frowned.

"I am not a child," Damian said. "I am the same age you were when you went solo, Grayson."

Dick raised a brow. "And? I was a child then, henceforth, you're a child now."

Damian furrowed his brow again and Marinette laughed softly, but once again he did not fight. If it made Marinette smile, it was worth it.

His father finally materialized, Alfred behind him. His father was as stoic as ever, his eyes steeled and guarded thanks to the new visitors to the Cave. Despite the Miraculous duo having been unofficial members of the Batfamily for a year and a half, Father still seemed opposed to giving them official membership. Damian wondered if it had anything to do with Marinette being his girlfriend. He hoped not.

"Master Damian," Alfred said, and a phantom smile overtook his professional form. "I see you are recovering well. I assume Miss Marinette has made sure you've stayed where you should?"

"He only woke up a little while ago, Monsieur," Marinette said. Her lips upturned wickedly. "The real problems in that regard have not started yet."

Adrien laughed and hugged his sister tighter.

"Trust me, mi'lady is here is plenty capable of keeping Damian in line."

Once upon a time, Damian had been jealous of Adrien's nickname for Marinette. Now Damian knew better. Adrien may have once been desperately in love with Marinette and Ladybug, but once one Kagami entered the picture it was game over. Now, the nickname was mere relic of that time and a testament to the depth of their bond.

"I expect nothing less," Alfred said. Father stood at the foot of his bed. He was still dressed in his suit, but his cowl was down, revealing his identity. That made Adrien and Marinette's lack of inclusion even more baffling – they knew who all of them were, the biggest secret they had.

"Are you alright Damian?" Father asked. Damian nodded.

"Yes Father," Damian said. A sigh of relief left his father's form. Despite medical evidence, after everything that happened with Jason, Father would never be certain of his kid's state until he heard from them exactly.

"Well, I mean, wasn't he just fighting with Jason?" Tim asked. He looked up from his phone. "Me and Dick heard them outside. If he's in a fighting mood, he's fine."

"I almost died, and you guys treat me this way," Damian said. Jason rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, this is how we show our love," Jason said. He eyes Dick. "Except for Dick. He does the whole normal shit. Damn well-adjusted asshole."

"Damn non-well-adjusted asshole," Dick shot back. Marinette giggled. Father turned to Marinette and Adrien.

"You two can stay here as long as you need, to make sure Damian is okay," Father said. Damian tried not to let his surprise be palpable. Marinette and Adrien were barely allowed in the Batcave half the time, now Father was offering to let them stay while Damian recovered? What had happened in the time he was asleep? "You can Zeta home for clothes, if you need them. But we have enough clothes that might fit you Adrien, and I'm sure Cass left some things behind before going to Hong Kong."

"Thank you, Monsieur Wayne," Adrien said for the both of them. Marinette smiled and then turned her attention back to Damian.

Damian for seventeen years wondered what it would be like to be purely loved.

Now he knew. It came from Marinette Dupain-Cheng, that kind of true love

[toastedside]

For Better and For Worse

Batmom!Reader x Batfamily

Warning: angst, fluff in the end

Note: The last chapter for the miniseries! It was fun writing this, and I know it's been too long since I actually posted the first chapter. But it was fun. Enjoy!

Masterlist, Previous Chapter

Batman landed on his foot silently. His eyes scanned through the warehouse, before him was a gigantic machine with empty compartment that would fit one person. He quickly typed on the small computer on his wrist, sighing silently to himself as he waited for his scanning result to come.

“Batman,” come Superman’s voice through the comm. “Are you in?”

“I’m in,” Batman confirmed. “There’s a machine inside. It looks like somebody deactivated it before we come. I’m trying to transfer their data into my computer to get some information.”

“So Red Robin and Superboy were right,” Superman said again. There was a slight quiet sound of the wind behind him. Batman assumed he was flying as he answered through the comm. “The warehouse is empty as well. I think they had abandoned it.”

“We can’t be really sure about that,” Batman’s let out a huff as his computer displayed the transfer data has been finished. “I’m going to decipher some codes. Keep an eye on possible threat.”

Batman grunted softly as he squatted down to take a better look of the main controller device. It looked unassuming and tame while it was deactivated, but one better look alone could tell him that it would be deadly. He typed an override code on the main controller, his lips pressed firmly together as the machine slowly coming back to life.

From the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of movement that he had known too well. “I already told you to let the League take care of this.”

“Yeah, but it was me and Conner who found it,” Red Robin came into the light. He quickly approached the main controller and eyed it silently. “I have just successfully deciphered few codes that might help. If there’s anyone that could help, it would be me.”

Batman stared at him for a few moments. He weighed his options before let out a tired sigh. Figured there’s no way Red Robin would back out now. “Only to decipher the code. After that you leave the rest to the League.”

Red Robin nodded before he dove in right away into his work. Batman lingered for a few moments to watch, but as the machine starting to wake up more and more from its slumber, he left Red Robin with the controller device as he investigated. He studied the empty compartment silently, taking notes in how the machine was built.

“B, what did you type to activate the machine?” Red Robin called. There’s a slight confusion in his voice that robbed Batman’s attention.

“The code that have been transferred to my computer.”

“That’s not possible,” Red Robin whispered. Now he sounded so alarmingly surprised. “It’s different from what I decipher earlier. B, I think– I think there’s an error in this.”

Batman was about to open his mouth when the machine whirling dangerously. Red Robin quickly tried to type in an override code, but the more he tried, the more the machine whirling dangerously and begun to rattle. He lifted his eyes briefly and saw Batman tried to tame the machine, his shoulder pressed against the empty compartment as he grunted loudly. Suddenly, the whole room was too bright from him to see as a bright, white light coming from the core of the machine shone brightly. Red Robin called for Batman a few times before the machine whirled for the last time and exploded, sent Red Robin flying across the room and the machine crushed underneath the rubbles into oblivion.

=======================================

The footage cut off right away after the explosion, leaving you heaved for a sharp breath as the camera went blank. You could see the reflection of you own face on the screen, how horror seeped right through your skin and welled in your eyes. You were unaware with tears that streamed down your face until you saw your reflection. Behind you was your children, all wide eye from witnessing the footage.

“So that was the explanation for your dislocated shoulders months ago?” Dick asked, his tone was demanding and worried.

“Yeah. I am sorry I didn’t tell any of you sooner,” Tim said bashfully. Cass silently approached him and pulled him into a half-hug. Tim smiled in appreciation. “But did you see the light zapped from that machine briefly before it blows up?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I think that light was what took Bruce away,” Tim said firmly. He had spent so many nights watching the footage over and over again, he practically could recite it in his sleep. “That would explain the lack evidence of his dead body. Besides, if you notice,” Tim pressed play on the footage again, and paused right few seconds before the explosion. “He was already gone when the machine blows up.”

“Are you trying to say that machine was a transfer device?” Damian asked, his eyes watched the paused footage before shifted into his brother.

“Could be. I tried to work with all sources that I have, but I can’t possibly decipher all the codes since the machine blow up before I could transfer everything,” Tim rolled his chair in front of the Batcomputer, his fingers swiftly typed few codes that he had known by heart. The monitor showed a half-finished string of codes. “See. It’s all half-baked. My strongest theory that I can come up with it was the machine use the same technology used for Zeta Beams. More or less.”

“So… B isn’t dead from the explosion, he was transferred into another place before the machine blows up?” Jason asked slowly.

“Another place, another timeline, or dimension.”

“Shit,” Dick cursed. His fingers ran through his hair as he stared into the footage again. “If you were right, then Bruce is trapped and possibly having no idea on how to go back.”

“Call the League,” you finally found your voice back. You were surprised you could muster a coherent sentence with a firm voice. “I know what you’re all thinking. But this is dangerous. Call the League.”

“We have all the sources we could possibly need!” Damian argued. “From what I know, they abandoned the warehouse. The machine could still be there. We just need to salvage some data and move in motion after that.”

“I know that all of you are more than capable, but I am your mother. I have my limit. I have lost my husband; I am not going to lose my children too.” The firmness on your voice left no room to argue. You stared into your children one by one to emphasize your argument. “This is their mission after all. You all will work side by side with them. And none of you will work without them. Am I understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Now, let’s go upstairs and eat some dinner. I’ll call Clark first thing in the morning, for now let’s just take some rest.” you ushered your children towards the staircase leading into the house.

Dinner was normal to say the least. But there was a growing tension that everyone had tried so hard not to talk about for their mother’s sake. You practically could see all of your children twitched in impatience and anticipation, all minds already long gone into a battle that still yet to happen.

“We’ll find him, Mom,” Dick said with a kiss on your temple at night before bed. You mustered your best reassuring smile, cradled your son in your arms. For the first time in a long time, you were scared for your children’s life.

Sleep seemingly unwilling to come that night. You spent the night tossed around relentlessly; mind wandered far into all possible scenarios that you could come up with. Was Bruce really out there, trapped in a place he didn’t belong? It had been three months without him, you didn’t want to get too hopeful. But a tiny part in your heart longed to be with him once more and wished to hold him in your arms again.

====================================

“Y/N, it’s so good to see you again,” Diana beamed as soon as her eyes caught your presence. It made her smile, as you walked towards her and quickly accepted her invitation for a hug. “I miss our girl’s night.”

You chuckled at the mention of your sacred night. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve called you sooner.”

“No, no. No apology. I understand what you’ve been through was hard and hurtful,” Diana was quick to squish your apology. “Besides, looks like somebody’s a little jealous that she isn’t invited into our small reunion.”

You followed Diana’s gaze, and a smile twitched at the corner of your lips at the sight of Dinah lurked in the corner. You laughed, gestured for her to come. Dinah came right away, a frown formed on her lips as she crashed you into a bone-crushing hug.

“My God, you have no idea how relieved and happy I am when you called!” Dinah breathed. She patted your back gently.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve called sooner.”

“I am glad either way,” Dinah said as she released you from her hug, but her hand lingered on your wrist before she let out a sigh. “We are here for you, all of us. We always will. And we’ll find him.”

“I don’t want to be too hopeful,” you said sullenly. “But whatever happen, I hope it helps the League to find the trail of whoever responsible behind this.”

The League had been called first thing in the morning, and now you had all of the superhero cramped together inside your house. You watched from the back of the room the briefing that Tim gave to the League upon the lead and dots he had connected in past three months. Your heart sank into your stomach like a sandbag upon watching the footage again where your husband presumed died three months ago.

Alfred came few moments later with a tray full of refreshment. He decided to stay at the back of the room with you, watching all of your children had meeting with the League.

“Even though I have witnessed this thousand time over, it’s never getting any easier,” you sighed as you broke the silence. “It feels like I am sending my children into a suicide mission with no precaution. To save their father. We don’t know the threat that might wait for them out there.”

“We never could shelter our children forever even if we wanted to. They ought to spread their wings out there one way or another. It’s their thing after all, they would never sleep before they find the answer,” Alfred offered a consolidation. “The best we can do is to make it as safe as possible. You have done that.”

You smiled. “Thank you, Alfred.”

==================================

It had been three weeks since the last time you witnessed all of the Justice League member cramped together inside your house for a meeting. Your children had been sent on a mission alongside the League. You couldn’t say you like it, but you saw the childish excitement Damian tried so hard to hide from the thought of fighting alongside the League, and opted to at least look approving. You were proud nonetheless.

The house was a little empty without most of your children’s presence as they’re out for a mission. Spared for Damian who was constantly sent home to attend school. Alfred had helped you to take care of Wayne Enterprise in Tim’s absence as you tore yourself in half between your work in hospital and taking the lead for the company, but it was still manageable at least.

Damian would tell you about the mission progress all the time, which sadly wasn’t much. But they still had baby steps progress nonetheless, and progress is still a progress. They have managed to salvage some valuable parts from the machine, but it wasn’t much of a lead to give them answer.

You get off from your car after you gather some courage to walk into an empty house again. The day had been long and tedious, you had just chewed out marketing department this morning and had to tended some patients in the afternoon. All of your muscles are sore and you wanted nothing but a long hot bath.

The house was empty just as you suspected. But you found a surprise as you stepped into the study room to grab some book to read. The grandfather’s clock was opened ajar, meaning somebody must have went downstairs into the Batcave. It could be Alfred cleaning up, but you found herself going downstairs.

Your eyes widened as soon as the sound of murmured conversations come into your ears. You descended down further; head perked up at the familiar sound you had missed so much. “Guys!” you practically shouted as you ran towards your children. “Oh my God, you’re all here.”

It was Jason who caught you first and welcomed you into his embrace. Your other children soon followed and trapped you in the middle, but you wouldn’t have it any other way. All of your fatigue and stress suddenly lifted from your shoulders now that all of your children are home safe and sound.

“How was your mission? All good? Are you guys safe?” come the string of questions you couldn’t help but to ask. You quickly check all of your children for any obvious injury, and you found yourself let out a long, relieved breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

“We are, Mama,” Jason gently placed his hands on your shoulder to ground you. “We figure we might come home for a little while. It’s been a long time after all.”

“Yeah. I miss your beef stew,” Tim chimed in. “Can we have it for dinner tomorrow?”

“Of course,” you said as you gently cradled Cass in your arms. Cass clung into you like a baby koala for dear life, her nose nuzzled into your collarbone seeking for comfort. It made your heart soared and dropped at the same time, knowing that she found comfort in your presence and the fact that she must’ve had deprived for comfort that she actively seeks for it.

All of you shared blissful moment together, all shared some jokes and recite few relaxed and funny moments happened during mission. You were glad nonetheless, with Cass laid her head on your lap, Damian pressed against your side, and all of your children are here laughing and reciting some stories, you couldn’t ask for a better way to end the day.

The Batcomputer suddenly beeped, alerted everyone that somebody is coming. Dick quickly rose from his seat and take a solemn look to the computer screen. “It’s Uncle Supes and Wonder Woman,” he announced, a little confused at their arrival.

Your heart sank to the bottom of your stomach. Does it mean all of your children had to go for a mission again?

The door to the Batcave opened not so long after, revealed two hero came into the light. All of your children were already on their feet and geared up, ready to dive back into the battle once they’re needed. But a strange expression coming from Diana and Clark somehow told you that it was not a mission.

“Clark? Diana? Is everything alright?” you were concerned. You found yourself pulled Damian into your side and firmly held him, afraid of letting your son go once more.

“Y/N, you might want to sit down,” Clark gently said.

Diana gently took you into her arms and led you into the nearest chair. You were still a little puzzled, your heart racing against your chest. Diana then gently placed her hand on your shoulders, her eyes solemnly staring into yours with an unreadable expression. It frustrated you greatly.

“Diana, what is going on?” you demanded.

“Hold on for a little while. But I need you to sit down.”

“What–” you opened your mouth to protest, but was cut off abruptly at the sight appeared in front of you.

You blinked rapidly, afraid that it was some mind trick that you weren't aware about. You found yourself awestruck, unable to move, but at the same time unable to believe your own eyes. You heaved few heavy breaths that sounded like you were half laughing and half crying, your mouth went agape at the sight alone.

“Holy shit,” you could hear Jason cursed loudly. “Holy shit. It works.”

So it was real, then.

There he was. Your husband. The one and only Bruce Wayne. Completely alive albeit looked a little gruff and exhausted. He had some rough stubble all over his chin, and the usual light in his eyes had dimmed. You could only stare and stare, your mouth let out few incoherent noises that was only above whisper.

Bruce slowly approached you. As if he was afraid, but the corner of his eyes lifted up happily at the sight of you stared at him like a deer caught in the headlight. From this close distance, you could see his eyes glossed from tears that started to well in his eyes. You watched him kneeled in front of you.

“Honey,” Bruce said as he gently took your hand into his. “I am so sorry.”

“Bruce,” you let out a shaky breath, sounded as if you were strangled. Your unoccupied hand shakily covered your trembling lips, eyes widened in disbelief. “Is this… is this really you? Are you real?”

Bruce gently took your hand and placed it on his rough cheek. There was a growing eye bag underneath his eyes. He looked so much older and tired than the last time you had remembered him. “It’s me. It’s me. As real as I could be.”

There are few beats of silence before you let out a strangled cry. You cupped his face with your hand, thumb gently stroking his cheeks. The stubble on his chin felt rough underneath your skin, but you found yourself loving the way it felt. “Bruce Wayne, you little shit! You promised that we will die together when we’re grey and old in our nineties!”

Bruce let out a surprised chuckle. It was warm and familiar, and you had missed it so much. It had been way too long since the last time you heard his laughter. “Therefore, here I am. Coming back to you to fulfil my promise.”

You smiled shakily as you laughed through the tears that stubbornly streamed down you face. You leaned closer to rest your forehead against his. “Don’t pull that stunt on me again.”

“I promised you I will always come back to you. And I do.”

“What happened?”

“The machine that I investigated had sent me into far past. I was trapped there unable to come back home, but I managed to survive. Until I met Barry, he said that he able to finished and decipher all the code gathered and redesigned the machine to bring me back. And therefore, here I am,” Bruce explained. “The warehouse was a trap set up to harm me. But Tim managed to inserted some codes before it exploded, so it sent me into different time instead of kill me in explosion. We figure it was a part of Injustice League’s scheme.”

“All I could think about was you. I worried about you and the kids. Sometimes the only thing that could get me through the day was the thought of that one day I will finally able to come back home to you.” Bruce placed a tender kiss on your knuckles. “You have managed to save me over and over again. Thank you.”

You couldn’t muster up any single words, so instead, you threw yourself into his embrace. Soon all of her kids would join and trapped you in the middle. Although Jason acted as if he hated it, you knew that deep inside his heart he was relieved to have his father back. Dick didn’t even bother to hide his excitement; he was just happy his family was whole once more.

That night, for the first time in forever, the night didn’t feel long and tedious. Or torturous. But neither of you and Bruce could able to sleep in a wink, you and him just hold each other close and greedily craved for each other’s presence. No words exchanged between you and him, however. But you were relieved. You were reunited with your love once more, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

[stxleslyds]

I saw your rant about the Red Hood Movie lol (I agree DC keeps hurting my boy Jason) and you said something that interested me, you mentioned that you don’t like it when Jason is drawn with a bat symbol on him but why? Personally I feel that him wearing the bat symbol makes sense because he’s always tried to fit in with the family and it’s his way of connecting with them because he’s never had a family before. He gets along with his other siblings sometimes so I don’t think it’s ooc. I consider ‘bat symbol’ Jason an era of the past and am perfectly fine with his new Red Hood logo it looks sweet (but I wouldn’t be angry if he had the bat symbol on or not in the future). I’m curious what you’re thoughts are!

Hey there Anon, I have to be honest with you, your ask has been proven very difficult to answer, this here is my third draft. I have decided that instead of explaining my thoughts as I was trying to do in my previous drafts, I will now just link you to some of my past posts when I bring up certain points that make me think Jason should have never worn the bat-symbol on his chest.

Just a heads up, I am not a fan of Batman, the “Batfamily”, or Jason being dragged to any Bat-related content, I think it makes his character bland.

In order to make the answer clear to me as well as to anyone who reads this post, I will be separating my thoughts on how I think Jason’s relationship with Bruce has led me to think that he shouldn’t wear a bat-symbol or be involved with any Batman related content, and how Jason’s relationship with his brothers has led me to think that he isn’t part of any Batfamily or has ever been written as someone with true reasons to consider the others his brothers/allies/friends. I will separate each of those two groups in four different sections: pre-New 52, New 52, Rebirth and Infinite Frontier.

First though I would like to say that Jason as the Red Hood wearing a bat-symbol doesn’t make sense to me from the most basic of things, Jason’s vigilante name has nothing to do with Bats. Who wears bat-symbols? Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Batwing… All people that who have the “Bat” prefix on their names, nobody else wears a bat-symbol, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin (Robin), none of them wear it, so why would Red Hood do it? It just makes zero sense. But anyway, that’s just me being annoying, I guess.

Jason and Bruce’s relationship.

First let’s go back in time to when Jason hadn’t died yet. You said that Jason wore the bat-symbol so he could connect with his family because Jason had never had that before, well, I see things differently, Jason had a family and that was his mother, the mother that he cared for when she was sick and the mother that he saw die to drugs after his father was put in jail. He had a family with her. And then he had a family with Bruce when he was Robin, but because Bruce started to neglect and not pay enough attention to him after he realized they weren’t seeing eye to eye in various things, Jason was pushed to act the way he did when he found that his birth mother was alive and “being manipulated by Joker”.

Jason’s father was abusive with his mother and didn’t care for Jason, Bruce wasn’t ready to be a father (even after Dick) and when Jason started to not want to follow his every rule Bruce neglected him, later his birth mother betrayed him and was one of the people involved in Jason’s death.

My point here is that Jason had a family with one person who died to drugs and then every other “family” that he found ended up betraying him or neglecting him. So, I don’t really think that Jason has much trust in the whole concept of “family” at least not when it comes to any of his experiences outside of Catherine Todd.

Now let’s move to the events of Under the Red Hood where Jason comes back to comics. Jason doesn’t hate Bruce then but he felt betrayed by him and felt like Batman’s whole crusade was not good anymore. Jason expressed several times in that book the fact that he didn’t believe Batman was good for Gotham and that he became a better version of Batman, the Red Hood.

Red Hood could do things that Batman didn’t dare do, he was better. So, why on earth would Jason wear a bat-symbol then? Well, Jason never wore a bat-symbol pre-New 52 when he was wearing his Red Hood suit. NEVER.

Jason didn’t care for Dick or Tim, he saw Dick as inferior to him because of Nightwing’s no killing ways and he was completely indifferent to Tim, his only interactions with him were when he cut his throat a little bit in Batman: Hush and when he called him “the pretender”.

So, Jason wasn’t looking for family he just wanted Bruce to kill Joker for him, and Bruce didn’t. When things got complicated and Jason realized that Bruce was too much of a coward he improvised, he told Batman that in order to stop him from killing the Joker Batman would have to shoot him (Jason). Batman didn’t use the gun, but he did save the Joker by throwing a batarang at Jason’s throat. When Joker detonated the explosives in the building they were in Bruce once again saved Joker from the rubble and didn’t look much for Jason.

That my dead Anon is the first time Bruce betrays Jason in such a big way that made me think that Jason would have never wanted to interact with Bruce in a good way. I will repeat it now, Bruce SAVED the Joker instead of letting Jason KILL the Joker.

After Under the Red Hood we got to see that Jason was alive and well in Green Arrow #69-72, where he made an appearance, there I can say with a 100% certainty that Jason hated both Batman and Bruce. He actively did things that pissed Bruce off and was searching for conflict with the man.

Jason and Bruce don’t interact much after all that because at some point Bruce “died” and that’s where Battle for the Cowl comes in. There is where we see one of the craziest Jason characterizations, there Jason took on the mantle of Batman because Gotham needed Batman (what? Red Hood was created to replace Batman!). But in that book Jason actually harmed both his brothers and left them for dead. In that book we also see a horrible message that Bruce left for Jason where Bruce told him that “Jason was broken and he tried to fix him” and that “Jason was my (Bruce’s) biggest failure”. I don’t know about you Anon, but if my father saw me that way, I would be packing my bags. And Jason didn’t look like he was looking to connect with his “family”.

After all that we don’t see Jason until Batman and Robin vol.1, where we see the weirdest characterization of Red Hood, this Red Hood hates Batman and would kill anyone just because. Jason had zero need to connect with his family there.

I just want to remind you here that Jason never wore a Batman symbol until here in his Red Hood suits, he only wore the symbol when he “was” Batman and that was OOC.

So now I welcome you to the New 52, where Jason wears a bat-symbol on his Red Hood suit for the first time. I HATE New 52 Jason Anon; you will find zero love for him here. That man wore a bat-symbol on his chest even though he didn’t believe in Batman’s ways and while he had this internal conflict about whether he hated or not Bruce. This Jason gave up a memory from his Robin years with Batman because he didn’t care enough to keep it, then he was seen acting like an ass towards Bruce and Barbara in the “Court of Owls” event.

But this whole shit show was written by Lobdell and one day he decided that Jason cared about what Bruce thought and let us know that maybe Jason secretly admired Bruce (in the post I will link here! I talk about what happened in those issues among other things). That story would be followed by Batman and Robin vol.2 #20, or what I like to call “the second time Bruce betrayed Jason in an even more painful way”. I am not going to explain what happened there, but I will like here! the post where I talked about what happened there and why I think that Jason should have never been on good terms with Bruce again from that moment on.

In that post I also discuss how much of an abusive and manipulative person and father, Bruce has and can be. He is a disgusting human being and Jason called him out about it but DC loves to write Bruce being abusive and then swiping it under the rug, Jason being on good terms with Bruce or wearing a bat-symbol on his chest is just horrifying after witnessing that issue, and it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour when issues later the same writer (Tomasi) had Jason interact with Bruce as if nothing had happened.

After that Jason was seen interacting with Bruce when the latter lost his memory, Jason even hugged Bruce there, it was OOC, and like I said it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour or at the very least made it look as something of no real importance.

Now, we are entering the Rebirth era of Bruce and Jason’s relationship, Jason was still wearing that fucking bat-symbol on his chest and this time around Jason even made a deal where he wouldn’t kill anyone while in Gotham (RHatO vol.1 #6), Lobdell even wrote them as being all buddy-buddy after the mess that was the New 52, absolutely disgusting.

Jason didn’t interact with Bruce in Rebirth that much, in fact the next time that Batman made a big appearance in the Red Hood book was in Red Hood and the Outlaws vol.2 #25, yeah, the issue where Batman beats the living shit out of Jason twice because he thought that Jason had killed Penguin. Father of the year, Jason wasn’t dying to be part of Bruce’s family, he was just brutally beat to be part of it. Bruce also ripped the vat-symbol off of Jason’s chest and told him that he didn’t “belong” with him or in Gotham any more. The AUDACITY of that bitch, can you believe? Jason belongs in Gotham as much if not more than Bruce.

Later when Red Hood and the Outlaws became Red Hood Outlaw, we saw Bruce and Jason interact again when Bruce informed Jason of Roy’s death, hugged him and also told him that he was still not allowed in Gotham, what a swell guy that Batman lad!

After that Batman went after Jason Todd when Jason came back to Gotham (without King Batman’s permission) and told the world that Jason Todd was alive and well and taking over Penguin’s Casino. Jason actually threatened Batman with revealing too much information about himself to the world (meaning, Jason threatened Bruce with revealing his secret identity) and that was that. Jason and Bruce only saw each other a few times when DC needed to make money with one of their boring ass events like Joker War and Bruce was shown “welcoming” Jason to Gotham in Red Hood Outlaw #51 or #52, I don’t remember but either way, it was absolutely hilarious and made zero sense. I am sorry, but after Bruce being a manipulative, abusive and all around a horrible person, I don’t feel anything except rage when they make them interact as if they cared for one another.

Shit hits the fan in Infinite Frontier with Urban Legends: Cheer, once again instead of explaining what happens there, I will just link you to the six posts I made about that mini. Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five and Part six.

Here I will only talk about the comeback of the bat-symbol in Jason’s life. Like you said Jason used (still has in some books) his own logo on his chest after Bruce ripped off the bat-symbol and told him to fuck off. That Red Hood logo was still done with the bat-symbol in mind and I just thought that it was ugly, like, there is no need for a logo if you are going to give him an ugly one along an even uglier suit. But that’s not what matter here, what matters is that the bat-symbol IS making a comeback because at the end of UL: Cheer, Bruce gives Jason a brand new (ugly) suit that has the bat-symbol again. That gift comes as a slap to the face after the disaster that was that book, from every point of view that mini should have not come out to the public. But it did because it forced the “Batfamily” down our throats through Bruce deciding to welcome Jason back to the “family” by giving him a suit with HIS logo on the Red Hood suit that kinda looks to me like Bruce saying “glad that I own you too as well”. The whole bat-symbol thing doesn’t sit right with him and sadly I don’t see it like a “Jason era of the past”, I see it like a metaphorical jail for Jason’s character, he is not free to be the character that he is supposed to be (a perfect opposite to Batman that shows that duality MUST exist in Gotham), and instead all we get is another Batman wannabe that is just as boring as the Batman himself.

Jason and his brother’s relationship.

The funny ha-ha thing with this is that we are not supposed to see Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian as four brothers (and to be honest I have never seen them four as brothers, as far as I see it, Jason hasn’t had a brother since before died). DC always makes it clear that Damian is Bruce’s only son so yeah, there is a big misunderstanding there within DC themselves, they have no problem with trying to sell us their absolutely nasty version of a family but at the same time they refuse to acknowledge any one except for Damian as Bruce’s son.

Even though I don’t necessarily believe that Jason sees his brothers as such I still call them that way because they were/are all Bruce’s children.

But this is not about Bruce so let me talk about Jason’s interactions with his brothers in the pre-New 52 era. So, as I said earlier in this post Jason didn’t think Dick was a big deal in UtRH because *just* like Batman Dick never killed and his way didn’t work or whatever (if only Jason knew what Dick did), and with Tim, Jason was mostly indifferent, he only hurt him a little bit in Batman: Hush (for the little bit that he took Clayface’s place) and then he referred to him as “the pretender”. Then we jump to the events of Teen Titans for Tim and Nightwing for Dick. In Teen Titans #29 Jason went to Titans Tower and beat the living hell out of Tim just because, now that thing was OOC and written by Geoff Johns but it existed and it further proves that DC writes this “family” through violence every time they can and then they just hope we forget it happened. With Dick, well, there was the Brothers in Blood arc where Jason dressed up as Nightwing and killed people in his name, he did it because he wanted to “bond” with Dick because he thought that Dick had killed Blockbuster, the whole arc was a mess and I can tell you this about it, Jason wanted to bond for all the wrong reasons and Dick was written as actually preferring Jason to be dead.

Then we jump right into Battle for the Cowl and even though (once again) this Jason was extremely OOC he did try to kill both Damian and Tim and fought Dick too, so, so far, I am not seeing Jason wanting to connect with his brothers, it was more like him going “be robin to my weird ass version of Batman or suffer!”. It was just weird.

Then there was Batman and Robin vol.1, where Jason’s Red Hood was just a blood thirsty and crazy and he didn’t want to be part of any family. I might not like Jason being written as part of the family but what this book had going on was not it.

Now, get ready because it is New 52 time again and this is messier than his relationship with Bruce in this timeline. The most recognizable relationship (or lack of thereof) was Jason and Dick. Lobdell just let us know one thing about what Jason thought of Dick and that was HATE. Jason HATED Dick, why, you ask? Oh, um, no one really knows, the only panel we were shown as “proof” of why Jason hated Dick was when Jason was acting like a little bitch when Dick was teaching him stuff during patrol (RHatO vol.1 #6). But, yes, Jason “had” (apparently) a good relationship with Tim. Yeah, no gracias, listen, Jason and Tim having brunch for two pages (RHatO vol.1 #8) isn’t making me believe that Jason cares or sees Tim in a good light, just throwing a brunch between them isn’t proof of them being the best of brothers but then again Lobdell loved giving Jason every character trait and relationship that Dick once had (examples: Tim, Roy and Kory). That brunch didn’t mean much because later on during the Death of the Family event Jason almost killed Tim (Teen Titans #16) to “save” his father from Joker (talk about bad writing). Jason and Damian had a very weird and forced “bonding” moment in that same event (you can include Damian to the relationships that Lobdell borrowed from Dick), all of the sudden Jason cared for Damian and he was acting all brotherly, because “they worked together” as different people in Batman Incorporated #4, this weird interaction between Jason and Damian (it can only be called weird because it looked out of place and you cannot change my mind, even Jason thinks it is weird in those panels) happened in RHatO vol.1 #17. In that same issue is where Jason tells Dick that he was trash because he didn’t want to say hi to Kory and kinda tells him that Dick “underestimates” Kory, listen, New Teen Titans isn’t a book that I enjoy reading most of the time but Lobdell needs to do some re-reading himself, Dick isn’t trash to Kory, Lobdell was trash to Kory. Anyway, at that point in time, Jason had a bad relationship with Dick, a secret admiration for Bruce, and a weird ass relationship with Tim and Damian.

Before we go on let me tell you what I think about the whole New 52 dynamic. Jason was used as a replacement of Dick Grayson. Dick was the one that had good relationships with his brothers and father, Jason up until the start of New 52 didn’t care for Tim or Damian, hated Bruce and kinda had a soft spot for Dick. In the New 52 the tables were turned. Jason’s relationship with Tim was never developed in paper, they for some reason were friends only when they stood together like they did in Robin War and Batman and Robin Eternal, there was never development or a reason as to why they “were in good terms”, they just *were*. The whole Jason and Damian thing didn’t last long because Damian died and then the whole mess of Batman and Robin #20 happened with Bruce.

Ahh, Grayson #12, the time when Jason and Tim’s last braincell died, they threw so much shit Dick’s way and for nothing. I will forever be mad at this, they really thought that Dick of all people faked his death, and because Bruce was conveniently amnesiac nobody dared say “hey, wasn’t it Bruce the one that told us that Dick was dead?”, seems to me like New 52 Jason and Tim can go be friends with that one braincell all by themselves. This is not family; this is people teaming up with whoever so DC can sell another weird comic event. Also at that time Damian was alive and Jason couldn’t have cared less about him being there (maybe it was because Jason was there when Damian was resurrected? Who knows?).

And now we jump to Rebirth because I hate the New 52. Tim was nowhere to be seen. Jason just forgot Tim existed and it wasn’t until the Red Hood Outlaw era in which we saw Jason interact with Damian again. What we did see, was a reconciliation between Jason and Dick, Jason was written as acting completely different in RHatO Annual #1, Jason respected Dick and his work and also said that Dick “had been a better brother than he had given him credit for”. Then Jason appeared once in Nightwing and they talked about Dick’s new girlfriend. And that was that for a long while.

As I said, during the RHO era Jason and Damian shared a couple of issues in the Teen Titans run, I have talked about these issues before in two posts (Post 1 and Post 2) but I will summarize what happened there here quickly.

Apparently, Jason and Damian had been working together in secret (never shown in actual comics), Jason gave Damian targets and intel of people for Damian to put in his secret prison for villains. When Damian and the Titans go after a target something goes wrong and the Titans end up hurt. Damian goes after Jason without a second thought and accuses him of betraying him, a physical and emotional fight ensues and it ends with Jason promising that if he sees Damian again, he will kill him. That’s all for Jason and Damian being on good terms in Rebirth.

But it all changes in Infinite Frontier, in August of 2021 we see the *real* comeback of the “Batfamily” in Robin #5. Dick, Damian, Jason, Tim and Stephanie appear in this issue but the only things of essence happen between Jason and Damian and Dick and Damian. Only one of them made sense, and it wasn’t Jason and Damian.

Jason was there to bring Damian back to Bruce. Listen, the last time Jason and Damian were seen together they were actively hiding their work from Batman and then they ended promising to kill each other, and now Jason came fresh out of Urban Legends: Cheer #6 wanting Damian to go back to Bruce. Damian tricks Jason into a hug, but surprise! it wasn’t a hug, Damian electrocuted Jason to get him of his back.

And that’s all.

-

I understand that there have been moments where Jason has been written as wanting to connect to one or two people from the “family” but its never developed or based on something of true essence. You might consider it actually strong family connections but I just don’t see it that way.

Jason wearing a bat-symbol after the abuse and manipulation that Bruce put him through in new 52 onwards is just dumb to me. And given Red Hood’s origin, Jason wearing a bat-symbol in the first place is absurd and goes against everything that he once was.

Jason officially started wearing the bat-symbol again in Detective Comic's back up story written by Rosenberg and will continue to use it in the ongoing book Task Force Z.

The bat-symbol is annoying but Rosenberg writes Jason beautifully so yeah, I am biased there...

We just have different opinions on the matter Anon, but don't take this post as an attack towards you and what you think, it is just that I just don't like Jason being involved with anything Batman.

I hope you have a fantastic week Anon!

[dragonofelder]

Batfamily on TV

Consider; a TV studio starts producing a show about Batman, using fictional secret identities and everything. The Batfam make it an unofficial challenge to appear on it.

Jason was a reoccurring background goon, although he admitted auditioning for the Red Hood role. Sadly in his most of his appearances he was wearing a mask or other obscuring headgear. 

Babs has a single scene as an underground information broker called Delphi. Commissioner Gordon was unamused.

Damian tells everyone the whole thing is stupid, and beneath him. Then Titus appears on screen as “Bat-Dog” for a few episodes. According to Damien, the studio was looking for a trained dog for the role so he simply volunteered Titus, but according to Tim & Barbara’s snooping he made a large donation to the studio on the condition the role be made. 

Duke makes an appearance as a member of a Robin Fan Club. He actually wore his “We Are Robin” jersey for the scene.

Steph snuck in as an extra regularly. If there is an daytime street or cafe scene, there is a good chance she is somewhere in the back, eating a waffle. The waffle is not part of the script. The film crew does not know where she got it. She has a new waffle for each re-shoot.

Tim appears as a Wayne Enterprises employee in an episode that had a crime at the business, having a speaking role. He then later appears in another episode as an extra in a coffee shop, sitting at a table with Steph, who still has a waffle in hand. Originally they were meant to be talking in the background, but they weren’t giving coffee to the extras, and after a number of re-shoots Tim just collapsed on the table and fell asleep. Steph convinced the crew to keep going, so Tim was asleep in the used scene, something Tim was teased about mercilessly afterwards.

Cass appears as a ballet dancer in an episode where “Two-Face” take an opera house hostage. She saved “Robin” from a thug by kicking him off them, and receives a Thumbs Up. She later tells the family it was the best thumbs up from a Robin she ever received, which annoys all of the former Robins.

Both Bruce and Dick appear playing themselves. Dick is in multiple party scenes, and is an acquaintance for “Robin’s” secret identity. Bruce is cajoled by the family into a cameo for the first season finale, which has a Wayne Foundation ball. His role is actually extended during filming; first he has an appearance alongside “Batman’s” secret identity, where it is implied they once had a relationship. Later he is taken hostage by “The Joker” who wonders if he is Batman, because “The butt’s almost match.” He is then saved by “Batman”. Bruce later denies it, but he actually had fun, and was the one to suggest the butts line.

For the first season, no one could decide who had the best role; Steph had the most on screen time, Tim had the most speaking lines, while Bruce appeared with and interacted with the main cast the most. Titus actually beat both Steph and Bruce, but despite Damain’s protestations he didn’t actually count. For the second season however, there was clear winner. 

There was a four episode arc that explored “Batman’s” backstory, and his father was played by none other than Alfred Pennyworth. Apparently one of the show’s producers was a friend from his acting career, and told Alfred about the show’s upcoming roles over a cup of tea. How Alfred managed to hide his trips to the studio for filming is unclear. Everyone unanimously agreed Alfred won the competition; although there were a lot of tears after the death scene, and everyone felt the need to hug him tightly.

[anothertimdrakestan]

Damijon Christmas Present!

FOR THE DAMIJON SECRET SANTA I HAD... @nymph-patt

dear nymph:

hi love! i haven’t written in a fat minute and i’m a little rusty so bear with me hehehe. i hope you have a wonderful holiday season! all my love -elle!

I’ve got a fluff christmas fic and a lil headcanon for ya! 

Merry Stress-mas

“You can’t plan Christmas like a battle strategy Dami,” Jon groaned as Damian wheeled a whiteboard into their living room. “Actually, I’ve found it to be quite similar. Pay attention Kent, I know sticking to the plan has never been your strong suit.” Damian’s foot was tapping like crazy, Jon noted his clear anxiousness- needless to say Damian wasn’t the holiday type. Makes it a million times harder when it’s your first Christmas together as a couple. 

*super-couple. 

Jon gasped as Damian flipped the whiteboard like a school teacher, revealing meticulously drawn out plans mapped in expo-marker. “We start with my family, we stay until Jason is ten shots in, after that Christmas always becomes a nightmare so we head out. With your super speed it’ll be only an 14 minutes 37 second trip to your family where we stay for the majority of the night. At the end you rush us back to Gotham to console Dick after Bat-Christmas fails as always. Our emergency word is tyrannosaurus should anything go wrong at the drop we flee. Any questions?” Damian was flying through the plans, pointing at bulleted lists and analyzing possible flaws. 

Jon took a deep breath, a smile creeping over his face. “I didn’t think you’d care so much about our first Christmas together with our families, it’s kind of sweet.” Lazily he reached for Damian, clinging to his back while Dami shook his head, mumbling as he edited the board. “Not really our first Christmas Kent and I definitely do not care about family tt,” Jon didn’t reply, he just smiled into the crook of Damian’s neck.

“Our suits bring down our aerodynamic potential so I’ve taken the liberty of adjusting our arrival time to 15 minutes 43 seconds. Does that sound accurate?” Jon hummed in response as he straightened Damian’s tie, it was already perfect but he’d take any excuse to get closer to Dami. “Ready my love?” Jon glanced at Damian who was checking his watch. “Yes.” Damian responded, absent mindedly clasping Jon’s hand as they made their way to the mansion. 

“DAMI’S HERE!” Steph’s screech announced. She was hanging off the banister as she stole popcorn pieces from the massive tree. “Wonderful- Miss Brown I must ask you don’t eat the decorations tonight, have some festivity,” Alfred shook his head as he made his way to Jon. “Magnificent of you to join us Master Kent, I assume you will also be heading to your family’s festivities as well?” Jon opened his mouth but Damian answered first. “Yes Pennyworth, we plan on just saying for hors devours,” his curt reply brought a knowing smile to Alfred’s lips. “Always planned with you Master Damian,” his accent was playful making Jon chuckle. 

Dick descended the stairs, Damian groaned at his bright green and red striped suit, Jon couldn’t help but laugh either. “Hellllooo super boyfriends! Are-You-Readyyyy-For-Tonight!” Dick practically skipped towards the two, pulling them into a tight hug before Damian could slip away. “We won’t be long Grayson we must attend the Kent family Christmas too,” Damian nodded curtly, shifting closer to Jon who got the message and moved forward into the living room. 

“Actually, where are all the bat-siblings? And where did Steph run off to?” Jon noticed no one was around but Alfred who was preparing something delicious in the kitchen. Dick began chuckling, a devilish smile spreading across his face. “Oh, everyone is down in the batcave. C’mon.” Damian looked taken-aback but Jon was never to shocked by batfamily-antics. 

The two followed Dick to the secret door. “Now, we heard from a little super birdy [Dick winked at Jon who was now openly grinning] that you were a little nervous about having to deal with two Christmas’ this year, so we felt it’d be easier for everyone if we just-” Dick popped open the door to a winter wonderland of a batcave. A large table was put out, filled with their family members. “Merry Christmas!” A chorus of laughter broke out as Damian’s jaw dropped. 

At the table were the batfam, Kents, and even a couple speedsters littered around. All were laughing and smiling at one another. It was the biggest family gathering Jon has seen ever. “No need for crazy plans my love, just enjoy tonight with everyone,” Jon whispered to Damian as he scanned the room. “I- How did you- Thank you,” Damian settled on the last words of praise for the wonderful man who made every single day better. “No need for thanks, I’d get you the world if you wanted it, but for now let’s have a very Merry Christmas!” Jon took off towards his family and Damian would help but feel the corners of his lips betray him with a smile. Heart full he made his way down to his family.

“JASON DO NOT FLIRT WITH KARA SHE’S OFF LIMITS!”

“WALLY DID YOU EAT ALL THE COOKIES ALREADY?”

“BRUCE, CLARK, STOP FIGHTING OVER WHO GOT THE OTHER THE BETTER GIFT. YOU’RE BOTH RICH!”

very merry indeed. 

~

Okay so I haven’t absorbed much batfam content at all for weeks so hopefully my spin on the HC is still cute : )

I don’t think Jon gets enough credit for how observant he is. 

Too often Jon is forgotten, the second super boy, the sidekick, the boyfriend, the man who left everyone for space. 

It’s true, technically. But Jon is so keen at reading those around him, especially the un-readable Damian Wayne that I would argue it’s a super skill in of itself.

He gets it from his mother you know, Superman was always a little dense, but, though no one believes it, he always had Lois to help him out. Too often the quieter, smarter, more analytical side gets forgotten and that’s no different with Jon. His friends don’t see the way he checks up on them, taking in their facial expressions and reading them to know the right thing to say at the right time to help them out. They don’t realize he spent whole days memorizing their heart beats and their breaths to know if they’re ever in peril. And they don’t see the way he looks at them so fondly, beyond grateful they’re in his life.

Lois sees it.

She saw it when Jon met Damian. 

A young boy mesmerized by the wittiness and strength in the human boy. The greatest irony, the Superboy more human than the murder weapon now called “Robin”. But the two hit it off almost instantly- though Damian may not agree to that last bit. 

Lois knew Jon adored Damian, every deep red was “Robin Red” every Wayne Ent. building they walked past brought up stories of his adventures with the youngest Wayne, every Justice League trip meant begging for his dad to send him to Gotham for the weekend while he was out. He was young, but Lois knew a pair of soulmates when she saw them. 

There were these nights when they were teens. Jon would burst out of bed and rush to his mother. He never needed to say anything. There was this look in his eyes, Damian needs me. “Go” she’d always whisper, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead thinking back to when Clark would do the same for her. 

She remembers the frantic December weeks Jon spent toiling on Damian’s Christmas gift. “What do I give a trillionaire who has the world?” Jon would whine and mope around the house for any semblance of inspiration. 

Your heart Jon, all he wants is your love. Lois always thought to herself, she was quite aware of the two boy’s growing infatuation with each other, her husband was always slower in the “feelings” department and if he was slow she imagined Bruce was a damn sloth. So, she let the boys feel safe in her presence. Damian slowly spent more time at her home when Clark was out, she grew to have a sort of friendship with Damian. He’d comment on whatever news article she recently wrote, endure a three second reply and be on his way. She was always astounded at how up to date he was on all her pieces. 

Lois was always proud of the love Jon showed Damian. She’d be the first to tell Bruce he needed to hug his damn kids, but there was a special kind of caring Jon held only for Damian. A love woven only for the two of them. Like an invisible string linking them no matter where in the universe the other was at, there was a friendship, a kindness, a passion, a love.

Overtime, Jon’s analysis of Damian led him to his own feelings. And over an even longer period of time Damian discovered his own. Jon never stopped caring, he never stopped worrying, and he never stopped loving. 

Those, are the parts of Superman that Damian, and the world, need most. 

~

Merry Christmas! <3

[thr-333]

Mismatch- Part 25

In my defence I didn’t forget about updating here, I just didn’t want to.

First < Previous

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

“How do I look?” Marion asks as people fuss around him, not least of all Marinette herself.

“I hoped that would be obvious seeing as I designed this look,” She smirks at him eyes sparkling he can tell since the whites of the Domino mask are removed.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the greatest and all that,” He waves her off as a stylist tries to tame his hair to fit the messy look she wanted.

“Well it is true isn’t it?” She teases, someone also trying to follow her with a brush and comb as she flies around the room in a whirl of designing.

"Perhaps," Marion hums, gaze drifting over to the door where he notices a familiar figure, Marinette follows his smile.

“Luka!” Marinette exclaims, wrapping her friend in a hug, “When did you arrive?”

“Last night," Luka smiles, she was glad she got the chance to become his friend again as MDC, not that he knew their secret identity, "This city is so majestic,”

“Gotham at night?” Marion scoffs, turning in his seat, only to get scolded by the stylist, “Are we talking about the same place?”

“CD maybe you just haven't taken the time to really hear the city’s song,” Luka strums a few cords to demonstrate, “You should its melody compliments your own,”

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Marion shrugs, sitting forward again, “Do you think you can use it to reach out to the Gotham audience? I really want to connect with them,”

“Will do boss,” Marion sticks his tongue at him, Luka only ever called him that in jest.

Luka gives a playful wave leaving to go sort out the music. He had his own responsibilities as the opening act. Marinette feels someone watching them and dismisses the stylist, congratulating her on a great job. She looks a tad peeved as Marion's hair is largely the same as when she entered, but many employees are used to the twins randomly leaving anyway. The door to their dressing room clicks closed and the presence makes itself known.

“What can we do for you, Batman?” Marinette asks, offering him a seat, although she knows he won’t accept it.

“MDC,” he inclines his head, not showing if he was taken aback by her catching him out, “We have reason to believe the concert will be attacked tonight,”

“Yeah, we thought that might happen,” Marion gets up, stretching, “Just try to keep whoever away from the crowd and we can handle the rest,”

“You don’t seem to understand, after the last attack-”

“Sorry to cut you off,” Wow it was weird acing professional around the same guy they had been tormenting the past few weeks, “But that was an impromptu event this one has been planned out for years,"

Officially not but they had designed the building to help them catch akuma in Paris while keeping an event going, they just applied that design to Gotham.

"If you would like to call in the rest of your coworkers we can show you the defenses we have in place so you can work with them,”

Batman seems surprised. What did he think they were just air-headed celebrities? Well, that wasn’t going to be the only surprise of the day then. Sure enough, he calls everyone in and Marinette’s a little hurt to see he invited everyone but Sparrow and Songbird to join in the fun. She hides this fact leading the ragtag group through the backstage area. Spotting their manager she walks over.

“Could you please clear our schedule we want to give them a personal tour of our security measures,” She asks Kate, to her credit only looking mildly surprised to see the whole Batfam trailing after them.

“I thought you might, I’ve already worked it into your schedule, just make sure you're there in time for the costume checks,” Kate looks down tapping away at her tablet, “Also call your uncle arrived in town last night he’ll want to wish you good luck so watch out for him,”

“We couldn’t do it without you,” Marinette beams, letting her go to attend her other duties.

They must make an odd sight, two superstars guiding a pack of vigilantes like ducklings through the backstage. They go over all the security protocols. Safe rooms that the staff was instructed to go to under certain circumstances. There were carefully lain traps that only a few people could trigger to set off. On the stage itself was a secret compartment Marion could make a quick getaway to get change in, a tunnel leading backstage. The entire backstage was a maze in itself all the staff specially trained to navigate it.

To protect the audience they hadn't packed it nearly as much as they could have so it meant it easier for them to reach the exits. Indeed there were hidden emergency exits that people could escape through if villains blocked the obvious ones, they were set to reveal themselves if that was the case. There were also hidden trapdoors in rows of seats that would glow if people were forced to duck behind the seats. It leads to underground tunnels that would lead them safely away. There were even tunnels connecting to the staff safe rooms so they could come and direct the audience as needed. Marinette had made sure to make the tunnels look inviting ad pleasant so no one would panic at being underground.

Then there were the special (comfy) perches that they showed to the Batfamily, each situated to look over everything and be hidden by the lights. There were wires leading to the stage and audience in case they needed to get down quickly and quietly. They also made a web above that they could run along and run any interference with ariel attacks. They also gave them each a blueprint of the stadium so they could see all the secret tunnels that were perfect for a surprise attack. There were ones leading into the entrance subtle enough someone could be pulled in while walking into the building, for the purposes of catching criminals before they even entered. There was also a trap door that could open underneath, she gave them each a remote control to these, warning them to use them wisely. Each hidden door leads to a room suited for fighting, carefully crafted to give the bats and edge.

It had taken a long time and a lot of money but they had invested, making a safe place they could rent out to other performers so there could be more shows in Gotham conducted safely. She could tell that by the end of the tour even Batman was impressed as they headed back to the stage through the empty audience seating.

“Hey! Superstars!” Jagged's voice booms across the arena, waving from the entrance of the place.

“Uncle Jagged!” Marion jumps over seats to reach him, Marinette a step behind him as they both tackle him into a hug.

“Good to see you too,” Jagged ruffles their hair, Marinette sends a silent apology to the stylist, “This place looks Rockin!”

“You bet just wait till I take the stage,” Marion grins, as they both hug Penny and Fang as well.

“Why wait! Show me what you got,” Jagged sends Marion off, who runs to the technicians asking if they can do an early mic check, everyone scrambles to make it happen.

“So how’re you finding Gotham?” Jagged asks her, walking with a side hug back towards the Batfamily.

“Oh, you know… busy,”

“I’d say the news with Marion? That was wicked!”

“Yes… wicked,” Penny pales at just the memory, and yeah fair enough.

“Yo Batman great to meet you!” Jagged boisterous nature meets Batman’s stoic one but the poor guy barely has a chance to adjust before Jagged’s moving on.

“Yo Red Hood right?” Hood looks a little shocked as Jagged claps a hand on his shoulder, “You saved my nephew, I really owe you one!”

“Oh-that's not- I just,” Marinette shares a smirk with Jagged which would have surely had Marion screaming.

“Yeah, he really looks up to you!” Jagged has him spluttering more, she would show him mercy but they only have so much time before Marion catches on.

“Oh Uncle Jagged I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” Marinette says in a suggestive tone, the stage is still empty of Marion.

“Of course, no I’d say it more that...” Marinette could actually laugh as Red Hood practically vibrates from anticipation, “He likes you,”

I think we just killed  him, Marinette notes as Red Hood internally combusts. Well now wasn't the time to show mercy.

“I’d say that's putting it rather lightly,” Marinette smirks as Red Hood is sent into another spluttering mess, and oh how she wishes he wasn't wearing that helmet.

“Right it’s more like-”

“Stop it both of you,” Penny’s reprimand has them both doubling over with laughter. The Batfamily looking absolutely bewildered. Minus of course, Red Hood who they may have to call an ambulance for soon if he doesn't start breathing.

“What are you two laughing at?” Marion walks to the edge of the stage, someone fusses with a microphone not too far away.

“Nooothhinggggg,” They chime simultaneously, with matching grins.

“Penny?” Marion all but whines, fidgeting nervously.

“They haven’t said anything bad,” She assures him, Marion foolishly relaxes.

“Hey is this the guy that saved your hide?” Jagged asks, having the guts to swing his arm around Red Hood’s shoulders.

“Uncle Jagged,” He hisses at the same time Penny hisses ‘Jagged’.

“You should thank him... sing endless!” Jagged exclaims, and Marinette couldn’t be sure he hasn't been planning this from the start, “You wrote it for him didn’t you?”

“Not for him its not-” Marion makes a bunch of vague gestures, “You know?”

“Not at all,” Jagged grins, dragging Red Hood closer to center stage seats, he plops down Red Hood right in the middle of the stadium. The rest of the Batfam take seats around them. “Sing Endless!”

Marion is scowling but doesn't have much other choice as a stagehand tell him he’s all set. He takes the microphone. Marinette mimes at him to breathe, he rolls his eyes but does anyway. The music starts Marion hitting his cue and with just the first few words she could see the tension drain away.

“And the world starts slowly caving it~”

It was such a gentle song. So many people had told him and still told him that it didn’t fit the violent vigilante. The producers had argued they should just fit it to someone else, someone people liked more. In the end, they had caved to Marion's arguments probably because it wasn't made to be an upbeat pop song so they weren't too attached to the money making aspect. That didn't stop the audience from arguing about it afterwards. Some claimed they just randomly selected the song, or that they shouldn't have done one for him at all.

Marion pointedly told them they were all wrong. And looking at Red Hood now, completely enthralled with Marion's singing she could tell that, yeah it had fit him perfectly all along.

"All the words you said were they true? or just selfish li-es~"

Marinette broke her gaze away from Marion to look at the rest of the Batfamily. Suffice to say they were all enthralled, hopefully they wouldn't be this distracted at the concert tonight. Although she supposed it was a good thing they were doing the mic check now so they could watch now and focus later. Then again she doubted Red Hood would be much use regardless, he was leaning forward in his seat the rest of the world dead to him. To fair Marion wasn't much better. In a crowd he would look around or at least pick a random stop to sing to no one. This time however? this time he was locked on to Red Hood sinign directly to him and he probably didn't even realise.

"Gave all I ever had try to make you laugh try to please you~"

Batman looked uncomfortable at the line. Judjing by the times she had seen them spend together there was a tension between them a past she didn't know. How Marion managed to pick up on that long before they came to Gotham she doesn't know. It was almost like he could see into his soul, a connection there despite never having met, like the pull of a miraculous.

"All I know is gone, now I'm all alone~"

Marion wasn’t testing out the mics. That much was obvious. He was straight up performing. And no he hadn’t written the song for Red Hood persay. But she had watched him every night and day agonize over the right words to use, the tune, the feeling behind it. Scraping up every bit of information he could it was probably more thorough than any police investigation done on Red Hood. It was then she realized, their room covered top to bottom in pictures of him covering the ones she had of Adrien, that Marion had completely and utterly fallen for the guy. No, it wasn't a song for him, it was a love letter for him, to him, about him. It was a picture that painted exactly how Marion saw him.

And she was willing to bet that the only people that didn’t realize it were them, both completely captivated by each other as Marion finished.

“What is it~” He holds the next note until the music fades out into nothingness, “Inside~”

The music stops, Marion opening his eyes, almost seeming startled that there were other people sitting before him. It’s only then he seemed to realize that there was more than just one other person in the arena and spirited off to check with the sound. It was as he turned to walk away Marinette could tell Hood had seen it, the robins newly stitched up the back of his jacket.

[ectonurites]

Okay, so I kinda wanna know your thoughts about how weird the fandom portrays the bat characters. Canon is ... not my favorite, but it actually offers a lot of nuance to the characters that I think makes them all interesting. Unlikable, but interesting. I noticed fanon tends to boil the batkids all into these superflat caricatures. Like, cereal obsessed manchild Dick Grayson or bad boy who's literal crimes are only because of the lazarus pit Jason Todd. Its not really a major problem, just weird

Oh I have a LOT of thoughts about this. I try so hard not to shit on how other people interact with content because like, it’s comic books! We’re all just here trying to make the best out of a mess of stuff and have fun, but admittedly a lot of fanon stuff drives me fuckin’ nuts as someone who reads a ton of comics.

Like, I like memes, obviously, I draw tons of memes with the batfam (+ yj) characters and make lighthearted jokes etc etc, and honestly if it’s just for jokes then I don’t mind people having whack interpretations of the characters quite as much. The thing that drives me up a wall though is like... when serious works and analysis and discussion are very clearly based on just the fanon interpretations without any bearing on canon aside from what you could skim from a wiki page, and it’s spoken like it’s fact! There’s ‘having fun with jokes that aren’t taking things that seriously’ and then there’s ‘blatantly mischaracterizing based on misinformation’. Way too often I see things fall into that second category.

Now, a lot of people in the batfam fandom don’t... actually read comics (or at least not frequently) and that’s not even a bad thing necessarily, like you’re 100% allowed to enjoy content however you want to! (I don’t wanna be gatekeepey, especially since comics are confusing to get into)

But the problem is that when a lot of people aren’t reading the comics, then the people who do’s opinions have a lot more influence if they’re loud enough. All it takes is one person who read something and interpreted it a specific way that might not even be correct, and then it can echo chamber and suddenly half the fandom thinks it’s 100% canon that way because ‘oh so and so said that and they actually read it’.

I also think that’s a problem with the popularity of out of context panels/blogs, while they are super funny sometimes, when people make assumptions about characters based on just a few things without context... it can lead to problems. If enough people say something enough times people just... start to think it’s true, even if it exists entirely devoid of context which changes the meaning.

Like, for example, according to canon there’s no actual confirmation Tim stalked Batman on foot for an extended period of time! We know from Lonely Place of Dying that he followed him once to get a picture to convince DIck that he still needed a Robin. Otherwise his ‘stalking’ & how he figured out Batman’s identity was more through media appearances (like newspapers and tv). This is wildly different from the common fanon idea that little Timmy was sneaking out regularly to follow Batman & Robin around with his camera.

I primarily blame Geoff Johns for this misconception because of these panels in in tt 2003 (from issue 29)

But like, think about it for a second, literally how would Jason know that? This is one of the first times he’s ever interacting with Tim, and he was dead/catatonic when that would have been happening! He is either making a wild assumption or perhaps Talia told him this when she told him about Tim, whichever of those it was it’s secondhand information not something he witnessed. Taking his word as fact here makes no sense, he was just trying to get under Tim’s skin while fighting him. But seeing those panels out of context if you haven’t actually read Lonely Place of Dying/only read a vague summary of it, and don’t necessarily know the details of the Jason situation, it could absolutely lead you to believe otherwise!

Dick as a cereal manchild is a weird one because like... okay yeah sure he likes cereal, I can think of like two panels I’m too lazy to find right now off the top of my head of him having it, but... that’s not something we see all the time! Its not like Ollie & his chili (which IS a running joke- seriously I have not read that many Green Arrow comics but the amount of times I’ve seen that man bring up chili in just in the few things I have read is wild. there’s even an official recipe. his chili has it’s own dc wiki page). Then, because Dick isn’t quite as emotionally closed off in the same way the rest of the batfam tends to be, people project literally all the pent up feelings onto him, making him this hug-crazy crybaby manchild... again it’s just very clear people who perpetuate those ideas (outside of like, maybe as jokes) haven’t actually fully read that many comics with him. I’d also even blame the Young Justice cartoon version of Dick for some other traits fanon Dick has, bc that version of him is def a bit of a Hot Mess™️ once he’s Nightwing 

Jason I understand misconceptions about probably the most because of how wildly inconsistent his writing was before the new 52 and how consistently Not Great it was once Lobdell took over. Jason’s one of the few characters I have read like, 90% of appearances for so I’m speakin’ from experience here. But still... acting like Jason as Red Hood is just a ‘bad boy rebel’ that could have a relatively happy connection with the whole Batfam is fun but unrealistic. You can not blame everything on the lazarus pit... he still has killed people! Lots of people! Willingly! Yes he has reasons and when he’s being written well it’s clear that he’s not just ‘random murder happy’ but rather ‘I kill when I feel they deserve it and that it’s necessary’ which is what keeps him an anti-hero rather than a full fledged villain most of the time, but that still keeps him so at odds with the rest of the Batfamily! Writers in more current continuity have had him compromise by only using rubber bullets in Gotham so they can have him interact with the family, but he’s still killed and will do it when he deems it necessary.

Also like... at the time of Under The Red Hood in the comics... theoretically... he hadn’t even been in the lazarus pit for well over a year. Go read Lost Days (it’s short! And except for the thing with him & Talia towards the end of the last issue it’s pretty good!), he spends a lot of time traveling the world and learning things/training before the events of UtRH. Yes you could interpret there still being some Lazarus influence going on there but I think the movie version of UtRH especially leads people to believe there’s a lot less time between his dunk in the pit and his first actions as Red Hood.

Fanon also has a lot of ideas about pit madness that vary wildly from what we have seen in canon, like yeah it’s been said to be a thing to some extent, but there’s not really the Danny Phantom Glowing Green Eyes™️ or anything like that... it’s fun to explore cool new ideas for sure but I just think it’s important to recognize the distinction between things that are actually canon and things that are popular fanon. (Also there are things that fall somewhere in between, there’s definitely stuff that isn’t 100% confirmed canon but could still be plausible/has been hinted at by some writers/is only canon in some settings)

Other things that drive me nuts are ‘quiet does-no-wrong angel Cass’ and ‘the Normal One™️ Duke’ because those just make literally no sense if you’ve read any comics with either of them... but fan content either does those versions or just completely ignores their existence a lot of the time! So! That’s a whole bigger problem!

In general though, this is fandom it’s not like this... matters that much on the grand scheme of things in life, we’re just people on social media talkin’ about comics. And this kind of misconception/flattening of characters does happen in literally every fandom ever. But it still does suck to see characters that have a lot of nuance and interesting history to play around with get reduced to a few traits that aren’t even actually that relevant to who they are.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Doing it for the Brat

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/W54LfKQ by I_am_Here The emotional whiplash Jason Todd endured tonight is one for the record books. From a successful drug bust with the whole Batfamily to being publicly reprimanded by the all-nighty Batman. And instead of getting to fulfill his kinda-brotherly right to tease Damian, he’s faced with the prospect of needing to actually be a good brother. Or the one where Jason Todd challenges Damian Wayne to attend five therapy sessions each. Words: 1569, Chapters: 1/10, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, Batfamily Members, Red Hood, Batgirl (DCU), Robin (DCU), Oracle (DCU) Relationships: Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Alfred Pennyworth & Damian Wayne Additional Tags: Therapy, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, Jason Todd Gets Therapy, Jason Todd Gets A Hug, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne Bonding, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is Bad at Feelings, Jason Todd is Bad at Feelings, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, Jason Todd and Damian Wayne are Siblings, Damian Wayne Gets a Hug, Damian Wayne Has a Heart read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/W54LfKQ

[monarchteen]

Daminette + Chloe: How They Met & Became Friends

Because I want more content of them...

- Chloe is in Gotham, doing something for her mother and trying to earn Audrey’s love. (And money because she works at ‘Audrey’.)

- So, she’s at a Charity Gala, trying to socialize and get more clients for her mother when...

“Chloe?”

“Dupain-Cheng? What are you doing here?”

“I live here? Why are you here?”

- Cue Chloe being rude and Marinette trying her best. Marinette hadn’t seen someone from her past in half a decade!

- Anyway, Chloe does like having someone familiar there, she won’t admit even if her life depended on it.

- She meets Damian when she’s insulting Marinette and they immediately don’t like each other.

- Marinette got a headache every time they spoke a word to the other, that night.

- Chloe was supposed to fly out the next morning, but Audrey tells Chloe that she didn’t do anything so Chloe has to stay until the Wayne Gala and promote there. In the meanwhile, she’ll just manage ‘Audrey’ in Gotham.

- Chloe doesn’t think she’ll run into Marinette again so she doesn’t tell Marinette about her plans to stay.

- But, fate is a bitch to Chloe, and they run into each other at the same coffee shop.

- Marinette forces Chloe to hangout with her more since she finds out about her plans to stay for another two-three months.

- Marinette forces Damian to tag along.

- On one of their hangouts, Chloe offhandedly mentions something about Audrey being a bitch and a horrible mother. Marinette immediately gets concerned and tells Damian.

- Damian, also, having a horrible relationship with his mother, wants to help Chloe, but it’s Damian. Emotions and ex-assassins don’t mix.

- He helps from the shadows.

- Marinette gently manipulates Chloe into telling her more, but still doesn't get the full picture.

- Until one night, Chloe and Marinette go out drinking. Chloe spills her guts out, literally and metaphorically, since she’s a total lightweight.

- Chloe tells Marinette about how manipulative Audrey is, how all Chloe ever wanted was to be accepted, how Chloe has an eating disorder because of Audrey, how Audrey almost fired Chloe for her outfit not being good enough and more. Marinette immediately wants to drop kick Audrey and give Chloe a big hug. She is able to do the latter.

- The next morning, she wakes up in Damian and Marinette’s guest bedroom, which isn’t that odd, she’s stayed here a couple of nights before, and remembers what she said. She finds Damian and Marinette whispering to each other in the kitchen.

- At this point, Damian and Chloe tolerate each other’s existence. In their language that means that they're neutral with each other, but if the other needs helps, they would help. They’ve somewhat bonded over some rich bullshit as Marinette says.

- Chloe comes in and the two stop whispering.

- Chloe apologizes for exaggerating some things, clearly lying, to Marinette, master liar, and Damian, ex-assassin.

- Damian rolls his eyes and tells Chloe that she’s a horrible liar.

- Marinette asks about Chloe’s eating disorder. Chloe says that she is seeking help after Adrien forced her to.

- Marinette asks Chloe to stay in Gotham because New York doesn’t seem healthy.

- Chloe declines and makes excuses for Audrey.

- Marinette doesn’t buy it. Chloe starts being rude to get her off her back.

- Marinette tells Chloe that Chloe is staying whether she likes it or not. Chloe has no idea how a 5′4′’ woman can be so threatening.

- After a few more vague threats, Chloe says she’ll stay.

- Chloe, so far, has been staying in a luxurious hotel and needs to get an apartment, Marinette tells Chloe that she can stay in their apartment anytime.

“Right, Damian?”

“Whatever makes you happy, Angel.”

- So while Chloe’s apartment is being set up, she stays at Marinette and Damian’s apartment. Chloe has a lot of nightmares from Hawkmoth, her mother and some other stuff from her shitty life. 

- One night, she has one about the Miracle Queen incident. She gets up and finds Damian in the kitchen. At this point, she’s shaking and next to tears, Damian sees this and just freezes. He asks if she’s okay and she says that she obviously isn’t.

- Damian is clearly not the best with emotions, even after living with his family for thirteen years, so he asks if there’s anything she needs and what happened.

- Chloe says that she had a nightmare regarding something in her past. Damian, who is all too familiar with this, makes her some hot chocolate. He hates the stuff, but when Marinette has nightmares, it helps so Damian figures that Chloe will be similar. (She is similar.)

- He asks what the nightmare was about. She’s hesitant, but Damian tells her it would be better for her to not bottle it up. She rolls her eyes and is just so tired, that she doesn’t care so she tells him.

- Damian’s already heard the story about Miracle Queen, but to hear about it from the perspective of the akumatized person is interesting to him.

- Chloe tells him about how Hawkmoth came up to her, how truly awful she must have been to get a literal terrorist to come up to a fourteen year old girl, how she accepted and Chloe breaks down crying.

- Damian, who’s desperately hoping that Marinette comes home right now, sorta just stands there, a hopefully reassuring hand on Chloe’s shoulder. He’s really just trying his best.

- Chloe, who really is tired and crying, hugs him. Damian is as still as a statue for the first minute before realizing that he needs to try to help so he just says some reassuring things like how Chloe was only fourteen, that Hawkmoth is the one in the wrong, how we are totally going to not care about canon because this is my AU.

- I don’t know what even is in season 4, but I’ll decide whether its canon or not when it comes out. Chloe’s probably going to be a villain, because Thomas doesn’t like her, so that’s not canon.

- Somehow, Damian is actually good at advice and calms Chloe down.

- They sit there for a while, talking, drinking tea (Damian) and hot chocolate (Chloe), Chloe apologizes about the whole crying, Damian is in shock about how he didn’t totally mess everything up.

- After the whole thing, Chloe usually goes to Damian when she gets nightmares.

- Damian is still a mess of emotions when she comes to him, but miraculously, it benefits both of them.

- While she’s living with them, she finds out that they’re Ladybug and Robin, completely by accident. She finds out Marinette is Ladybug when she sees Mari talking to Tikki. Chloe shuts herself in her room the guest bedroom for an entire day and processes her life.

- She finds out about Damian when she’s not supposed to be in the apartment, she was supposed to go to her new apartment, but some changes needed to be done so she’s staying with them. He swings in and removes his mask. Chloe shuts herself in her room the guest bedroom for an entire day and processes her life, again.

- She finds out about Marinette first, like around a month and a half in, she finds out about Damian a few days before the Wayne Gala.

- Then, the Wayne Gala arrives. It’s probably one of the best nights of Chloe’s life. She hangs out with the Waynes (they all think Chloe is a nicer version of Damian), gets a lot more clients for MDC, tells Audrey to fuck off, gets fired by Audrey, becomes MDC’s COO, her apartment is officially done and the best part: she hangs out with Damian and Marinette all night.

A little reminder:

- Damian is very OOC because 1. I don’t watch DC often. 2. He’s twenty-three in this AU, he’s most definitely changed in the thirteen years he’s lived with the Batfamily.

- Chloe and Marinette are also very OOC because it’s been nine years since the events of the season three are taking place. People change from their fourteen year old selves.

[cannotgiveafuck]

HEY SORRY ITS BEEN A FEW MONTHS HAVE A SHORT BBATTOWLB SNIPPET.

I put it up on AO3, though it may not be completely compliant in verse, but hey whatever.

Billy's identity has been revealed and he's dealing with the not quite immediate fallout.

(Spoilers for post BBATTOWLB main story line.)

-

The first time Marvel tried to leave Fawcett City, J'onn was there to stop him.

"I cannot allow you to pass city limits, Captain." He said, and moved to push Marvel back every time.

.

The second time Marvel tried to leave, Green Lantern was there.

Just lounging about in a hammock from his ring, looking at his phone like he was enjoying a relaxing day out.

"Sorry, bud," he said, only glancing up with a shrug. "You know the rules."

.

The third time Marvel was actually able to leave, because there was nobody around to stop him. Because they were all out at Metropolis fighting an army that didn't really exist because, well. Illusion magic.

Marvel really felt they could use a hand from the Champion of Magic himself.

Apparently, the others did not feel the same.

From the moment he showed up, those that noticed told him to stay aside, that they could handle it, that he could get hurt, that he should leave it to them.

"This isn't your fight, kiddo."

"Go back home, champ."

"Watch your back, kid."

Yeah. Well. This kid just saved their collective magic inept butts, so...

Superman did not see it that way. The second the fight was over, he was right there, back straight and shoulders broad and brows furrowed.

"That was reckless, Billy. You were not called in to join the fight, and if you had misstepped in the slightest someone could have seriously been hurt."

But he didn't misstep. This was a magic fight and hello, did they forget what he's good at? They could suspend him all they want, they couldn't keep him away from where he needed to be, they couldn't freaking ground him.

Something hot and uncomfortable unfurled in his chest. He felt his fists curl at his side, involuntary sparks of electricity snapped around them. On the inside, Billy felt like screaming. On the outside, Marvel felt his jaw clench.

"I understand that, but--"

"Do you?" Superman interrupted. He didn't believe him. "Do you really understand how much damage was done? How much more could have been done? This is why you're on suspension, Billy. You can't just go around getting into every fight--"

"Marvel."

"What?"

"My name is Marvel," he ground out with surprising calm. "And every fight that needs me is my fight, Superman."

Superman crossed his arms and stared him down, like Marvel wasn't as tall as him, as broad and muscled and powerful as he was. Like Marvel hadn't just saved their asses.

Marvel kept his chin up and eyes forward. He would not back down. Not even from his hero.

"Go home, Captain."

With the threat neutralized, the team watching, and civilians and news reporters starting to venture back out, Captain Marvel knew there was nothing else left for him there.

A bolt of lightning struck him.

Rather dramatic, as exits went. But like hell he was going home, where he was sure another Leaguer would come patrol, where he was being commanded to stay - so the Rock of Eternity it was.

.

He didn't try to leave Fawcett City for awhile after that. (At least, not in any way that they would notice).

.

There were no missions, no patrols, no monitor duties, no cafeteria hang outs or briefings or alerts. His communicator was forfeited, his access to the Watchtower denied, his place on the Justice League all but officially revoked.

However, with how often one of the other heroes showed up to assist him with his own city's emergencies, Marvel felt like he was seeing the League a lot more than he had before his suspension.

Since they couldn't really stop him, they interfered as much as possible.

The Flash would stop by and want to grab food, always ready to take Billy somewhere to eat, and sometimes he’d drag Hal with to mess around at an arcade, and well, would you look at that, there's a bank robbery taking place, lemme get that for you.

Green Arrow and Black Canary came to town during the week, asking him about his home life and family and schooling and what he wanted to do, as if there was anything besides being Captain Marvel, and they tried very hard to be very nice and very friendly and very nosy.

Kori frequently came blazing by. She would greet him with a hug and be excited to see him. Like she actually wanted to. Every time, she would excuse the lack of Roy and Jason, stating that they wanted to give him space. She would ask him if her presence was a burden, was unwanted. And every time Billy would say no and hold her hand just a bit tighter. There were never questions about his memory loss, about what he came to remember, as if she understood the precipice he was balancing on and only wanted to remind him she was there. Billy appreciated that a lot.

Even Doctor Fate showed up. Suddenly next to him in the middle of the night as he glided through the sky. Not saying much of anything, though Marvel could feel his stare, feel his assessment. There were questions he wanted to ask, answers he wanted known, but still he didn't push. He just floated alongside Marvel until he vanished again. It was creepy, but it could've been worse.

Very rarely, in the corner of his eye, he would spot Batman or Nightwing, just on the edge of a building's shadow. A few times during the day, Billy caught sight of Bruce or one of the other batfamily. They would be strolling through the streets like it was a normal occurrence for them to be in Fawcett, and every time, Billy ran the other way. The thought of meeting them like this, as himself, as street rat Billy Batson made his heart race and head dizzy. He couldn't do it. Not now, not yet.

.

Captain Marvel could hardly go on patrol without another hero showing up at some point, all of them seemingly taking shifts to watch him, to baby sit him in his own city. Like he couldn't be trusted any more. Like he couldn't be the hero he had been this whole time.

Billy couldn't sleep at night. Couldn't lie on his bare mattress in his apartment without jumping at the slightest of sounds. As if the others would barge in and take him as he slept. The wards that were put up awhile ago did not help soothe this fear. Tawny's reassurances that they would not let anyone take him only comforted him in so much that he did not want his Familiar harmed, either. Not for him, not because of him.

He spent a lot of time sleeping at the Rock, where at least he felt safe.

.

Superman never stopped by. Aside from that first confrontation in Metropolis, Marvel hadn't seen him. No lectures, no orders, no commands, not even static silence. Nothing. Word from Hal was he had originally wanted to actually ground Billy. Keep him at the Watchtower where he could be easily monitored and cared for. But the idea was shot down and he'd been a little miffed about it. Still, that didn't stop the spike of paranoia Billy felt upon learning it.

Diana never contacted him, either, surprisingly. And that hurt more than he thought it would. Marvel remembered the look of sadness on her face, the hidden anger in her voice, and the passion she gave as she tried to defend him, as he stood before the League and confessed to his deceit, to his lying. She looked like he betrayed her. Even if she showed up, Billy had no idea what he could possibly say to apologize, to make it better.

Victor's position in the League was on the line, too, and Billy hadn't heard any more from him except that he'd be out of touch for a bit while he was essentially grounded. For him, that meant staying at his Detroit home with supervision whilst on duty at the Watchtower. The curdling feeling of guilt that he had brought this onto his friend sent Billy into such distress he didn't leave the Rock for the whole day.

Constantine thought the whole thing was bollocks. Said they had no right to control him, to stop him. He also said a few curses about them and the Wizard, but Billy let it slide. It felt nice to have someone truly in his corner. When John offered to whisk him on a vacation for awhile, see the other side of the pond, Billy regretfully declined. He felt like that was running away from his problems and he hated that notion most of all. Still, he thanked John for talking to him, even if it was just through the mirror. It helped elevate the ache in his chest.

.

Billy hadn't felt this way - this distant, disconnected, and closed off way - in a very long time.

.

"You keep returning here, young Tháv̱ma."

Don't look at him, don't talk to him, don't listen to him.

"Over and over again, you grace these stone halls."

He's goading you. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it!

"Tell me, do you miss the cold throne and all the power it holds so much?"

Don't fall for it! Don't listen! Don't--

"Or are you here for something else?"

Don't react! Don't--

"Perhaps you wish to find the echoes of the old Wizard's ghost haunting this Rock?"

Don't cry, don't cry, don't--

"Or perhaps... perhaps you wish to find solace in a familiar presence?"

Don't cry, don't--

"Tell me, how heavy is the burden of being both Wizard and Champion?"

Don't--

"You seem lonely, young Tháv̱ma."

I am.

Billy was so, so lonely.

"I know loneliness, and all its dark corners, very well."

Really?

"Oh, yes. Spent thousands of years trapped and alone."

Of course, Teth Adam would understand.

"I am here."

Please.

"I will listen."

Please.

"Talk to me, young Tháv̱ma."

Billy didn't want to be alone anymore.