#when I learned Jason’s actual backstory

[caspertheloudassghost]

Sooooo in Batman: The Adventures Continue #9, Jason has a dead older brother named Danny Todd (who is only mentioned in that issue and never again).

Where are the DCxDP people and why haven’t they found this yet

[ijustthinkhesneat]

I feel compelled to expand upon the previous fae/folklore! Batboys headcanons:

-Bruce is just a straight up normal human. I think this provides a great opportunity for angst because unlike his immortal? children Bruce does age and it terrifies them. And Bruce is young he’s in his early 30s but like his knees will crack a little or his back is slightly stiff after a bad patrol and it just sends them into a spiral because they cannot fathom their dad not being around forever. I can definitely imagine them trying to strong arm Bruce into becoming some flavor of unaging. You could go super dark or just more generally emotional angst but damn the possibilities.

-Cass is giving me shadow person. Very cryptid of her. I’m not sure that I have a clear backstory for her worked out yet. Either magic gone wrong or she’s another flavor of undead like Jason and Tim. I like to imagine she just hovers over people at night to be creepy.

-Originally I wanted to say Duke was a Will-o-the-wisp. But I’m not really sure it fits, especially since he’s primarily active during the day. Then it hit me. Mothman. My lamplight boy is a moth creature. I like the idea of him hiding his little antenna under a beany and wearing sunglasses. The wings would be difficult. But my boy is creative.

- I think Steph and Barbara are also human like Bruce they just are extra bad ass.

-Coming back to life as a magical creature warps peoples memories and emotions from both the trauma and changing into something not human. Tim is significantly less effected than Jason, at least outwardly, because he was only a toddler when he died so he didn’t have many memories or experiences to draw from, but Jason was super volatile. His memories surrounding Willis became even more dark while his memories of his mother sort of glossed over her absentee parenting and drug use. Jason can’t help but struggle with associating the negative learned experience he had with his first paternal figure with Bruce. Jason ends up going to live with Talia for a while because he doesn’t want to feel that way about his dad anymore.

-Basically I think Jason, at least mentally, is the most human of Bruce’s kids besides Damian because he actually lived a life as a human, where as Tim changed so young that he doesn’t really know how to be anything but his extremely disturbing self.

-I think Gotham just has major ‘I do not see it’ energy. Like The Batfamily? Demons from hell. The Wayne’s? Hot neurodivergent people. Did you see Dick Grayson unhinge his jaw like a fucking snake at a gala? No you didn’t he just has a really big smile. Jason Todd??? Has scales??? Nope actually he just developed early onset Eczema and he’s really self conscious about it how dare you! Tim Drake sucking the blood of the himbo blonde boy? Everyone knows Tim and Bernard are total freaks. Cassandra Cain is your sleep paralysis demon? Honestly fair.

-It’s totally a coincidence that strange misfortune befalls anyone who threatens the Wayne’s!

-Clark is Bruce’s favorite man to sleep on so he gets a pass. I don’t know why but a midwestern spin on the story of princess kaguya lives in my head rent free. Like Martha Kent is just shucking corn and then boom baby in the corn. We call that children of the corn. I still love to imagine him being like so perfect that it’s high key alien, but his little sharp nails and fangies! Maybe even slightly pointy ears. And like Clark fully thinks he is human, like his parents don’t tell him humans can’t fly until he’s in kindergarten, and even then they just tell him he is special and learned super fast and shouldn’t embarrass the other kids and Clark is such a Good BoyTM that he just never uses his powers in public cause he doesn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Like bro doesn’t learn he is adopted until he is about to go to college, he is just straight up clueless.

-Clark learns Dick is a Fae creature when Batman brings Robin to the Watchtower cause he couldn’t get a baby sitter and Alfred doing some spooky shit like dusting the mausoleum. Like Batman just slinking around but there is this super colorful child with him. And then Dick turns and smiles and it’s just so wrong, like his mouth just stretching his face like some horror movie shit. Clark almost shots himself cause like what the fuck. Bruce told Dick to just ‘be himself’ so like he just thinks he’s being friendly. Despite being creepy as all hell Clark kinda thinks Dick is super adorable. Like was he spider crawling around the floor with all his limbs bent the wrong way while Bruce and Clark were talking? Yeah but then he just tugged on Bruce’s cape to ask for a juice box, like that’s a baby.

-Jason freaked him out in a different way. Since Jason is undead he doesn’t have a heartbeat and doesn’t need to breath so when he isn’t moving he makes literally zero noise. When he first met Clark he was just watching him from around corners and behind stair banisters and Clark was convinced he was losing his mind and hallucinating the kid from the Grudge. Then Bruce is just like “Oh you met Jason! He’s so sweet, just a little shy. He’s my second oldest! I think he likes you though.” And then a little grey blue slightly webbed hand just reaches around the corner to give a little wave and boom Clark would kill for him.

-Tim is similar in that Clark has trouble pinpointing his location because of a lack of normal bodily functions, but Tim has no idea what a boundary is. So like at first he’s a shy little toddler and then that night he’s crawling all over Clark and pranking him nonstop.

-Damian is a baby but like Clark looked in his eyes and just felt like this infant could see his past present and future and was judging him heavily. Clark was relieved cause at least he had a heartbeat.

-Cass lives to fuck with Clark. She’s Jason’s age but not only has no heartbeat and doesn’t breath, when she is in shadow form he can’t see her with X-ray vision. She can literally make herself undetectable to Superman. He learns this one night sleeping in a guest room at the manor. He gets the feeling he is being watched but can’t find anyone. Then right when he relaxes her arm shoots out from the darkness under his bed and grabs his leg. Clark screams so loud it cracks the window. And then just nearly silent muffled laughter as the arm retreats into the darkness. He X-Ray visions but nothing is there. He demands to stay in Bruce’s room after that. Bruce is just like “Oh that was just Cass. She likes playing practical jokes, she is my little princess!”

[rickktish]

A list of mutable batfam headcanons that live inside my brain:

Steph deserves to be 6’ minimum, preferably 6’1” or 2”

Bruce is constantly trying to balance his need to be at the same eye level or above the people he’s intimidating vs his need to do his funky little gargoyle crouch. His favorite thing about the GCPD roof is that it has lots of surfaces he can crouch on and still meet or look down at Gordon’s eye level

Tim and Damian suffer from “too similar to get along” disease and must either become best friends or despise each other until the end of time

Babs prefers light, natural toned makeup. Steph prefers pops of color and decent amounts of jewelry when she can get away with it. Cass prefers jewelry and no makeup at all

Jason’s comfort meals are all variations on soup served with bread for dipping

Jason is of the opinion that Fitzwilliam Darcy is an ass at the beginning of the book and it’s a good thing he decided to change himself so he could take his place as Best Fictional Man Ever. Dick, who read the book in order to be able to connect with Jason better, is of the opinion that Fitzwilliam Darcy has done nothing wrong ever and only needed to work on his social skills, meaning that it’s his improved ability to communicate that makes him worthy of Elizabeth Bennet at the end. Neither of them wants to listen to Tim’s analysis of what this says about their relationships with Bruce

Duke has never engaged in non-Alfred approved chaos. This is not because Duke seeks Alfred’s approval, but rather because their senses of humor are in perfect alignment and Alfred is always pleased to discover that he approves of Duke’s particular instances of chaos even after the fact

Damian never had stuffed animals growing up, but after being corrupted by Dick’s influence he can no longer sleep without a minimum of one in his bed

Damian collects posters and articulable action figures. His favorite ones are the ones that can stand on their own, which he uses for posing practice in his drawings. His favorite figure is of one of the characters in Cheese Vikings who has a zuko-esque backstory and a secret propensity for gardening

Dick always buys the most beat up box of cereal at the grocery store because he feels bad for them

Cass loves not only ballet, but other works by classical composers as well. She will unironically listen to the local classical station, and can identify the Borodin String Quartet by the sound of their instruments alone

Tim and Bruce watch and read Gray Ghost media in all its various forms and discuss it together as a bonding activity

Alfred and Jason’s shared birthday is usually celebrated with them making each other cakes, meaning that everyone gets to enjoy not one but two cakes for the day

Jason specializes in cheesecake above all other cakes, though he did make Damian a black forest cake for his birthday once right after he’d finished playing Portal

Literally everyone is surprised when they learn that Damian plays video games. No one has ever once looked at him and thought “yeah, i bet that kid plays console games” and he’s actually really insecure about it, but he also refuses to wear any kind of merch outside the house. He owns dozens of gaming and anime T-shirts but refuses to be seen as anything but completely neutral outside his own territory

Most of the bats wear drug-detecting nail polish at all times, though the base and reactive colors vary by the bat in question

Bruce and Dick have both had therapists straightup quit on them and are therefore reluctant to go back to therapy ever again

Duke’s favorite book is Walden Pond

Alfred read Lord of the Rings aloud to Bruce when he was a kid

[brb-on-a-quest]

I had a thought last night, and even though the only canon bat source I've had is WFA, and I've only *just* started getting into fanfic, so characterizations may not be accurate/have been done before, but IDK. I need this to exist out there.

Timothy Drake-Wayne writes fics sometimes.

It started off with the necessity of creating so many fake IDs. One thing led to another and Tim was coming up with backstories for all the Johns, Marys, and Joes that he invented while doing his Gotham digital surveillance. After all, he was trying to make these people's fake IDs look as real as possible, which meant more than just a name on a couple of sheets of paper.

It means creating a fake digital footprint. For each one.

So, on the rare occasions when things are calmer, and he's not immediately needed, he sits on his computer and types out head cannons for each of the OCs he has created. He spends a lot of time doing research on different cultures, neurodivergencies, physical abilities, and backgrounds to try and 1) paint accurate pictures and 2) learn. He hides the world building tidbits in a secret folder that he's taken so many measures to hide from Oracle (she already knows, but she doesn't actively look after finally figuring out what the folder of names, complete with physical descriptions, life stories, and preferences is out of respect for Timothy). (Also, all this writing knowledge actually comes in handy for crime-solving things, but he doesn't fully realize it at the time).

Tim even went as far as to make social media accounts for some of his favorites and posts bits and pieces of the head cannons to make them, again, seem like real people. Just in case. As a precaution. You never know.

Jason finds out somehow, in a freak accident and collision of siblings that so often happens. Tim is sweating bullets, trying to steel himself for the endless teasing. He is fully prepared to delete every single file that's in that folder and deny that it ever exists for all eternity.

Except Jason doesn't. Jason's too much of a literary nerd (granted, he prefers more classic literature than social media fics, but this is another thing he can connect with his little brother on- he's *excited*) to tease Tim about the writing. He kind of persuades Tim to take more time for his hobby because Tim has some markings of talent in his very specific creative niche. Tim may have also convinced Jason to try it exactly once, to create a fake Twitter profile for Mr. Darcy and create shitposts from his point of view. He has a great time with it once, and then he moves on (but sometimes he creates other accounts for other characters that Tim doesn't know about).

They make a pact between the two of them not to tell the others; they'd ask too many questions and make it less fun.

But every once in a while, Tim would walk into Jason's place to crash for a bit, steal all of his Red Bull, update Jason on his writing projects, and get writing advice.

[hermesmyplatonicbeloved]

Annabeth stans - Do Not Interact. This post is not for you. Keep Scrolling.

The Annabeth apologism is real guys. People really be like "Annabeth has the most tragic backstory in PJO!" And forget about nearly every single other character in PJO and HoO

I'm sorry did you forget about:

Tyson: homeless at 7-8 years old, and bullied/terrorized by everyone in his life aside from Percy and Sally

Hazel: literally died to right her mother's wrongs at 13 years old. Not to mention how her mother treated her, and her curse. There's more but I forget it.

Nico: lost his sister at either 10 or 11(?), was stuck in the lotus casino for decades, was homeless and manipulated by a ghost for months, abandoned by his father - only for his father to start acknowledging him by manipulating him to give up the 1 person who cared about Nico to him on a silver platter

Luke: his mother was cursed and used to terrify him with her oracle episodes. he ran away young and was living homeless or in shelters for years.

Thalia: lost her little brother pretty young, also lost her mother to drunk driving, was living homeless or in shelters for years, died to protect a 6 year old and 14 year old at 12 years old, was resurrected at 16 years old within months had a great prophecy almost forced on her

Percy: lived with a man that threatened to "knock his lights out," (aka. severe physical abuse), humiliated him bc of his learning disabilities, the same guy also abused his mom physically emotionally and financially to the point where she thought her only option was to kill him

Jason: was given to a goddess at like 3 years old, was forced to live with terrifying wolves at 3 years old (he thought they would kill them) and then was forced to become a child soldier after that (starting at age 3-5 years old) and never got to live his own life before he was killed at 15-16 years old. Not to mention his mother is dead, and his sister a stranger.

I don't remember Leo's story, but didn't his powers accidentally overwhelm him and kill his entire foster family? Didn't Gaea torment him for years?

Like. Annabeth eavesdropped (aka listen to a convo she has no context on) a convo where her dad was struggling to tell his wife how he had Annabeth (how tf is he suppose to explain her showing up in a golden cradle after not having sex with Annabeth's mother without sounding insane), was bitten by regular spiders for 3ish days and then chose to ran away before her dad got home - her dad who'd actually know the problem and what to do, spent a few days away from home by choice, 2 weeks or so on the run with two powerful demigods protecting her, and then she got to camp where Chiron could parent her. Everytime she wrote to Frederick he replied immediately telling her that he loved her, he was sorry for failing her and he welcomed her back home. And when she couldn't keep up with the monsters? He built a machine gun with celestial bronze bullets and loaded it onto a helicopter to protect her.

And somehow Annabeth has the worst backstory. She actually has a home to return to. A mortal parent, who isn't the best but still tries and tells her he loves her. Half the other demigods/beings on this list don't even have that.

Also, this is a rant about Annabeth stans, not a debate, not Annabeth Chase hate. It's a commentary about how annoying her fans are. If you respond with anger and insults you will be blocked immediately.

[call-me-strega]

Ghost Selkie AU Tidbit: Abuela Soliña

I’m still playing with my Ghost Selkie Au, tossing it around like a cat toy trying to decide if and how to write it and one figure that I’ve kinda developed a backstory for is Abuela Soliña. Now said backstory may never see the light of day in the the main story so I thought this’d be a fun tidbit to throw out while I’m still considering the main story overall.

Okay so my inspo for Abuela Soliña, or Señora Mariana Soliña, actually came from a couple of different sources. I took some of the general headcanon from the DCU; Crime Alley has a large population of people of color, specifically Hispanic in the area Jason lived; that Jason has Hispanic heritage; that some of the older women in the alley occasionally feed street kids; and took them to create a person that would be a maternal figure for Jason bc I’m all for giving him Good Adult Influences.

She functions a bit as a plot device taking up the role of Jason’s magical mentor and helps move the story along. However, I wanted to give her more depth so I based her off an actual figure in Spanish history. Once I had decided a witch was the best magical figure to live in Gotham and guide Jason I actually did a bit of research on famous Brujas in folklore and came across María Soliña/Soliño a famous witch from Galicia who inspired the women of her village to fend off Ottoman raiders and survived the Spanish Inquisition without being burned at the stake. She was the main inspiration and namesake of Abuela Mariana Soliña. She did have children, though not much is known about them, so I wanted it to be implied that Mariana was a descendant of María. I wanna say I’m placing her around age 50 when she first met Jason and 65-ish(?) when he returned to Gotham.

Anyways, like I said I didn’t want her to remain a plot device and actually have depth so I kinda started building a backstory for her. Her grandparents or parents were likely immigrants who moved to Gotham from Galicia, Spain back when the city was younger. Back then the different magical communities were a bit more segregated. Vampires stayed clans with vamp doctors and leaders, gargoyles in their own community, fae in their courts, etc., but she did let that stop her. She was always deeply involved in the inter-magical community and was a central figure due to her interest in learning other supernatural cultures of the city.

She eventually grew up to be a full-fledged bruja who sold her magical remedies, charms, potions, etc to any supernatural being willing to pay her. This actually helped her amass a large amount of wealth quickly, especially when her charms, totems, and remedies caught the eyes of superstitious crime bosses across the city. She always insisted to cover her face with a shawl to protect her anonymity and had several mob bosses sign magical contracts agreeing to protect her and her rights to do business thus making her virtually untouchable in the Alley.

I wanted her to be a very strong influence on Jason. She is very strong, sassy, confident, clever, and street smart and taught Jason some of those traits. She actually meets Jason through Catherine. Mariana had many close friends with children though she herself never married. Catherine was actually the daughter of one of her close friends and Mariana was like an aunt to her. When her friend died and Catherine was left on the streets Mariana did what she could but her fear and unreadiness for motherhood held her back.

Catherine was taken in by her uncle’s family and the two were estranged for a time. In that time she falls into addiction due to her uncles on involvement in drug running as well as bad peer influences. She reunites with her Tía Mariana when she marries Willis and reaches out to invite her to the wedding. Even though they are no longer very close, after Catherine becomes pregnant Mariana offers to help out when she can. She lives in a different (read: magical) part of the Alley so she only sees Jason occasionally but makes a point to feed him, and when he discovers her secret, to teach him some basics of the supernatural world to help him get by.

After Catherine’s death Abuela Soliña is distraught. She offers Jason a hot meal and some money she had set aside (Catherine’s old college fund she never got a chance to use) but hesitated to offer a place in her home so soon after the loss. Jason sees her grief and hesitation, mistakenly assuming it’s unwillingness to deal with him full time and runs off. She tries to invite him back a couple of times but he mistakes it as one off events and remains a street kid until Bruce adopts him.

He still occasionally goes back to the Alley to visit her after that, usually as Robin. The first time he went to let her know he was okay she immediately clocked him as Jason but wished him well with Bruce. When he visits she still feeds him and gives him luck and protection charms to help with crime fighting. (Side Note: on one of his visits Jason finds out the Alfred and Mariana know each other and Have Met Before™️. Neither explains how or why)

When Jason dies Mariana grieves him deeply. When he comes back as a revenant she is both relieved and guilty. She’s happy to have the boy back but a revenant’s existence is not a peaceful one. When he searches her up and comes to see her he looks like he’s survived hell and back and he probably has. He seek out her guidance and help and this time Abuela Soliña is more than willing to pass on her vast wealth of knowledge of the supernatural community and its cultures to Jason.

One of the biggest two regrets Mariana holds with her is not adopting Catherine or Jason when they were at their lowest and she had the chance. That’s why as Jason’s rage cools and he begins looking to return to a (semi-)normal life she offers to adopt him as her grandson for real this time. She has a friend who owes her a favor and can fabricate the paper work to turn Jason Peter Todd into Jason “Pedro” Solina (and his mother posthumously Catherine Soliña-Todd). She offers to officially make him her little witchling and he emotionally accepts.

Mariana is still an active and well-known figure in Gotham’s underworld and supernatural community so having her backing gives Red Hood a lot of pull and credibility. Plus his revenant titles increase his claim to fame in the magical community. Red Hood is well loved and “Pedro” is well accepted with in the community. He’s kind of a public figure, bordering minor celebrity due to his connection to famous Bruja and witch doctor, Mariana Soliña. Not that he is aware of that fact.

Lastly I’m gonna tack on some nicknames Jason receives pertaining to his connection with Señora Soliña:

Soliña’s boy (el chico de Soliña)

Little witchling

Pequeño niño brujo or pequeño brujo (little witch boy)

Young brujo

El neito guapo (the handsome grandson)

Alborotador (troublemaker)

Heredero (heir/inheritor, referring to Mariana’s kowledge, wealth, and position in the community)

(P.S I tried my hand at drawing what I think Abuela Soliña would look like but I’m not super confident in it. I think I’m a better writer than drawer, but if you guys actually wanna see the drawing anyway let me know and I’ll make another post with it)

[boyfridged]

so much of jay’s storyline and his unique position in the narrative is lost/upstaged in contemporary canon because of the retcons regarding his parents. i wholeheartedly believe that the best iteration and reading of his story has to incorporate the og characterisation of them, especially of willis. two aspects to be talked ab here:

a. ethics & crime: when talking ab jay's parents, people usually focus on catherine as a good mom. there's nothing wrong with that, but she is traditionally seen as more of a passive victim of crime, and in post-res jay content (+his backstory retcons, look: cheer) it makes him especially resentful to... dealers. on its own, it could be dismissed, but that along with making willis into an abusive father reframes the early storyline of jay to have a criminal antagonist, which gives him the incentive to become bitter and spiteful towards criminals. and that's, in my opinion, an actual antithesis to everything interesting ab jason's introduction. i talked about it at length here but what is utterly fascinating in his early stories is that jay doesn't care much for labeling people as criminals. he doesn't link the notion of 'crime' with that of moral standing, and explicitly says that he doesn't think that surviving is a crime, a statement that most probably also applies to willis. it's extremely important because it shows that jay is not ever vengeful as robin for the sake of serving any high black-and-white notion of justice; jay's understanding of morality is highly situational. it is both his strength (as it makes it easy for him to empathize with people) and also something that will make vigilantism difficult for him – where bruce's limits are still somewhat dictated by the law, jay will still seek justice guided by his own intuitions (garzonas case.)

b. grief & vigilantism: painting willis as an abusive father is usually followed by writers (and readers) dismissing one of jay's most important storylines. batman #410-#411 covers jay's grief after he learns about willis' death and imo these issues are one of the keys to understanding his character in general. i talk ab it more here (in another context) but tldr; i think that jay's initial way of dealing with grief has little to do with vigilantism and that he seemingly sees it as an independent matter. and around 2-3 years later, we learn that jay is still heavily grieving in private (once again, same quotes as from the linked post, batman #426) “i’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying.”  “in other words, i may have started jason as robin before he had a chance to come to grips with his parents' deaths.” so. it's explicitly stated that unlike in bruce's case, vigilantism isn't a coping mechanism for jay's grief at all, but even interrupts it. and jay grieves after both of his parents.

this is also all interesting in the context of jay's relationship with bruce – bruce views jason as both a victim of criminality and someone who might go down this road in a cyclic reenaction of his father's [willis] life. in batman #410 bruce says clearly that he believes that if he were on the streets, jay would be doomed to die a criminal like his father [willis] did. but jay isn't murdered following a "path of crime" like his first father; he dies living up to his next father's (bruce's) heroic ideals.

[pluckyredhead]

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 (2011)

It's been a while since I've read RHATO, so I figured I'd reread it - and if I'm doing that, why not make you all suffer with me? I will probably get tired of this before I finish all the various series, but let's see how far we get.

Roy, that would probably work better if your bow had a string.

The issue begins with Roy in a prison in Qurac for trying to overthrow a dictator. He's rescued by Jason, in disguise as a pastor in a fat suit (sigh). There's so much wrong with these opening pages: the fat suit, the writing off an entire Middle Eastern nation as evil and corrupt, the fact that there's no way even a collapsed bow would fit inside a hollowed-out bible, the lazy way the panel layouts waste space...and yet. And yet.

These pages. THESE FUCKING PAGES. "His name is Roy Harper. He's an idiot. Nice guy, but an idiot." "His name is Jason Todd. A lot of people say he's crazy...Let's just say the Red Hood is my kind of crazy!"

This kind of parallel narration always makes me think of the 2003 Superman/Batman comic, which used it extensively, to extremely (and likely unintentionally?) homoerotic effect. After I read this issue, I told a friend that I got it now: Red Hood and the Outlaws was Superman/Batman for edgelords.

Which is to say, I'm pretty sure I started shipping these assholes just from these first terrible pages.

(But seriously, there are three pages up there and only five panels. Five panels! Plus some pointless maroon boxes that don't do anything! I want my money back.)

This panel is super misleading, because it implies that Roy and Jason know each other well enough for Jason to tease Roy about being a chatterbox, but later issues will show that barely know each other at this point. But then, trying to keep the backstories straight in this or any Lobdell book is like watching sand run out between your fingers.

And again here, it implies that they were already friends, a team, partners...something. But later we'll learn that they only met once, and it was years ago, when they were kids, so...what gives?

(This page is actually interesting, because Jason is constantly saying playfully mean things to Roy and Roy never seems to mind, but here he clearly hurts Roy, and he knows it.)

Siiiiigh.

To add insult to injury, Jason immediately announces that he's fucked Kori. You'll notice I aggressively ignore this in every fic I've ever written. Part of that is because I love Secret Virgin Jason, but also it just doesn't mesh with his and Kori's relationship throughout the rest of the series or his hilarious lack of game in general, and it's also so inextricably part of Amnesiac Sex Doll Kori that I just want nothing to do with it.

HATE. HAAAAAATE. The devious smile on Jason's face in the bottom row and Roy's calculating expression are so deeply disgusting to me. "This woman can't meaningly consent! She's like a cave fish with a vagina! Sweet!" Scott Lobdell is a vile human being and so is everyone who signed off on this piece of shit. (Fun fact: this was a HUGE controversy when the New 52 launched and the outcry was so loud they walked it back in a later issue when Kori tells Roy she...just lied about all of that for no reason? Okay.)

Also, "ask her about the gang you used to hang with." Uh...what gang is that, Jason? Because Donna didn't exist at this point, Wally was 12, Garth was a literal baby, Vic joined the League immediately upon getting his powers, and Gar was a child being tortured in a lab somewhere. So was it just Roy, Dick, and Raven? And they certainly weren't the Titans, because Tim's team was the founders in this continuity...which Lobdell should have known, since he was also writing that book.

The person asking to speak to Jason is Essence, his ex, who tells him something cryptic about murder victims with missing organs.

YOU DON'T KNOW MOST OF THOSE PEOPLE EITHER, ROY!!! "Remember Garth? The baby?" (Literally, he is a baby who shows up for one panel. In Atlantis.) And who the fuck is Dustin?

Anyway, Kori propositions Roy and he's like "Sure, why not." Did the target audience actually think this was hot? It's so depressing.

Essence tells Jason that something called the Untitled has attacked something called the All Caste, and Jason makes a surprised Pikachu face.

Elsewhere, a guy in a basement looks at a picture of Kori online.

I will admit to liking two things about this page: the fact that Jason's helmet is in the nightstand implies that Roy and Kori fucked in Jason's bed, which is either hilariously rude or an invitation that sailed right over Jason's head, and the red hand print on Roy's chest. It's the first glimpse of a recognizable Roy in this book; he did always like getting manhandled by scarily powerful women, pre-Flashpoint.

Jason goes...somewhere, to a temple of sorts with a lot of vague cultural appropriation going on, and kneels over the corpse of an old lady. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you, Ducra," he says, before a bunch of people attack him. END OF ISSUE!

And that's Red Hood and the Outlaws #1! It's confusing, misogynistic, lazily drawn, and not very funny, and there's no reason to be invested in whatever the fuck happened at the end because I know nothing about Ducra, Essence, the All Caste, or frankly, this version of Jason. And yet I am absolutely going to read nine more years' worth of this shit. See you in issue #2!

[audhd-nightwing]

batboys au

i don’t have an official title for this au yet so for now i’m calling it “tim and his immortal zombie brothers”

backstory

dick is taken by the court of owls after his parents die. he helps batman when bruce destroys the court, and afterwards he disappears. bruce looks but can’t find him.

dick sets base in an abandoned building and basically decides to watch over crime alley like batman does with the rest of gotham. he hunts for food (mostly bugs, rodents and birds) cuz he can’t get sick, but needs to eat a lot.

he spends most days in the library reading and learning stuff (new languages, science, history, etc). he meets jason while investigating Ma Gunn’s and they work together to take her down. jason decides to stay with dick instead of go with bruce but forces dick to get an actual apartment (he does).

jason convinces dick to train him, though he already has some experience and his own skills. dick adopts the name Robin and jason goes by Shrike. they become legit vigilantes of crime alley.

jason finds out dick is a talon a bit after he starts out as Shrike. they are in the middle of a fight and dick is fatally shot- jason loses it and almost beats the shooter to death (it’s just one guy left at this point). dick gets up and pulls jason off, hugs him, and promises to explain when they get home. afterwards, jason punches dick for not telling him until he literally had no other choice.

jason’s death

the joker escapes arkham and kidnaps jason (14) while he’s on solo patrol (they split the area to cover more ground). joker beats jason with a crowbar when dick (16) realizes he’s missing and races to find him. he arrives just in time to see the warehouse explode. dick brings jason’s body back to their apartment and then goes out and kills the joker (bruce is on a JL mission when all this happens, so he isn’t there to stop him).

jason comes back to life (superboy prime alternate dimension stuff idk), but is not fully healed and goes temporarily comatose.

dick knows about the LoA from the court and info he’s gathered over the years, and is able to contact talia. she agrees to let jason use the lazarus pit in exchange for a favor from dick, and they go meet her in nanda parbat. dick stays there with him during his recovery, so there are no drastic changes in his personality (aside from the trauma of fucking dying). they train together there for about 6 months before returning to gotham.

(his favor to talia is, later on, taking damian from her father and bringing him to bruce)

introducing tim

once they return to gotham, they appear to gain a stalker. they decide to leave the kid alone at first, but eventually get concerned because a kid really should not be out at night alone in crime alley.

dick (17) and jason (15) finally confront their stalker when they save him from getting mugged. the kid introduces himself as tim (12) and explains that he was curious about the young vigilantes in crime alley and decided to follow and photograph them. also he figured out Robin’s real name- dick grayson (who tim had theorized wasn’t dead despite the boy having been missing for years).

the boys are actually really impressed, but they try to dissuade tim from following them (which obviously fails). they then decide to teach him basic self defense and make sure he’s always within shouting distance/view of one of them while out at night.

tim, being the genius he is, figures out they aren’t fully human anymore. he doesn’t judge them for it, but he brings it up to them because he’s curious, so they explain talons and the lazarus pit.

once tim gets older they start to actually train him, and he becomes another vigilante (Magpie). also, because his parents leave him home alone for months at a time, he pretty much lives with dick and jason (but sometimes, when it’s really cold/hot or heavily raining/snowing, they all stay at drake manor instead of the apartment).

damian

a bit after dick turns 18, talia contacts him and tells him it’s time to uphold his part of their deal. leaving jason in charge of the Alley, he goes to nanda parbat, steals baby damian (he’s four), gets him to gotham and brings him to bruce.

basically, instead of adopting dick & jason, bruce just gets damian way earlier.

(p.s. dick knows bruce wayne is batman because of the Court, but jason and tim don’t know. when he explains the situation jason is like ‘how tf did bruce wayne meet talia and have a kid with her’ and dick is like ‘oh yeah, he’s batman’ and jason & tim explode)

bruce’s kids

bruce is about 30 when damian (quite literally) drops into his life. a year or two later, he finds cassandra and subsequently adopts her.

steph (spoiler, 15) has been working alongside him for about a year or so already, and babs (batgirl, 20) has been working with him for four-ish years. both forced him to let them work alongside him and he gave up trying to stop them

i have a lot more stuff but this is the basic storyline

[sarcastic-kaz]

things i will PAY for to have in tsats

1. nico to make a bones joke

2. will to wear cargo pants to tartarus

3. apollo to give them a ride somewhere

4. them to say goodbye to some people

5. wear the ‘tartarus club’ shirt

6. will to critisize the river phleglon (river of fire)

7. nicos big sacrifice to be some super rare mythomagic card he brought

8. them to stop next to elysium to say goodbye to some dead people (jason) edit yk what that would alert hades who expressed that nico dont go back to tartarus

9. bob. please, bob be real.

10. solangelo to meet akhyles (goddess of misery)

11. will to use his glow in tartarus

12. them to hug as they fall down

13. please show meg somewhere i love nico and megs dynamic

14. will to be completely shook that nobody ever brings med kits on quests

15. meet with cupid/eros and will goes completely ballistic

16. apollo cabin to solely refer to nico as ‘brother in law’

17. yk i dont think plauge powers really would fit canon will but its a cool idea to think about @iwnut 

18. the brochure from when percabeth talked to nyx. yes @mistresscitrusslice . let them give their brochure to solangelo. “ok so in about 15 minutes and past the empousi cave, hellhound pack, and plauge spirit home should be the hermes temple” “oh thank the gods”

19. mr d to say goodbye to his favourite demigod and his boyfriend and hand will a rifle/ak47 and go “youre shit with any other weapon. the bullets are already in the bag.”

20. hunters of artemis. just. nico acting uncomfortable and will knowing part of the story so he shields nico away from most of them

21. shelper shelper shelper

22. this ones a bit far but please get married? and will to make a joke about ‘secret jedi wedding’ and for piper to officiate it and leo as the witness because he also made the rings and theyre trying not to rope that many people in

23. will to just say ‘there is a disturbance in the force’ in tartarus

24. nico to still hate pomogranites

25. please let us see nicos zombie chauffur jules-albert somewhere. 

26. mr d to force nico and will to watch something that looks like the orientation film but when they play it its percy and annabeth telling the dos and donts of a quest and percy is such a bad actor that theres so many cuts of percy saying ‘line?’  or ‘whats next’

27. and at the end percy goes ‘well what did you learn about going on your quest?’ dora the explorer style ‘great!’

28. trogs to go ‘ah its the son of hades and his bioluminecient boyfriend’ and will to just give a small sigh

29. mr d to talk to will in private and just: ‘wheel’ ‘thats still not my name’ ‘thats how nico says your name’ ‘well its just his accent’

30. please let there be an oath to styx. just not one as stupid as apollo because nico and will are smarter than that but yk what swearing to an immortal river who will get revenge on you if you break that promise doesnt sound that smart

31. solangelo to run into lukes shoes. we were robbed of this from percy and annabeth. imagine how funny itd be if they just ran into some winged shoes.

32. yk i want nico and thalia to meditate together and when asked what they were doing thalia to just respond ‘photosynthesizing’

33. orpheus and eurydice reference (this actually can become canon because on the cover it shows them holding hands with nico slightly more forward than will and pointing to the doors so nicorpheus and willdice)

34. will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backst-

35. some memories of nicos for jason to show how much he misses his friend

36. just a fleeting mention of bianca from either of them

37. if theres a will pov make him hate percy. mans was partially responsible for both his older brothers deaths. he did shit to his boyfriend which include strangling him at godsdamned twelve years old. will shouldnt exactly adore percy is more what i mean.

38. solangelo smooch.

39. nico is the new percy of chb. think of it, big 3 kid, very powerful, hero, lives at chb, close to percy, knows a lot of people. nico is just the go-to now that percy is at college and nico is a permanent resident. 

40. nico fan club. made of new younger campers, reyna, will, percy, annabeth, meg, apollo, hades, and a whole bunch of long-time campers.

41. just to have some new campers act like ttc!nico and follow nico around like he did with percy just asking questions and instead of finding them annoying like percy did nico would answer their questions truthfully like how apollo actually did for nico

these arent in order. id die to see the ‘tartarus club’ shirt to be worn by percy annabeth or nico though or at the end of the book for will to be gifted one though and more to be added

[luwritesomething]

JASON TODD HEADCANONS!!

love of my life!!!! he deserves so much love so here i am, ready to provide.  these are my headcanons and i will admit NO hate towards them. also if you have any headcanon of your own for jason then comment because i might like it and add it to mines. 

requests are open! hit that anon button and tell me your idea!

warnings: probably swearing, and slight mentions of his death. also this hasn’t been proof-read so yeah, read at your own risk.

i’ve always headcanoned jason todd as italian american, although i can see him as latino too (i just don’t like the negative connotations that follow because he’s usuallt headcanoned as latino because anger)

definitely not because of harmful stereotypes but because i can see jason’s grandparents being part of that italian population that migrated to usa to follow the american dream and ended up living the american nightmare.

not the godfather-like with the mafia, but with italians barely surviving in the misery of america (which feats jason’s backstory).

also i headcanon his grandmother as a great cook and comfort-person to him.

jason learned to cook thanks to his grandmother and alfred, but his best dish is a lasagna recipe he learned from his grandmother.

this is my subtle way of telling you jason is a great cook. that’s canon, though. 

he doesn’t think too much about his sexual orientation a lot. jason doesn’t want to tie himself to an etiquette, that would bother him.

jason has had a polyamorus relationship with kori and roy. it was pretty healthy, tbh, but it’s over now.

he doesn’t really ‘do dating’. occasionally, one night stands are alright, but jason isn’t really into those either. he’s sure that whenever he meets someone that is meant to be and falls in love, he’ll handle it well.

he won’t because he self-sabotages and doesn’t leet people in, but if it’s really really meant to be he will eventually overcome it.

curses a lot. probably also in front of kids, and gets nervous when the kids repeat those words.

however, jason actually is very good with kids. he’s the babysitter of his shitty neighborhood, and kids love him.

jason doesn’t drink alcohol like ever. he has seen (bc of his parents) what addiction looks like and feels like and he prefers to leave himself out of it.

Child Protector™.

raging feminist and all for equality and fairness.

he smokes a big amount. just becayse, he has no real reason to do so. (he doesn’t consider smoking an addiction. anyways)

jason is the Best Neighbor™.

he loves his siblings equally, he just has a different relationship with each one. dick is his bro, tim is his smartass, damian is his little monster brother, duke is his buddy, steph is his fun sister and cass is his chill sister.

i’m kidding, his favorite is cass.

bookworm. (CANON)

loves classic. his favorite is... lolz he doesn’t even know himself, how would i know?

secretely enjoys ballet and keeps all the tickets of the ballets he has gone to.

damian found out about this (^^) and jason bribed him with a stray cat that kept coming around his apartment for his silence.

now damian has a play date every thursday at five at jason’s with the stray cat, because damian and jason know better than just snatch a stray cat.

anyways,,

sleeps either butt-naked or with sweatpants, no boxers. 

claims he hates rom-coms.

actually loves them, they give him comfort and fuzzy feelings.

jason congratulates alfred every year on father’s day (and it always brings alfred to tears when he’s alone).

listen to me !! jason has READING GLASSES !!!!!!!!!!

okay.

doesn’t wear same color socks.

lack of self-care. dick or stephanie will randomely swing by his place from month to month to do face masks and drink water. 

sometimes jason forgets to shave and doesn’t notice unless someone tells him.

probably wanted to own a water bed as a kid.

he looks even hotter with his reading glasses.

i’m obssesed okay !!!

his favorite justice league member is wonder woman and has merchandising to prove it.

jason has gone to two lady gaga’s concerts. one dragged by dick, other by himself. 

he loves blankets. being under a blanket, no matter the reason, will always be comforting for him.

hates finger guns.

jason doesn’t handle the heat well. which means he handles it horribly and gets stupidly annoying.

cheesy and cocky, but actually an introvert. what can i say, he’s complicated.

clowns creep him out. speaks for itself.

does great impressions of the batfam.

he doesn’t do alfred or cass, though.

likes animals. not as much as damian, but still.

doesn’t use crowbars. no, like, i refuse. nope.

swears he doesn’t smoke.

three seconds rule apologist. i mean, he lived in the streets, guys.

steph did his nails once. he enjoyed it, 7/10, would do it again.

his favorite sibling to tease is damian, closely followed by tim.

has called the fucking bat-cow ‘meat’.

damian punched him for it.

works out too much for his own good, but calls it self-care.

tea >>> coffee. fight him on this, he’ll chew on your bones.

has read the silmarillion, acts like he understood it. 

actually likes galas. 

in those he only has two types of conversations: hypothetical ‘what if’ moral questions to see if someone has the same concept as justice as him and/or recommending books (mostly classics)

bruce has to drag him away from people when he gets annoying with those two types of conversations (CANON, see batman: wayne family adventures.)

big wuthering heights apologist & enjoyer.

damian actually listens to jason’s book recs and gives him feedback about them. it’s their bonding activity. 

jason has a bonding activity with everyone from the batfam.

only writes with red pen.

would make a great team with deadpool, fight me on this.

makes a lot of ‘your mom’ jokes because it infuriates tim.

types text with no caps, emojis and no abbreviations. he uses emojis a lot, he’s a menace.

has been kicked out of the wayne family chat numerous times for innaporpiate behavior aka spamming, cursing, spamming with emojis and other little shenanigans.

he barely listens to music, but if he did, it would be rock, alternative... you know, all the jazzy stuff.

he needs love, he told me himself.

also his love language is cooking and physical contact because he’s touch starved (he also told me himself)

[li-ravings]

I know it’s been five months but I would love to hear more about your Brutim same age au

I'm so glad you asked, anonie. i've been sitting on a few ideas!!

-

This is before any of the little robins. And as such I have to give a little backstory. Bruce Wayne, loves tattoos- he thinks they are so pretty and just amplifies everything around it. Tim learns this on their second "date"- and he can't stop laughing, until he gives Bruce a side eye and tells him- that he (tim) would never get tattoos, in his right mind.

Bruce is disappointed -- but it's not a dealbreaker so many dates and outings go by before they actually sleep together. Which is an understatement, they've slept together in two separate beds and on opposite ends of the room. But this is their first time having sex, and Bruce wants to see all of Tim.

So it comes as a surprise to see Tim's back covered in tattoos - there is not a spot left bare as Bruce traces them all. Before Bruce can get a word out, Tim laughs and repeats the sentence he had said so long ago. "I would never... in my right mind. I was drunk one night and I decided to cover my back in tattoos."

lets just say, tim was carried for a few days.

-

lets skip to when jason joins the wayne family. this scrawny, scraggly kid who tim has a sneaking suspicion is hoarding food under one of the floorboards.

... so maybe tim went and checked every single floorboard in the little guys room. so what? who cares? its like basically his right- which he knows isnt true... moving on!

laying in bed with bruce tracing his tattoos, he softly asks if bruce will do anything about jason's tendencies. bruce seems to be in a grunting mood, after all he only replies in grunts and soft feathery kisses on the nape of tim's unmarked neck.

flash foward to a random sunday night when all of the waynes were gathered around the table- bruce pulls out this lockbox. "for you." he says as he gives it to jason. this sends jason into a tantrum. he's yelling about privacy and how its not okay to do that when tim just grabs him and rocks him in his arms. he apologises and peppers jason's face with kisses all over before letting the kid go.

(all this to say, jason is #1 Tim fan!! what Tim does, jason must do!! and as such for quite a few years bruce and tim sleep with a growing boy in between them. until summer would arrive and then dick would come home and jump in the middle. )

im sure i have more but i just cant think rn :>

[silverwhittlingknife]

Ohhh, what's "the Damian one with amnesia?"

Oh, this one is close to my heart but also kind of a mess and I'm not sure I'll ever actually write it; it's pretty much all "story idea" sdfsfsd It's a Damian + Tim bonding story with a bit of a Damian + Heretic subplot. I guess if I had to compare it to something I'd say it's got some loose similarities to "Tim bonds with Pit-mad!Jason" fanfic, except with Damian and crazy!Tim instead?

I've been sort of stalled on this one because ... I mean various reasons but in terms of "personal writing motivation" I think it's mostly a combination of 1) overly complicated plot, and 2) Dick's only a minor character sfdsfds I find Dick's POV fun to write and Tim and Damian's POVs a bit more difficult, and the story is basically all Tim and Damian, so it's kind of a story that I want to read more than I want to write, you know?

But I am nevertheless attached to it, ridiculous monstrosity that it is. There's amnesia!Tim and BAMF!Damian and curses and reluctant bonding and secret friendship and disguises and misunderstandings and temptation and lots and lots and lots of snowballing lies!

If I ever actually write it the rambling summary below the cut will be completely spoilery; you've been warned sfdsfdsf

OKAY SO there's a convoluted backstory of evil villain plots BUT basically there are TWO PARTS.

Here they are:

Part One: Damian + Amnesia!Tim

Due to [complicated backstory], Tim is basically under a curse where he's alternating between having amnesia and forgetting the past few years, and sometimes being triggered into becoming Evil!Tim who's trying to kill Robin

Damian is under strict orders to go nowhere near him while the Bats scramble to try to fix the Evil!Tim problem

... Damian naturally does not listen to these orders!! He is NOT A CHILD!!!! He is NOT AFRAID!!! He decides to go surveil Drake and then confront him because he's not going to cower in fear!!! He will fight and win!!!

Amnesia!Tim has agreed to be confined to his apartment although he doesn't consistently remember why (it's because nobody has figured out what triggers the appearance of Evil!Tim) and Tim is SO BORED

Tim catches an apparent civilian kid spying on him with binoculars and is immediately charmed

This child is Damian

After whacky shenanigans they bond

Damian makes up an impulsive lie about how he's Definitely Not A Superhero Yet and he's just a Very Innocent Naïve Child who aspires to be a superhero and uhhh that's why he was climbing around with binoculars, definitely

Tim likes him and is also so so bored and offers to train him

Damian does not actually need training bc he is actually already a superhero? BUT this would be a great surveillance opportunity because amnesia!Tim will just tell Damian his weaknesses instead of Damian having to deduce them

so he agrees to "be trained"

It ends up being a lot of fun because first of all Tim is super-impressed with how talented he is and thinks maybe Damian could join Young Justice and Tim could vouch for him, especially since in Tim's opinion Damian's already way more responsible than Superboy *eye roll* (Tim has been dialed back to an earlier age when his relationship with Conner is I Guess We're Friends But Also We Sure Do Annoy Each Other), and it's kinda fun and satisfying for Damian to hear all this praise

And second of all Tim's always been super-tight-lipped around Damian, not that Damian CARES, so THERE, and in order to learn anything about him Damian has had to do things like spend hours hacking into Tim's computer files (out of IDLE CURIOSITY and NOT because he cared) or learning to imitate his voice or spying on him, but now suddenly instead of being tight-lipped Tim is basically an open book? And so now Damian can hear all kinds of thinly-veiled stories that are clearly about Father and Grayson and Todd and Cain and Brown and the Teen Titans, and Tim doesn't realize that Damian actually knows all of these people and can decipher whatever nicknames Tim is giving them, so now suddenly Damian's getting to hear all kinds of relatively-uncensored gossip

And third of all, it turns out to be surprisingly fun playacting at being some nobody who isn't The Son Of Batman and doesn't have to live up to that legacy

And fourth and MOST IMPORTANTLY Damian learns partway through from Grayson that once they've fixed the curse Tim will FORGET EVERYTHING that happened while he was cursed

So this means that Damian is TOTALLY SAFE. He can confess vulnerabilities or be bad at things or admit to confusion and it won't matter because it doesn't count because amnesia!Tim won't remember when he goes back to normal and starts being Damian's insufferable nemesis again!!

And also no one else will ever know because amnesia!Tim has promised to keep their training secret!! And Damian has ofc told no one that he's sneaking into the apartment he's not supposed to be in!!

This is kind of intoxicating and great because normally Damian is being Watched All The Time and very very aware that whatever he does other people will remember and suddenly he is FREE because this particular secret little friendship will stay secret FOREVER and only Damian will ever know about it

By this time he's gotten totally distracted from his "surveil evil!Tim" plan and actually he's over at Tim's place often enough that he's figured out how not to trigger the appearance of evil!Tim

(because Damian started out way less emotionally-invested than the rest of the Bats he's been a much more impartial observer of what's going on PLUS Tim thinks he's just a random kid and hasn't been trying to put up much of an I'm Fine front for him)

Meanwhile the Bats are all super-distracted from Damian by their worries about cursed!Tim so Damian is also kinda lonely which is leading to him getting more and more invested in this secret friendship

AND THEN at some point he finds about Heretic and in this AU Damian is the ONLY ONE who knows about Heretic and he's terrified that he's going to have to fight and maybe kill him and then what will the Bats think??? they will hate him!!! They Can Never Know

... but he HAS to do something because right now Heretic has only been aged up somewhat and he's still younger than Damian, so Damian might if he's very lucky be able to beat him and survive, but the League is planning to magically age Heretic up more and if Damian doesn't do something soon Heretic will be aged into an adult and Damian will have no chance at defeating him, so he has to do something soon...

... maybe amnesia!Tim can help?

Plot ensues; Damian takes amnesia!Tim along on a secret quest to kill Heretic; Damian almost kills Heretic and at first amnesia!Tim is difficult and he's gonna intervene but then he BACKS OFF and then Damian can't bring himself to actually go through with his plan and he saves Heretic's life at the last minute; Tim now tells Damian he let him make the choice because he KNEW HE'D MAKE THE RIGHT ONE; this moment actually fixes Tim's curse because uhhhh gobbledegook having to do with the curse and it's connected back with that old emotional memory that Tim had forgotten with Dick and the Lazarus Pits, so no sooner has Tim said this and started comforting Damian then he gets dizzy and passes out.

So then Damian has to rescue both amnesia!Tim and Heretic which of course he does, with the timely help of a certain Batdragon...

... and even though it scares him, Damian's planning on coming clean and confessing everything, and he knows that amnesia!Tim will back him up....

... and then Tim wakes up. And the curse is fixed. And he's back to "normal." And he doesn't remember anything.

... and he hates Damian again.

Part 2: Damian + Normal!Tim (+ Heretic)

So then the second half of the story was going to be joint Damian and Tim POVs. So on Damian's side he's absolutely determined to conceal his deep dark secret of *checks notes* having befriended amnesia!Tim and then overcome temptation and saved Heretic's life and also saved Tim's life and accidentally broken Tim's curse in the process. And he's made up a complicated fake story about being kidnapped by evil!Tim so that No One Will Know. And also secretly he's kind of miserable about having lost his friend, amnesia!Tim, who's now been replaced by the much more familiar normal!Tim who hates Damian and who Damian hates in return.

And meanwhile! Normal!Tim is certain that Damian's lying because he has very blurry memories that do not match up with the story that Damian is now telling plus his instincts are (correctly!) telling him that it's false, because for mysterious reasons he's finding Damian much easier to read than he used to, and he's intensely suspicious of Damian and certain that he must be concealing something Sinister, and he's trying to figure out what.

And meanwhile Heretic is in a coma and the Bats are trying to heal him and Damian is committed to doing the right thing and not sorry about saving him but also really worried because what if Heretic wakes up and says that Damian tried to kill him, or what if Normal!Tim figures it out, and what if then the Bats hate him forever

(which like. they would not. because this is actually a story about Damian being a hero! but Damian feels guilty about having even considered the initial plan and is mayyyybe not thinking things through very rationally here)

(and also the various things he's been lying about are kinda snowballing at this point)

Anyway meanwhile Tim is conducting extremely intrusive and potentially threatening investigations which might uncover all the lies and then he FINDS SECRET EVIDENCE in the form of Damian's camera with photos and videos plus a sketchbook and Damian is HORRIFIED and tries to FIGHT HIM TO STOP HIM FROM TAKING THESE THINGS and Tim doesn't know what's on the camera but he's so sure it's PROOF of whatever sinister things Damian has been gaslighting him about and whatever sinister things Damian was up to when Tim had amnesia --

-- and then Tim is victorious and gets hold of the camera and takes off with it and gets back to his apartment where he sits down and discovers the DAMNING EVIDENCE of uhhhh. selfies and things where amnesia!Tim and Damian were hanging out.

So Tim is now very very confused and although he still doesn't really understand what's going on it's sinking in that maybe Damian isn't up to anything sinister, just something that Tim... doesn't understand at all, and also now Tim has successfully seized this collection of stuff that turns out to be fairly personal and thus kind of a privacy violation, although also not a privacy violation because it involves Tim damn it, so Tim is very determinedly NOT feeling guilty about this because he has EVERY RIGHT to know what HE HIMSELF was doing that Damian has been lying about, but also it turns out that mostly what Damian's been lying about has been a lot of very wholesome bonding and also some fairly personal confessions that it's obvious he would not want actual!Tim to know, so Tim is NOT feeling guilty but also, okay, fine, he is feeling a little guilty despite himself, and also it is quickly becoming apparent from the little collection of stuff that Damian is... maybe okay? maybe secretly kind of a sweet vulnerable kid? actually? as opposed to Tim's Personal Infuriating Nemesis Child Sent To Torment Him? which is so weird given Tim's entire remembered experience of Damian up until now, and yet the evidence does seem pretty conclusive because he can't figure out what Damian's endgame could possibly be if it was a trick, which means it's not a trick, which means...

And meanwhile Damian is horrified and very upset because he has been FOUND OUT by normal!Tim who hates him, and who will figure out ALL the lies and figure out that Damian was planning to kill Heretic and then he'll tell it all to Father and frame it all in the worst possible light, so to get out in front of it Damian injures himself and goes to Father and tells him that Evil!Tim came back and attacked him and that Tim's very unstable --

And then Damian's BRACED when normal!Tim shows up and Father confronts him with the accusation of having snapped and attacked Damian, and Damian is DETERMINED to stick to his lie and he's not gonna confess NO MATTER WHAT and he's going to say that clearly Tim's memory is wrong again, and then... normal!Tim doesn't deny it. He admits to attacking Damian. Kinda brusquely, but he does. He says he's sorry.

... Tim admits to the thing that he didn't do?

And Tim kinda nods at Damian - now we're even.

Because on Tim's side... he's still not understanding a lot. But he's got the basic idea now. He's gotten that Damian's scared, and he gets that he went too far trying to get hold of the weird evidence. And so he gets that this lie is Damian's retaliation for the privacy violation, and you know what? Fair enough. Tim can lie to Batman too. And besides, this is very clearly something between Tim and Damian, and Tim doesn't really want Bruce involved either.

Now he wants to get Damian alone and find out... well, basically the same thing he's wanted since the beginning, he wants to know what the hell has been going on with him during the huge blank spot in his memory, and he still has the (correct!) instinct that Damian knows all kinds of things he's not telling...

... But now it's slowly dawning on him that Damian might be, like, a Person with Emotions and Vulnerabilities (still such a strange thought!!). Which is also what Damian's afraid of, because when your enemies realize you have emotions and vulnerabilities that's very bad!!! And ever since they met and became Nemeses, Damian has done his best to convince Tim that he has NO VULNERABILITIES WHATSOEVER!!! And now because of his weakness and carelessness with amnesia!Tim he's ruined it all!!! This is disastrous!!!

So when Tim confronts him, he does his level best to convince Tim that he has NO feelings and they were NOT friendly and the bonding was all Damian's convoluted Machiavellian plan, which is actually what Tim believed until he found the evidence, but now Tim has Seen Too Much and doesn't believe that it was just a scheme after all because instead it kinda looks like Damian was... lonely? Because he is a kid? Who was lonely? Kind of like Tim was lonely back in the day? And it's really frustrating to realize this because people (Dick and Bruce) have actually been insisting on Damian's various sympathetic qualities to Tim for ages but it never really felt real before because Tim never managed to see past Damian's façade before and now it just feels very thuddingly obvious?

Anyway the rest is mostly vibes but basically even though Tim still has kinda mixed feelings because he has all his more negative memories of Damian back, he's also had this glimpse at the possibility of a more positive relationship, which he's maybe realizing he might like to have? And maybe he could have it, because he apparently managed it somehow even when his memory was Swiss cheese and also he was sometimes randomly going evil? And also he's feeling super-lonely right now because he has a huge memory gap but he knows Evil!Tim did all kinds of awful things which he feels really guilty about so he's avoiding all his actual friends?

So now Tim tentatively proposes to Damian that maybe they could spend some time together again, and Damian's a little wary because it could be a trap - because this is nemesis!Tim not friend!Tim!!! - but he misses amnesia!Tim so he agrees. So now they're hanging out in secret again, except for real this time and now as themselves instead of amnesia!Tim and disguised!Damian, and they're jointly lying to Bruce about it because thanks to that impulsive lie Bruce is worried that Evil!Tim might come back and has Absolutely Banned Damian from spending any time with him again.

And so then they're Bonding and Tim takes Damian to Blüdhaven to train-surf because Tim has exactly (1) model of how older brothers interact with younger brothers, so that's what he's imitating - and it will probably not surprise you that this is the part I'm most personally attached to and the only part I actually managed to write a bit for sdfsdfds. And Damian has never actually done this weird activity before because Dick didn't do it with him because actually Damian has already trained in pitch darkness, so the whole concept of the blindfolds is pointless for him because the purpose was to get Tim to stop relying on his vision so much, and Damian doesn't rely too much on his vision. So this isn't actually a training exercise that makes much sense for Damian. But Tim is trying and Damian is also trying so they try it together and they end up bonding anyway, because you can't really screw up risking your lives on a train together.

Then we move into the part of the fic that is fuzziest but also full of my favorite ~Vibes~ where Tim and Damian are bonding and lying to Bruce but also they have to lie to Dick too, because Dick believes everything that Bruce believes, and so Tim is having various complicated feelings about lying to Dick and also not getting along super-well with Dick because of all the, you know, lying, plus Dick was one of the people who had to fight evil!Tim so Dick's kinda instinctively wary now because having Tim back feels too good to be true, plus Dick feels guilty for the various things he had to do to subdue evil!Tim, and Tim feels guilty for whatever awful things he did when he was evil!Tim, plus even though he knows it's irrational Tim is secretly kinda mad at Dick and Bruce for believing the lie about the attack, even though it is a lie he is participating in, but look, emotions are complicated. So things between Dick and Tim in the present-day are pretty strained, but simultaneously Tim is revisiting all his best memories with Dick when he was younger because he's trying to figure out ways to bond with Damian.

So Tim is kinda low-key grappling with the problem of I Guess I'm An Older Brother Now, I Don't Feel Old Enough Or Qualified For This And It Alarms Me, much like Dick had to grapple with it back in the day, and simultaneously Damian is also trying to figure out how Older Brother-ing works because Heretic is? maybe? kind of like Damian's younger brother? So Tim is low-key ending up in Dick's position of the Dick-and-Tim relationship, where you're at an exceptional personal low point and estranged from everyone you care about and this very irritating thirteen-year-old keeps hanging around being all up in your business and then somehow you end up hanging out with him and sorta kinda mentoring him a little even though the prospect of being any kind of mentor is deeply alarming because obviously you can't be a mentor, you are not a mentor, you're not even a real adult and your own personal life is a total mess and nobody should listen to you ever, and meanwhile Damian is low-key ending up in Tim's position of the Tim-and-Damian relationship, or rather he's worried he will, because he's got this horrifying younger brother Heretic who will surely try to kill or undermine him as soon as he gets out of the coma, because that's what he's been trained to do, and what if the Bats like Heretic better??? Or what if they decide that Heretic needs Robin more and they won't let Damian be Robin anymore??? And what will happen to Damian then??? And Dick and Bruce are both very worried about Heretic, who's apparently Bruce's second biological son and even younger than Damian and in a coma (and as far as Damian's concerned that's all they know because he hasn't told them anything else, although Dick and Bruce have actually guessed a bit more than Damian realizes), and Damian knows he shouldn't be jealous or paranoid or threatened but actually he is feeling all of those emotions and dreading what might happen when Heretic wakes up and he doesn't want to share his family with Heretic and he doesn't actually want Heretic to be here at all.

BUT ANYWAY it all works out and they gradually all figure out each other's various secrets and Various Emotional Confessions ensue and ultimately Tim and Damian bond, and Dick and Tim get past the strains and get close again, and Tim is able to listen to Damian's anxieties about Heretic and offer some hard-won insights from the older-and-wiser position of Younger Brothers Who Were Trained To Kill You: Admittedly It's Unpleasant At First But At Least One Of Them Is Really Worth It Actually, and then eventually the HAPPY ENDING was going to be Heretic waking up from the coma braced for battle and Damian offering him the Robin costume.

Anyway. I think that's how it would go if I ever actually wrote it. Any and all of the plot ideas are free to a good home if anyone else wants them sdfsfdsfds

[corvuserpens]

So yeah, yesterday I decided to FINALLY watched The Meg bc everyone kept saying it was a silly fun shark movie... AND THEY WERE RIGHT. It was AWESOME.

I went in expecting practically nothing, and it blew me away. The story premise is ridiculous and it totally feels like the director, actors and crew 100% knew that and embraced it! The movie never takes itself too seriously, it practically tells you to just kick back and enjoy it for what it is, which is exactly what makes it so much fun. It's an exciting comedy horror about a giant prehistoric shark in present day Earth, the CGI is dubious but the cinematography makes up for it with some great, well composed shots. For example, when Suyin is in the trench and is being attacked by a giant squid? That in itself is pretty cool imagery, but then you see the Megalodon swimming over her sub with the squid in its mouth in the gloom, illuminated from below?? WOW????

Then the characters are like, surprisingly deep? They have interesting backstories that inform us on who they are and while Jonas is the only one who gets some screen time for his Big Trauma, we later learn that Lori might have blown up a whaler ship for an environment organization and that's how she learned to pilot? And that Suyin had a tough relationship with her dad but they love each other so much that with his dying breath he tells her how proud he is, that she already surpassed him as a scientist and he hopes Meying will grow up to be just like her? And we get all of that with some very organic, short dialog or like 3-4 minute scenes, which is rare these days. Legit good writing where it is most needed, all the more sober scenes are well-acted and so immersive, the characters are so likable I ended up rooting for all of them to survive (except that billionaire whose name I didn't bother to learn, everyone else I remember except him, FUCK that guy). Even the side characters, though flat, were interesting because the actors gave them so much personality!

And, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A WHOLESOME CISHET SHIP WITH JASON STATHAM WITH VERY LITTLE SEXUAL TENSION BUT A LOT OF ROMANTIC TENSION?? WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT??? Seriously, I was shipping Jonas and Suyin so hard, their interactions were adorable. How he goes from being the typical Tough Manly Man Who Is Super Competent And Punches All The Bad Guys While Wearing The Same Tough Guy Face All Movie to genuinely caring for the whole Mana One crew and respecting Suyin as an accomplished female scientist in her own right who knows what she's doing and is also brave and headstrong herself... Much 'aww'ing' was done.

Not to make this too long a rant, I love talking about movies I enjoyed, sorry, but a few other small things I liked about it: that Lori and Jonas remained good friends who care and support each other, and want the other's happiness even being divorced, we need more of that! And Dr. Heller apologizing to Jonas and meaning it for saying he was crazy and basically ruining his life (plus Jonas forgiving him in the end), definitely wanna see more of that! Jonas' friendship with Meying, THAT WAS SO CUTE, I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH OF THEM!! The gags were all genuinely funny, I was laughing through most of the movie, and the jump scares got me more than a couple of times (though that might be a fault on my part, I'm a big wussy and I am not afraid to admit it). The action is so. DUMB. But it's the kind that it's so dumb it's good, y'know?

Final note, I gotta say, let Jason actually act more because he's really good and directors keep hiring him to play a stoic emotionless hero when he can do so much more? He has impeccable comedic timing, his line delivery no matter how bonkers, always lands, he's REALLY CHARMING and y'all are wasting his potential imo. Given, I haven't really watched many of his movies after the Transporter franchise, but for example, I loved him in The Italian Job and a couple of weeks ago I started watching Homefront and I was enjoying it because he gets to play a widower with a young daughter in a new town, and now I definitely need to finish it bc I'm a sucker for father/daughter dynamics.

Anyway, yeah, if you like sharks, B-movies or just something fun to watch that will make you laugh, go watch The Meg. It's good enough to convince me to go watch the sequel next August. Can't wait!

[spookyprime]

idk if I missed the post but what's Jason's backstory in the hometown AU?

I tried to look for it but I couldn't find a post about it.

It's fairly similar to his canon backstory. Things basically don't diverge until the point he would have met batman. He spends a lot more time on the streets than in canon- but still gets beaten near to death by the joker when he's 15. Except it's not some weird elaborate plot for robin he's just a boy in a tragic situation. It could have been anyone- that's how the joker works.

By the time the joker is done with whatever he's doing Jason is ambulanced to the hospital where he meets bruce- the primary pediatric surgeon he will have. Given Jason will need several operations for various things that have been done to him he winds up having several consults with Bruce.

Bruce finds him very likable and charming (because he is) and by the time he realizes Jason is essentially homeless he decides to step in and give this kid a chance. He sets up what is supposed to be a temporary foster situation while Jason goes through his long recovery period. And then Jason just kind of never leaves.

So- Jason never dies. But he does have chronic pain and neuropathy that require him to use mobility aids. He still wants revenge on the joker for what he did to him. But his relationship with Bruce is very different.

By the time the hometown story is going he lives at the manor with tim- he's around 26 and takes a lot of online classes to pass the time. He's unemployed and really may just be a permanent student for the rest of his life. He likes learning and reading and has no real desire to actually get a job and as long as bruce is willing to fund classes he'll just keep doing that. (Bruce will always be willing lmao)

[bubblesxo]

What r ur hyper fixations???????

ooooh recently i have been all over this tv show called gotham (which people can probably tell... oops lol)!! i really like it, it's basically about bruce wayne when he was a kid from when his parents died up until when he became batman (but with a time skip so you don't have to watch all 10 or so years of training in there once he turns 19). basically all of the batman rogues are included and it is such (!!) a good show wowwowow. it is very graphic though so it's deffo not for everyone! (i can talk for hours abt this but i'll stop there haha)

i'm also into a lot of batman media in general. some comics, etc. esp the batfam! i love tim drake maybe too much haha

i've also been into this anime called bungou stray dogs recently. it is also very good (!!) and i love the main character so so so so so much i just want to hide him away from the world.

more long-term, of course i still have jason grace at the back of my head. his backstory?? is so good?? there was so much potential there and i just feel like rick wasted it! and now he's dead 😭😭 which is honestly what kind of killed my love for the rest of the series. that was a long-term for me for such a long time!! i loved it from like fifth grade until i got the book maybe a year after it was published and i was crushed. my favorite character killed for a side series. 💔which also might be why i've been reluctant to get into book series for the past few years

honestly, i kind of cycle through hyperfixations every few months. over the summer i was really into my hero academia and was into jujutsu kaisen for a while after that. i had a brief invincible (a superhero cartoon) phase that might be reignited soon with the next part of the season coming out (? we'll see if the spark is there). i also periodically go back to the descendants movies (except i actually hate the second and third and can't watch them? but i love the lore and i can't not talk about them?). i also hyperfixate on my garden around the late summer/fall and got bit into food preservation last year so i'm hoping some of my Christmas books will come in handy and i can learn some new skills later this year.

okay okay i think i've taken up enough of your time. thank you for this nice ask!! it really made my day <33 thank you for giving me the chance to chat about this stuff for a bit!! i'm sure there's way more than i mentioned but honestly sometimes i lose them so hard that i forget they exist... and then months later will go ?? how did i forget about this gem?? time to make it my personality for the next few weeks/months

anways. i'm done for real now. thank you so much again!! :D