#but babs had her own personality and they changed it too much

[tournesolette]

just a reminder that babsy is not and never will be tied to the reboot. she is original content only.

#❪ ⋅ ◆ ⋆ — ooc. ┊ ❛ gen. ❜ ❫ #❪ ⋅ ◆ ⋆ — ooc. ┊ ❛ psa. ❜ ❫ #/ you can take the babs/buster ship from my COLD DEAD HANDS #but also #it looks bad #and they mabel pines-ed her #which is not against mabel pines #i love mabel #but babs had her own personality and they changed it too much #its like it's not a reboot and instead it's own show #but at that point just make your own characters #fuckers #im still so mad

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Tim had heard the phrase 'The wrong twin made it home' a number of times in his life, his parents were always very upfront about how the felt towards him. But... 'made it home' doesn't indicate death, does it? ...Tim ends up taking Danny's place by Sam's side in front of Congress to lobby the end of the Anti-Ecto Acts.

...

Tim has been up for hours passed when he told Alfred he would be resting and he's wrapped up his case files into neat little bows to deliver to Babs and the GCPD/Lawyers to do their jobs. Damian had made a comment earlier in their patrol that night about Tim being the wrong sibling to make it to his rescue and... and it got him thinking about that phrase. His parents were negligent with him, certainly, but they were always very clear about how he stood in their eyes. Praise and criticism were the two options, and very strictly limited passes of 'I love yous' that faded as he got older.

He's run his DNA before in the national databases- it was critical for maintaining his Alias' that multiple people didn't flag- but he's never searched in records before. About his twin. About the one who didn't make it home.

And its definitely the lack of sleep, and definitely the lack of brotherly affection he feels these days, but Tim just can't close the door until he's seen a death certificate. He's hacked Gotham General Hospital a million times for work, but doing it for his own gain feels wrong some how and he works with extreme caution. He finds his own birth certificate and... One Theodore Daniel Drake.

Tim snorts with a short ha, pretentious name alert and goes on to find not a single certificate of death or medical record of atypia. Oh no, what he finds is adoption paperwork meant to be closed to all wondering eyes and one Daniel James Fenton leaving the hospital instead. Tim blinks a few times, retraces his steps and then sure enough, learns for a second time that his TWIN was still alive.

Finding the Fentons was easy enough, their Lab address on all of their patents was seemingly also their home address. Danny had a much better hidden internet presence, it was good cybersecurity he'd have to praise him, but Tim had been trained better. Getting into his brother's files... Raised a number of new questions. Why was he compiling evidence against the government? What the fuck was he doing analyzing policy? Why did he have 'rogue' files???

Then Tim hacks into Danny's phone (he's learned at this point that Daniel was a no-go) and sees the conversations between his twin and his twin's best friends.

Sam Manson has an appointment with a Senator to Lobby for the end of the Anti-Ecto Acts. She wants Danny to join her, demonstrate something Tim can't determine, but he's refusing to leave and let his adoptive parents have even a moment to develop a new weapon without him there to destroy it. Someone called CW warned him about changes coming his way or something cryptic. Tim learns a lot from their back and forth, but stops reading once it gets to their personal squabbles.

Tim gets the meeting details and forwards it to Tam- If Danny can't make it... Tim will. And if Tim can't demonstrate whatever Danny was going to, it would at least help to throw around his name.

Tim writes an email to Danny- It's meant to go out after the lobbying appointment- and it explains that Tim found out about him and wants to connect if Danny does, and if Danny doesn't he at least wants to get him set up with his half of the Drake family inheritance. He includes a few personal facts, including that he too ended up adopted in life and had siblings, that he helped run a company and took on the world too soon. It takes a lot out of Tim to be so candid- but he doesn't want Danny to be too blindsided by the Waynes. He attaches a family photo with the label "you'll be able to tell which one is me'.

...

Sam is tapping her stupid, uncomfortable heels waiting for these dumbass, elderly politicians to get their shit together so she can speak. Sam was resourceful and surprisingly, the second she took on politics as a way to waste the family money, her mother Pamela was all for it. She's wanting Sam to run for president now... At least she doesn't complain when Sam organizes protests.

The door behind her opens, and while she knows its not going to be Danny behind her, a girl can feel a bit crushed. She really thought he would be behind her today, but Danny was being weird about this whole thing. Clockwork had him spooked about something changing today, and Danny wanted to be in Amity Park in case it was another Pariah situation or something. His parents had been on edge lately too...

"Sorry, I'm not late am I?" A voice asks and it's just so close but not- Sam turns her head to see Danny in a nice suit with long hair and eyebags way darker than she'd seen on him in a while. This... Wasn't Danny. She blinks, and then something in her anxiously decides that the universe is fucking with her and she will be fighting back.

"Everyone is late." She glares at him, appraising his every move. The woman behind him is typing dedicatedly on her tablet and the man himself looks like he might fall over while he shuffles his files in hand.

"Well, then I'm on time. My name is Tim Drake, I'm here to help your cause in getting the Anti-Ecto acts repealed and the parties responsible for it apprehended."

"Tim Drake? As in-"

"As in Co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises. And I've done a lot of research, so I hope you'll let me play a supportive role while you speak."

"There's no way you've been able to research if you've been out of Amity, The whole city is under a media blackout." Sam's glare looks like it could cut him.

"Not to brag, but that sort of thing doesn't slow me down these days. I've made physical copies of the things they're most likely to delete and I've sent everything to the Justice League, who in turn are sending it to the Lantern Corps." He states matter-of-factly and Sam finally stops being angry at the world to just be... stumped. What the hell was going on?

"How did you... Why?"

"Tam, tell Ms. Manson how passionate I am about human rights?" The guy sounds anxious, the woman rolls her eyes and says "Very." without stopping her typing.

The doors open and Sam has only a moment to decide that Tim can join her... He proves himself to be an asset, and his name alone gets them further than she had anticipated getting today.

....

Danny is watching Sam walk into the space via C-span, gasping when his own likeness follows behind her. What the fuck???

He can barely drag his eyes away as the clone (?) introduces himself as Tim Drake and proceeds to rip them into shreds for delaying Sam Manson of all people. Danny is transfixed and Tucker is blowing up his phone.

"DUDE ARE YOU SEEING THIS?" Tucker's voice loudly calls out the second danny blindly answers.

"Dude, I just, I don't even know? He cant be a clone right? But he's gotta be?" Danny hypothesizes.

"Nah dude, there's like, a whole lifetime of media presence for Tim Drake since he was like, tiny. This is so weird he looks just like you..."

"This is so weird." Danny dumbly agrees because he can't think of anything else to say.

Sam finishes her points, Tim submits the evidence to the court and they leave. Danny's phone pings with an email notification.

"Danny my guy, you should check that, Sam isn't responding yet. Her phone is probably still off."

He follows Tucker's advise and opening his email... Is a new message from Tim Drake.

"...I don't know what the fuck is going on?" Danny continues to say, and Tucker asks him just to read it out loud, "It's just... Apparently I am both adopted and a twin?"

"...My guy." Tucker sounds just as much at a loss.

...

Sam calls them both after Tim Drake is rushed away by his PA Tam (who she found herself admiring more and more), and is relieved when they dont immediately answer by screaming.

"So Danny, Tucker, you guys are traveling with me next weekend." Sam deadpans.

"Apparently shit gets twilight-zone level weird anytime you leave Amity!" Tucker exclaims.

"...What's next weekend?" Danny asks, hesitation in his voice.

"Your twin invited us, well, mostly you, to a Wayne Family Brunch. We're going cause those assholes have money and political influence, you're going because we all probably need to know what the fuck is going on with that guy."

#dcxdp #dpxdc #dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #dc crossover #dp crossover #long post #tim and danny are twins #twins au #ehehehe could go in so many directions

[scintillyyy]

anyways like i hate the fanon where tim is just so excluded and alone upon his return because it is just so fundamentally NOT true on every possible level-

but. but. one of the things i find personally delicious is tim & the melancholy of returning home after a time spent away and realizing that life did indeed go on without you. and it's not like it's like a tragic upset! like you probably made the choice to leave! it's not like you think they should have stayed the same without you or anything, or done nothing while you were gone. it's just a random twinge at reminders of the time apart. like suddenly there are inside jokes you're not privy to, events & vacations you didn't get to go on. family game nights you didn't attend. you did missed out on those things, but you had your own rich and important experiences as a result.

so tim. tim. tim returns home & he is welcomed back with open arms! dick & that bond is as strong as ever. things are good. he is elated to finally be back & things are finally ready to return to normal. but normal changed a little bit, while he was gone because like moves on (and he can't complain too much, he changed too so it's not just them). babs is in the cave now with steph, dick & damian in the bunker. there's not really a space he feels most at home in yet. he runs into plenty of the same old villains, but there are suddenly villains who he has never heard of suddenly roaming the place. who is professor pyg. he has to do research, figure out who these people are, like he's new again. & dick is helpful, so helpful but it's still a little frustrating, feeling like he's out of the loop at points. "hey remember when-" or "just like that time-" he doesn't remember when. he wasn't there for it. and he's the one who chose to leave, so he can't complain too much, but it just makes him feel out of sync and sad, and almost like he missed out on something even as he had his own very special and rich and important experiences. it's different. he used to be in the thick of things! he has to relearn his place again.

but, time marches on & tim is there & things keep changing, except now tim is once again part of the change. and he runs into huntress against some new batman villain who started while tim was gone & he asks her if she knows anything about the guy. "robby," she says, "when has any batman ever keeped me in the loop of things. i should be asking you." and he laughs. he and dick have to sneak in an underground tunnel to investigate something, like they did that time to get into no man's land. dick teases him the whole time about rats, but tim gets the last laugh when dick's cape gets snagged on something. new inside jokes are always formed. when people say "remember when-" tim does, because he's there for it. he carves a space for himself in the theater, and suddenly everyone keeps dropping in on him like he used to drop in on them all the time (he keeps setting up glue traps. so far the only person he's managed to catch is tam and she was Not happy). he feels like he has his finger on gotham's pulse again, just where he likes it. the twinges hardly ever occur anymore. why would they need to? life keeps moving forward & he's home.

#i don't want him to be sad!! #but also i like the sadness of things happened while you were away #and well things happened to you to but #there is something melancholy there #i imagine this is also dick's arc when he gets returned to bat books lmao

[punkeropercyjackson]

Related to my prev post:

I don't give two shits if Bruce is written like a bad dad if it means we get good writing for everybody else since i think minorities are more important than a white cishet male nepotism baby unlike his butch lesbian counterpart who's judaism is an actual fundamental part of her character and since he's been written as abusive so consistently over the years it's in-character anyway

Dick can be both bi/pan and demisexual and there's more evidence for the latter than the former so making him be sexually loose is aspec erasure and mspec stereotyping and he dosen't have a thing for redheads,he has a thing for black women and to me the only guy he seems to like romantically is Roy and that adds on to his demisexuality since they're childhood best friends

'Catholic guilt Jason' is a shit headcanon that misses the major and critical part of him being Red Hood that he didn't feel the slightest bit bad about killing people and the point of his redemption was learning remorse,afrolatino Jason isn't based on stereotyping but him filling out so many black and latino cultural aspects and if any hcs for him are stereotyping it's the one that he's a slut because he's a very handsome and hot and cute goth punk man

Tim is perfect the way he is and dosen't need power ups or to get 'punished' for the oh so horrible crime of being a realistic teenage boy,he's not JUST huge a loser or a super cool dude but both at once and it's bad writing and fetishistic to ignore his wide range of relathionships that consists of mostly of women to make him a 'guys guy'

Stephanie is heavily autistic and bpd-coded so she's far from a 'normie',much less an 'it girl' but people see blonde hair and blue eyes and throw away everything else about her because that's all she's worth to them or call her an abuser and a pick me just like they do irl bpdtistic women and she's also canonically pastel/indie punk and a Team Mom but gets her presentation switched to basic and made out to be a womanchild instead

Cass had a million times more moral conflict than Jason ever did,would never in her LIFE wanna be feminine even in the chinese way and would be butch in it instead,turning her scattered speech into sign language is ableist not unlike(but not on the same level as)changing Babs' type of wheelchair disability and she'd be a better Batman than any male character in existense

Duke is only a golden child in the sense he has a yellow motif and is as disruptive and authentically quirky as his siblings,We Are Robin is a better team than the canon Outlaws,his powers are cooler than any Al-Ghul ones you could come up with,he has more femme energy than Tim does and Carrie Kelley ain't shit and only gets brought back to replace him because DC is antiblack

Damian's introduction mentality was a result of not only child abuse but also psychological grooming to get him to dehumanize himself and all his bigoted comments are explained either by him being like 12 or his writers trying to demonize brown people and anybody who thinks he's a bad person is a super-sized pissbaby with no sympathy for kids of color,shipping him with Jon is making a bisexual man into a ped0phile and Jay is good even if aging Jon up wasn't and he should be friends with Maya,Suren,Nell,Colin,Kathy,Maps,Tai and Miles,Gwen,Peni,Pavitr,Hobie and Margo from Atsv and Nico and Hazel from Pjo instead of Billy Batson or Danny Fenton or ANY Mcu characters

Talia is super hot but should be drawn in accurate arab clothes instead 'sexy assasian gear'(not that these two can't co-exist but you get what i mean),her personality is extremely rich and her stories are mega interesting,she's a good mom to Damian and literally never 'took advantage of Jason' seeing as That Scene In Lost Days was decanonized by it's writer who said it was ooc for her on his part,she should've been a mom figure to Stephanie in her Robin Days too since they would get along and she deserved her own run where she takes over Lexcorp to transform it into a force for good and become Superfam-adjacent to free herself from having only male connections

#batfam #batfanon slander #anti bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #duke thomas #damian wayne #talia al-ghul #dickkory #dickbabs #dickbea #dickhelena #dickroy #afrolatino jason supremacy #autistic stephanie brown #bpd stephanie brown #butch cassandra cain #batman!cass #trans duke thomas #autistic duke thomas #jon kent #jay nakamura #pro jonay #taliacorp #misc superfam #blasian stephanie brown #summerposting

[ragnarokhound]

puts this on your list of things to do

Skcnwksks *adds another stone atop the mountain, and the world sinks another inch closer to hell

But okay fr. I actually read Knight Terrors: Robin today, and with the enormous grain of salt that I am working mostly with fandom osmosis, esp re: their established relationship, I think they alllllmost wrote something that worked. Almost. Long rambling nitpicks under the cut:

I think if they had about three more pages they could have established Tim and Jason's relationship and their problems with working together a little better; and either cut Babs out as the middle man who introduced their individual issues to the audience, or used her more effectively as a mediator.

They very clearly wanted to showcase two problems: Tim is working himself to death trying to save everyone, and Jason is suffering by insisting on working alone. Good! I like this concept. It's annoying to me that Babs is the one who tries to reach out to both of them about these issues, gets rebuffed, and then is never heard from again. I'd much prefer it if they tried to talk to each other on their own and it went poorly at first, only to be forced to open up in the nightmare realm. It would tighten up their combined arc if they'd had one single conversation before the Inciting Incident occurs.

Like, don't get me wrong. I am waffling about this because Babs is a good entry voice to help introduce our primary actors. She is the person they have in common, and by having her be the voice in their ear, we see that other people in their support networks are worried about them.

But man, why not just have Tim monologue to himself about being ready to wrap up his third bust of the night and consider hitting up Jason to see if he needs help on the intergang drug bust he's in the middle of. It could be on Tim's way to the next place he's going, demonstrating that he's stretching himself thin and looking for even more to do; even with people like Jason who he isn't all that close with. And then Tim and Jason have their own snarky conversation (with some veiled flirting) about not needing each other's help or each other's nagging, and that's when the nightmare mist hits.

Because the story is only tangentially about people other than Jason and Tim. They're both too wrapped up in their own problems to notice other people reaching out to them about their fucked behavior. So Babs could have been used as a yardstick for each of them - Tim dismissed her fears at first, Jason hung up on her outright - but only if she comes back.

If Babs had also been there at the end to check in with them, yeah, it might have lessened the impact of Jason's plea for help and getting only Tim in response, but it would have been the indicator that they were now ready to hear the worries expressed by their loved ones. A very *clear* indicator of what has changed in the narrative that justifies Babs' involvement in the first place. You could have her come in right as Tim and Jason are catching up after the initial plea, having just escaped her own nightmare (*editors note: see Babs' knight terrors issue, lmao). She could groggily direct them to someone who needs help. All three of them are working together now, Tim and Jason are on their way to opening up to more people; huzzah

And hell. If you want to justify why Tim knows stuff about Jason he shouldn't - or why Jason might know something about Tim that he shouldn't for that matter - a little extra time spent together in the nightmare zone is great for that. Make them see each other's worst memories. Make them see each other's defining moments. Make it the twisted, terrible, self-directed-blame version of events that exists in their heads, and then they can separately call bullshit.

You literally put them into a shared mind palace!! Why did Tim know that about Sheila? Because he just saw it in Jason's head. How does Jason know Tim has a savior complex too big to shoulder? Same deal. IMO, this would have made their insistence that the other person is better than they think much more natural. It's not an empty sentiment because 'I've literally seen what you think of yourself and I am telling you that it isn't true'. (They're in a shared mindscape. Why not imply that they are seeing what the other is seeing too. That they're having a shared experience and are privy to each other's thoughts, emotions, and memories? Easy to do. "I feel like I'm walking to class in the 10th grade...but when I was that age, I was 6 feet under." "And I'm positive I'm picking up ammo for a gun I don't own. I think it's safe to say we're sharing a dream.")

I'm also ??? about why the nightmare zone let them talk at all?? Maybe that's something that we don't have time to explain/ it doesn't need explaining, but if I were a terrible nightmare creature and I was menacing two people at once, I simply wouldn't let them exist in the same space. Isolation is key to breaking someone's will. If you let them talk to each other they could help each other. Fool. Buffoon. Literally the only reason to let them talk to each other is if you think they'll make each other worse lmao.

There was a clever visual trick in which Jason hits the void barrier and Tim sees the ripples he makes - but iirc that is the closest we get to an explanation of how they might be breaking through to each other. And it happened after they were almost done with their second conversation. Too little, too late, IMO.

Arguments could be made that they were able to break through because they were approaching a hard limit. Jason hears Tim again when he yells at his double to shut up, when Jason himself is just about ready to throw in the towel. The moment of deepest despair, the realization for both of them that they're not cut out to solve the problem with their current method. Something something, breaking the pattern - but why let them, unless the nightmare can't do anything about it? I do like a monster with a secret weakness, so I'm willing to let it slide now that I've talked it out lol but still. It feels like an unearned conversation when the only convo they had before was mostly exposition.

Anyway. Tldr; if the writers had a few more pages and shown us Tim and Jason's conflict with each other rather than water it down via Babs (OR BROUGHT HER BACK TO TIE IT ALL UP WITH A BOW) it would have been a tighter & more interesting story.

#wow that rant got a little long skxndbdjsj #anyway i think i want to own a copy of knight terrors robin now #i want it on my shelf so i can shake it around every now and then and remind myself of what we could have had #cause its honestly not the worst #it just suffers from being a spin off storyline without enough time to sufficiently set up its payoff #jaytim #also im still enamored by how that convo would go #jason: drake? is that you? #tim: jason? where are you? are you okay? #jason: not remotely. but first things first *coughs blood* what are you wearing

[fancyfade]

Hi! You always talk a lot about DC’s Ableism with handling Babs, but I never understood why (other than getting her out of the wheelchair for the New 52). Is there maybe any threads/posts/articles you can link that break the ableism with Barbara’s character down even pre-2011? I would really love to understand the problem!

Are you asking why it is ableist? or why I talk about it? Or why DC chose to be ableist?

I'm going to try to be as informative as possible. There will be some italics, but i'm passionate (about the topic), not mad at you.

First just to recap what happens with Babs:

TKJ (the killing joke): Babs is shot and paralyzed to make male characters sad in TKJ.

Suicide Squad + Oracle: Year One: John Ostrander and Kim Yale make an effort to make Barbara's story focus on her, and on how she feels. This addresses how she feels being used as a tool and her recovery, and how she can't talk to her dad about it.

Much of New Earth (1986-2011): Babs acts as Oracle, an indefensible information broker of the superhero world, runs her own team, and is prominently physically disabled (a full-time wheelchair user). The writers sometimes flirt with magicuring her (removing her disability) but it never sticks. There is still ableist writing, there is no denying that. But she is a very important character

New 52: Barbara Gordon is 'magicured' - her disability is removed, and some of this involved retconning previous details (from her spine being severed completely and severely damaged, to something they could fix with a chip). Many disabled people talk about how damaging this is. I'm going to be pretty clear: from my perspective (as a disabled lesbian) changing babs from someone who has ha permanent disability to an able bodied person is similar to changing a gay character to a straight character. (link)

Sometime in Rebirth: DC starts trying to say ~uwu well she's still disabled, she just has an invisible disability, it's not ableist~. Two things must be acknowledged: Yes, invisible disabilities are still disabilities. this is not saying that they are not, my disability was invisible for a long time, and I sitll have some invisible disabilities. but also two: that does not make this writing not ableist, DC does not genuinely want to represent invisibly disabled people, they want to be perceived as not-ableist while being able to use Batgirl Babs in stories.

Ok so to answer the first possible answer of your question:

Why is it ableist?

Changing a character with a disability that is permanent to an able bodied person is ableist. Disabled people deserve to see themselves in stories too, and I'd argue abled people need to see disabled people in stories, because abled people need to understand that a disabled life is not worth than death (I have had people straight up tell me 'oh I'd never be able to do that (exist as a wheelchair user)' to my face. in public).

To answer another question that has been debated somewhat recently: why is it still ableist even when Babs is disabled, just not the way she initially was? I have lots of reblogged links on that:

Babs being invisibly disabled (instead of visibly disabled and a full-time wheelchair user) both erases her previous disability and erases other invisibly disabled characters (link)

The treatment of Babs, in her Rebirth era, is still ableist (link)

Babs, as written as part-time Batgirl part time Oracle, still is written without consideration of her disability (link)

abled people care more about the apperance of able-bodiedness than they do whether someone is disabled (+how that harms disabled people at the bottom w/ my own experiences) (link)

replacing one disability with another and hoping no one notices is still ableist (link)

So for the other option of your question:

why do I talk about it?

I talk about a lot of things in comics, and this is a very important one. Barbara Gordon as Oracle is important to me, because she is a character with an acquired disability (I also have an acquiered disability, not the same one). who still is active in what is important to her and says that her life is better now and that she can do more. That is so important for disabled people (and abled people too) to hear. That your life is not over when you have a disability.

Thirdly, why did DC do it?

Well, the sad answer is really... ableism. I'd argue that a disabled person having a better QOL as a disabled person than they did as an able bodied person, or being able to do more than they could when they were able bodied, is straight up threatening to abled people (link)

More people no doubt know the interior workings of DC at the time, but Didio is not shy about not liking legacy heroes and wanting everything to be back in 'the good old days'. getting rid of batgirls that came after Babs does that (and it gets rid of the uncomfortable fact that she is disabled).

I hope this answers your questions and provides you with reading, and if you have any more feel free to ask

#ableism #dc comics #barbara gordon #ableist tropes #magicuring #disabled characters #oracle #anon #ask

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #25

Batgirl (2000) #10 Words: Kelley Puckett Pictures: Scott & Campanella

With a new status quo established, the book takes a break from serialized business and goes back to stand alone episodic stories for a bit, like as with issue #2 from way back when. And as with issue #2, the focus is on "street level" stories emphasizing the humanity of the characters involved, the sort of smaller stories that would get lost in the over-the-top action and larger-than-life supervillains of typical superhero comics.

I don't have too much to say about this story specifically. It's kind of a sad bit about a guy named Kenny with extreme inferiority issues and a mean violent streak who gets fired from a job he didn't think he deserved in the first place, doesn't think he will ever find anything else, and decides to take out the new boss who let him go in a murder suicide.

Despite Cass's attempted intervention he succeeds at the murder part, but fails at the suicide part when it turns out he's metahuman and literally bullet proof. His whole life convinced of and consumed by his own inadequacy only to find out too late just how special he really was.

Like with Mr. Merc in issue one, Kenny's not a good guy, not a good person. But the story takes pains to humanize him. It invites you to empathize with him. Sort of a 'bad people are still people' motif that runs through a lot of Cass's early stories and ties into her relationship with her father, but also to her own feelings of guilt and inadequacy. The issue never directly draws a connection between Kenny and Cass, but there's a really strong parallel there even so, too strong for me to believe it's just a coincidence.

Cass also has a job that she loves, that she commits everything to, but that she doesn't feel she actually deserves. She's also sure at any moment her boss might realize just how unsuited she really is and fire her, bringing down her entire life around her, shutting her off from the only future she can see for herself. What would Cass do then? Would she give up? Would she lash out, like Kenny did? It's not even hypothetical, we just got out of an arc where Cass lost her job and essentially committed herself to suicide-by-Shiva to get it back.

So if there's that much in common between Cass and Kenny, then has Cass also been unwittingly denying herself a bigger life and a better future this entire time, just like Kenny had? One she hasn't been able to see because she's been to focused on keeping a job and a life that deep down she doesn't even believe she deserves? And if so, will she realize in time to do something about it, or like Kenny will it be too late?

....

Ok, so I guess I had more to say about this particular story than I thought.

Other than that, I think it's also worth taking a look at how the storytelling style has changed now that Cass can talk - or more to the point how it hasn't. Even though Cass can talk now, even through she does have an internal monologue expressed in words, we don't actually see it in this issue. There are narration blocks, but they're entirely from Kenny's perspective. Cass has word bubbles when she talks to Babs, but when she's on her own she's as silent as she ever was, and her emotional state and though processes are conveyed through the art, through her poses and expressions, just like before.

Like in this bit where she tries to knock Kenny out and he just no-sells it with an 'ow', and she looks at her fist in confusion before winding up to hit him /extra/ hard, her cape wrapping around her in the pose to convey just how much extra force she's packing into the second hit.

I also like how Cass and Babs start and end the book with Babs trying to get Cass to ease off on training and try to engage on some normal life activities, and both times Cass passes in favor of more training. The first time, you get the feeling that she's training so much for the joy of having her abilities back, and there is a random fight against some street toughs where you get the sense that she's kind of playing with them...

(I love how the belt of big boxy pouches acts like a skirt to add an extra feeling of motion and specificity to the silhouette)

But then at the end when Cass is doubling down on training you can tell it's because she failed, that she feels she should have saved that woman, that she could have if she were better.

...

So anyway, it's nice to see that even though Cass is talking now, the core artistic concepts that were basically the reason she was mute in the first place - to get her stories away away from the reliance on narration, to let the artwork do more of the heavy lifting in both narrative and characterization - that's all still here. At least with her current creative team. At least for now.

#Cassandra Cain #Batgirl #Sception reads Cassandra Cain

[nerdetiquette]

So I’m finally getting my friend to read Gideon the ninth, and she’s going in with mostly no knowledge. It was their idea to play a game and guess what characters are like from art I sent her and the characters names. She doesn’t know who’s a cavalier and who’s a necromancer.

art by @exmakina

Here’s the picture of the cast I sent and here are their thoughts:

She actually thought Judith and Marta were boys which is fair in all honesty bc I kept saying they looked like 12 year old boys in British uniforms for an American revolutionary war reenactment.

Judith:

Okay so Judith Deuteros, I feel like she's the 'older sister' who thinks she can do everything herself but she cant. A bit rude and super loyal until proven otherwise

Now for Marta, autocorrect decided to change Dyas to DYAS because I yelled about her being cool when I was reading htn. I have no shame, she’s definitely hot and definitely out of my league.

Marta:

Okay, misS DYAS 😂 is the one who can actually do everything on her own but lets people help her just because its less work. Direct but nice overall

[here is where I explained why it autocorrect to DYAS without saying it was because she was really cool]

Her: So a bit stupid too

Me: how dare you, I’m offend on her behalf

Her: Well emotionally stupid

Logically brilliant

Me: I am offended on her behalf

To explain Ianthe, I sent her the cast before and they said they thought Ianthe was pretty so I had been sending non spoiler fanart of Ianthe which is surprisingly hard. I get that bone arm Ianthe is hot, but like there’s so little of regular Ianthe.

Ianthe:

Okay, social bitch whos not afraid to stab you in the back and will do ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING to protect her twin

Very manipulative

Me, shocked at most of it being right: anything else?

Mmm likes things her way

Coronabeth:

I like her name

She's the quiet one, but still talks shit about ppl she doesn't like. She likes to look pretty but only for herself

Also would do anything for her twin

I feel like she could betray her in exceptional circumstances (my reaction to this was basically 👀 because of as yet unsent)

Naberius is funny because I haven’t told her a thing about him. So I’m going to let this part speak for itself.

Then I proceeded to tell her that I know only one person who liked Naberius and he’s objectively wrong. (he decided he would stop defending Naberius after I reminded him that babs threatened children)

Issac:

Little ginger boy who DESPISES being called short, but also super agile and good at his job (wtv it is)

I feel like he's crushing on a girl but idk who and he gets flustered way too easy, it kinda puts him in trouble, cause he cant lie

Jeannemary:

Ooo I like her name too

Shes basically Gabi from aot

Lemme tell y’all, this absolutely crushed me. If you like aot and you were watching it as it came out or just saw the memes, no one liked Gabi. I thought Gabi was fine but the idea of people hating Jeannemary made me very sad.

Abigail:

The type of girl who volunteers at retirement homes. She likes to read and be alone whenever she's not on the job. Barely talks to anyone, she prefers to listen to people

(She was proud of this one because I said nifty, this is like modern au Abigail minus her fun, funky parts. If I were describe Abigail, I would say unhinged academia and move on)

Magnus:

Absolute lady magnet, charming smile and flirty eyes. Crushes on Abigail but she's oblivious to love so he kinda just admires from afar. Only default is he lets his emotions control him, easy to manipulate

(She was very happy when I told her Abigail and Magnus were married)

Now much to my dismay, this heathen thinks glasses are sexy so she thinks Palamedes is hot which hurts the part of my soul that headcanons Pal as aroace, but putting that aside, I said please don’t ship these characters I will literally cry. This concerned her and I had tell her they were cousins.

Palamedes:

So Pal, real nerdy, super good with anything thats tech. But of a sarcastic brat, and gets along better with animals than humans

(This is almost entirely inaccurate but I’m not a heartless monster so they can have this for now.)

Camilla:

Good with math, can do decently in tech too because she observed her cousin work so often. She's a pro at detecting when ppl are lying and doesn't let their bullshit pass ever.

Now I was very excited for what they would say about Dulcinea/Cytherea and Pro mostly because I wanted to see if the guess leaned more towards the actual Dulcie and Pro or not.

Dulcinea:

Cutie 🥰

(Me: Gideon thought so too)

She's a master at deception though. She likes flowers and jewelry and will flirt with any man (or woman) to help her own cause. She doesn't do murder, but she can easily knock out a man. She just flirts to get what she wants

I was absolutely dumbfounded that she basically guessed Cytherea’s whole character, aside from the murder. I was just thinking god damn and I tried my best not to show it (this is very hard and I understand why my friend who got me into the series spoiled so much on accident). Also Cytherea is her favorite based on their current assumptions.

Protesilaus:

Stone cold warrior, scary but honestly isn't afraid to cry. Hes good at what he does, but he hates it. Fucking whipped for a lady he cant have. Biggest heart you can find

This was such a good guess for original Pro that I was just like how???

About the eighth house, I told her that no one likes the eight and I very much hate them so that’s where all of this comes from.

Silas:

Okay so cruel individual who has zero empathy, picks on innocent people for fun and is loyal to death

Colum:

Also known as Colon Shit is homophobic and kills for fun 🙃

Oh and a pathological liar

This is all so wrong that I was like Jesus does it take that much to hate someone, but I didn’t want to spoil anything by telling them just how wrong they were.

We went to Harrow who I told her is a top kin of mine. Her prediction for Harrow was so nice and I can’t even be mad at her for being this wrong.

Harrowhark:

Okay healer type of character who helps anyone she can, has a hard time dealing with her emotions so she just shuts them down

I was also very excited for her Gideon prediction as anyone I talk to about this book knows I am head over heels in love this Gideon. She is pure of heart and she is dumb of ass. She is my everything. The friend who got my into gtn has a count of whenever I text them “she’s so stupid 🥰” referring to Gideon because it’s only referring to Gideon and never anyone else.

Gideon:

Okay from what you told me, she's a raging lesbian who cant deal with how attractive women are but is also a badass warrior

I have said too much in the end.

#gideon the ninth #tlt #the locked tomb #harrow the ninth #judith deuteros #marta dyas #ianthe tridentarius #coronabeth tridentarius #naberius tern #jeannemary chatur #abigail pent #magnus quinn #palamedes sextus #camilla hect #silas octakiseron #colum asht #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #dulcinea septimus #protesilaus ebdoma #gideon the ninth spoilers #isaac tettares

[hellishere7980]

Begin Again Chapter 1 (sequel to IMW)

There she was, nearly 6 years later. Back in the dark, dreary city, sitting in the familiar car with the person who practically raised her for the first few years of her life. Marinette sighed as she thought about how she ended up back in the most crime-ridden city in the world, the place he kicked me out of, a small voice in her head supplied. Shaking her head she tried focusing on the present. That, however, proves a very difficult task when so much has changed, but that was a whole separate can of worms she didn’t even want to think about opening.  But kwami forbid if she was not gonna give him a hard time for this.

Though stuck in her thoughts, she noticed Alfred pulling up to the old manor grounds where she remembers wandering as a child.

Marinette knew very well why she was sent away. It was ‘too dangerous’ in Gotham City according to him. Yes, she was angry enough that his name made her growl but thinking about that was not gonna help ‘cause if her magic went out of control, the whole place could go boom and she wanted a dramatic entrance, not an explosive one. 

Alfred’s POV

Glancing behind him to check on the girl he grew to see as a granddaughter. The smile faded when he caught sight of her lost in thought. The neutral expression on her face, the twinkle in her eyes dull compared to the bright shine that existed even the dull of Gotham. He knew the smiles and reassurances she offered him were fake, she was a whole different person compared to her old cheerful self. She had grown up and had seen how cruel the world was. Turning his attention back to the road, he silently passed through well-oiled iron gates leading up to the manor. Oh, how he sometimes wished the boys were as cooperative as Miss Bella was. Maybe they would have adjusted better if she stayed at the manor, Alfred thought. Even if he didn’t show it, he was rather upset with Master Bruce for sending his own daughter halfway across the ocean with little to no warning. He had a strong feeling that it would’ve saved a lot of pain and suffering. 

Wordlessly, he wondered what happened to her after she was sent away, not at all enjoying the impending sense of dread building. For Alfred knew that he, along with the others, were missing a major part in the story the research could reveal only so much of that trial was closed because she was a minor. Not even Master Tim and Miss Babs could override without alerting the system. 

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Isabella was pulled out of her thoughts when Alfred announced they had arrived. “Thanks, Grandpa Alfie”.

So when she saw a rather large group of people lined up outside the manor doors, she internally scoffed and rolled her eyes. 

Stepping out of the limo, she wanted to gag. It wasn't due to car sickness, though, being the guardian of 19 magical gods came with side effects. Jason had died reeked of Lazarus. The fact how Jason was alive, she would like Wayne to explain though. Thank kwami that the Justice League meeting gave her a heads up and helped her prepare for it (cue- ramble about to the kwamis and her friends). It just made her more mad towards Wayne. She knew how over-bearing the Pit’s madness could be and with Wayne’s temper? It was a wonder Jason hadn’t killed him. That didn't change the fact that the stench of corrupt magic was making her nauseous. Isabella kept her emotionless mask in place, swiping her luggage away and sending Alfred a meaningful look when he reached to assist her with her bags. Glancing over the group of people, she instantly recognized Wayne, Dick, Jason. They had aged, but looked mostly the same. The others took slightly longer for her to pinpoint, but the next person she recognized was Tim. Ah, Red Robin. Next was a girl, Cassandra, her brain provided the silent Black Bat and finally, her eyes landed on a boy with dark hair, tan skin and green eyes. Damian. The current Robin. Next to him was a boy who looked suspiciously like Uncle Clark. Superboy.

Before she could think too hard about it, she noticed her two eldest brothers fidgeting slightly, Dick in nervousness and Jason in excitement but with a tired smile. Tim looked dead on his feet, grasping his thermos like a lifeline. 

He looks like me.

Cassandra seemed to be curiously observing her body language and Damian was unsuccessfully suppressing a glare. 

Wayne was looking at her with what she assumed was an attempt at neutral but welcoming. He was failing greatly, but then again, failing as usual.

Rather than cool, calm and collected, he had what looked like a cross between a pained nervous smile and a grimace. Guilt clear in his body language.

About time.

Isabella had reluctantly thought about this moment multiple times. She began putting together the perfect script in her head the moment she stepped onto the plane and all throughout the long flight to Gotham, silently rehearsing.

Yet as she looked up at him, meeting his eyes, it all flew out the window.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of them stood nervously as they waited for Isabella to arrive. Bruce was tapping his foot and the others were looking at him observing everything. The car pulled up in the driveway and Dick, Jason along with Bruce lived up in anticipation of the petite figure that stepped out. Gorgeous black raven hair and icy blue eyes were evident. She was wearing a casual professional shirt tucked loosely into a pair of jeans flaring out at the bottom. Paired with a low pair of sandals, she had dressed to have a comfortable flight and still look as if she was ready to attend a meeting. She moved to take her bags while Alfred tried to take them for her. They seem to have a short conversation in which Alfred resigned and she carried up her bags down the staircase. That was a surprise. Alfred was very hard to sway from his task. Both Jason and Dick were bouncing up their heels in anticipation and as Isabella drew closer however they stopped short.  They were stunned by what they remembered of their sister. Her warm and loving blue eyes had icy cold and hard and to look on she carried herself in a stiff posture with proper manners showing no signs of comfort and clearly on her guard. They knew how much Paris had affected her but it was entirely different seeing the results of the years by basically torture. Seeing her in such cold air they were clearly taken aback. Tim stood while traveling his cup of coffee and observing Isabella. Damian stood by Jon who was clearly invited to ensure that Damian did not end up doing anything harsh while Isabella came. Isabella approached Bruce and said in a cold voice.

Isa- Good evening Mr. Wayne. So this is what it came down to huh? I got some tragic backstory and you finally realize that your methods are shit?” 

Bruce's face was similar as if words had scandalized his skin he looked imploringly at Isabella.

Bruce- Please just listen, I didn't mean to send you away.

Isa- Yeah it took you so long to call me back.

Bruce- It was for your safety Isa.

Isa- Yes, you clearly show how much you like protecting your children by shipping them away. Surprisingly I see all of yours standing here. Looking distinctly not shipped away. Anyway I’ve had a long flight and I wish to rest. We shall discuss the terms of my stay at dinner.

She turned to Alfread and asked “Am I staying at my old room or in a guestroom.?”

“In your old room Miss Bella” she turned around and gave Alfred a look that said really? Alfred chuckled.

Alfred- Very well Bella you’ll be staying in your old room and if you require anything to let me know. 

Isa- Sure Grandpa. 

It seemed that finally Jason and Dick had their voice back. The latter lunged  for Isabella and took her in a stifling hug. She likely chuckled and squeezed out something that sounded like ‘it’s good to see you guys too”

Jason- You have no idea pixie. 

Dick- We missed you so much cupcake.

Isabella smiled.

Isa- Not that I don’t mind my life being squished out of me, I might want to meet my other siblings thank you very much.

Prying herself out of Dick’s grip (that was a feat), She turned to Tim, stuck out her hand to shake. Tim shook it.

Tim- Said nice to meet you Isabella.

Isa- Nice to meet you too Timothy. How’s the company and coffee going?

Tim- Damn well

Damien- How do you know Tim is managing the company ?

Isa- Oh I know everything. The little charade you all pulled while meeting Lady Miracle. The way the company is functioning, as well as the amount of Justice League missions Batman has taken, it is absolutely impossible for Wayne to actually manage that with the company. Plus the management is different and I have to say I like that there have been more appointments than before, clearly showing that Tim here understood the meaning of “Not everything has to be controlled by me and I need to have a back up plan for every single possibility and back up plans for every back up plan” like Wayne here. 

#jason todd #dick grayson #hellishere7980 #miraculous fanworks #miraculous lb #miraculous ladybug #alfred pennyworth #marinette dupen chang #maribat #bruce wayne #bio!dad bruce wayne #lady miracle

[theageofsims]

The Age of Sims 2.6 - Part 50 - “Growing Pains”

These weren't exactly the best years of Treyvon's life -- he hadn't lived a long time yet, but his struggles were unlike many of the other kids he knew which made it hard for him to relate to them on several levels.

He was a privelaged kid -- always had been, but he never focused on that because he simply couldn't relize it. In his world, the only thing that stood out to him was that his father had died before he could hardly understand how to remember him and that his mother had met someone who would change his life even more.

He was frustrated -- too young to have things his own way… too young to understand so many things on so many different levels, but still mature enough to understand that leaving was probably the best thing he could do.

His mother didn't have to allow him to move away, but she understood his pain more than he probably would ever admit… knowing that she was just as heartbroken about the loss of his dad as he was.

Friends around the way had welcomed him back to Brindleton, but the snark behind their words had been clear as day. They were bullies who only yearned to provoke him… and he let them because he agreed with them.

He was one of the smartest kids in his class -- an honor student, one with top-notch soccer skills who was on the brink of going to High School… but some days he felt so much emptiness and lacked the ability to express it.

----------

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he walked with his Uncle.

"Your mom's in town and she brought the whole damn team." Chadwick joked, "I needed some fresh air and figured Babs could use some, too. She's been through a lot because of the travel."

Treyvon stayed quiet as he listened.

"You remember, Babs -- don't you?"

"Yeah." He carefully held his hand out to her.

Chadwick quietly watched, then eased into his suggestion. "You should come by… see your mom."

"It's not just my mom that's at your house." He immediately said. "Bab's here meaning Ken's here and… you know him and I don't get along."

Chadwick nodded. "How about you come by on a day when he's at work?" He shrugged, "Could just be like old times… before Ken ever existed. Just your mom and your aunt -- and me."

"And Babs… and my brother and sister."

Chadwick nodded. "They'd love to meet you."

"They're just babies." He threw at his Uncle as he shook his head, paying more attention to Babs who was now licking his hand.

"Hmm… well think about it, okay? Your mom would love to see you."

----------

It had to be a short visit -- far too short for Melissa, but her heart was filled with warmth when he arrived.

"Grandma and Grandpa says I can't stay long… it's late and it's a school night." He told his mother.

She nodded, just happy to see him in person -- to hear him in person.

"You've grown." She commented, taking in his apperance. "Are those the earrings I've heard of?"

"From who?"

"Your grandma." She shrugged, "She wanted to check in with me first."

"Grandpa has them."

"I know." She nodded, remembering her former father-in-law. "I didn't think that'd be the influence he had on you, but here we are." Her tone was light. "How's school?"

"Good."

"And soccer?"

"I keep up with practice, but I'm not on a team or anything… don't really feel like being tied down like that."

Her expression changed and her eyebrows rose, "Sounds like you're a busy young man these days."

He shrugged.

"I like the room you've got here. That's where we're staying while we're here… Your Auntie fixed it up real good…" She cleared her throat. "I hope you can find time to come over here often… I'll be around until after the holidays… there's a blow-up bed too, if you'd like to stay like I hear you do every so often--"

"Dunno." He quickly said. "I'll have to think about it."

She nodded, desperate to keep the tension between them at bay. "Want some ice cream?"

"Out here? It's cold." He looked at her like she was crazy.

"Inside. Your Auntie's got some vegan ice cream so your uncle doesn't end up in the bathroom for the rest of the night."

"Real funny, Mel." Chadwick finally spoke, after being the silent support to his nephew.

#ts4 #sims 4 #sims 4 story #the age of sims

[heroicheroes]

"Blaming Bruce for your death is just not fair!-"

"I don't blame Bruce for my death!" Jason exploded. His eyes swirled with green and his hands came up to clutch his head as if to keep it in place. "I'm to blame for my death. Joker is to blame for my death. Bruce benched me. By all accounts I was not supposed to be there!"

The cave was silent as the rest of the family watched on in shock. Bruce's mouth opened and closed as he tried- and failed- to find a response. "Then why, Jason? Why do you insist on-on- on continuing with this?" Tim asked gently.

"Because none of you understand," Jason croaked miserably. "You didn't die thankful that it was finally over. You didn't come back screaming. You didn't have to claw your way out of your own coffin and through the packed Earth. You didn't wander for months on end with no idea who you even were anymore. You didn't leave everything you've ever known still struggling through amnesia because the trauma was too big, too painful, come to terms with."

Jason's voice and eyes hardened as he continued. "And you didn't come back to find that nothing changed. That your life and subsequent death meant nothing. That the one person who was supposed to stand for you did nothing." He turned and started for his bike. As he picked up his helmet, he left them with one last statement. "And you didn't have to come to the understanding that if no one else was going to take out the trash, you're gonna have to do it yourself." His leg swung over his bike and within seconds he was gone.

Only a moment passed before Damian sniffed, his usually held high chin drooping in shame. "I met him, once, when he was in the League, before he went into the Pit. He used to have so much hope... and we failed him." He shook his head once before he too left the cave, opting to go up to his room to grieve his brother's troubles.

Tim and Steph looked at each other askance, as if wondering what to do or say next, before they left without a word.

Dick's eyes, wide with the new realizations, did not lift from his lap. He likely would have stayed like that for hours, eventually giving into the tears his grief demanded, if not for Babs. Her hand rested on his shoulder and her whisper of "Don't you blame yourself either," only registered after several minutes had passed. Slowly, they too wandered upstairs.

Soon, it was only Bruce- still sitting at the Batcomputer, opening and closing his mouth as though searching for an answer, any answer- and Alfred, who stood in solidarity with his son.

~~~~~~

Because I'm feeling angsty today lol

I'm not really planning on continuing this so y'all have fun with it if you want!

#bruce wayne #jason todd #tim drake #alfred pennyworth #dick grayson #dc

[hqmillioncorn]

heal up the world,

I cant let anyone else get involved its my fault that mom and dad even found babycorn if i hadnt talked with mom so much when i meet her again none of this would have happened! How could I have been so stupid? I have to find her i have to (Excerpt from Butter's personal Diary)

Lalapril 4/8: Soul with @windupnamazu's Butter.

Butter has a mysterious visitor in the middle of the night

It had been about a month now since Butter’s parents had come back into his life and it had been almost more than a week since they disappeared off the face of the world, taking Babycorn with them.

His mother had pretty much told them to their faces everything that she planned to do. The one thing she wanted most in the world was to go home, to her real family, the place she actually belonged.

Obviously it didn’t matter who she hurt along the way. That was what worried Butter the most.

The way both his parents had casually just tossed him and Pancake aside. All those years they spent waiting for them to come back, had they just been wasting their time?

Waiting for someone that didn’t even want them? Where did they even belong now?

Not only that, they were putting Babycorn in grave danger.

Once Butter had found out from Tilika that whatever his parents planned to do could end up killing Babycorn, he had gone and put everything he could into finding her.

There was a point where Butter had convinced himself that this was something he needed to take care of on his own. While he did think this, it wasn’t stopping anyone else from looking alongside him.

Lunya in particular was worried about him but Butter assured her that he was doing fine, despite everything. The only thing that mattered was finding his parents and stopping them.

Today and yesterday were particularly hard days. Butter hadn’t slept since the day before, because there had been a tip that came in from Coerthas. He traveled all the way there to investigate himself.

Though, the furthest he got was entering Gridania. As it turned out Lunya was way ahead of him. ‘No you don't! We can take care of this! You go and get some rest!’ She urged him. Lunya assured him that she and Tsuna were going to search for any signs of his parents in Coerthas. ‘I know it’ll be hard but just try your best. If I let you pass out like that-Pancake would have my head!!’

Butter knew Lunya only wanted the best for him but resting was easier said than done. At this point he had been lying down on the bed of inside his inn room for what felt like hours. He didn’t know what time it was, the only thing he knew was that it was nighttime.

Butter sighed and sat up, he grabbed his sword and walked over to open the door to his room.

If he couldn’t get to sleep then maybe a walk would help him clear his head.

There was something about Gridania at night that felt oddly calming.

There weren’t too many people out and given just how much Butter had been running around crowds lately it was a nice change of pace. That wasn’t stopping him from looking around more than usual, for any sign that either his parents or Babycorn had been here.

Butter stopped in front of Apkallu falls. There was something strange about it that Butter couldn’t quite place. It looked like there was someone standing in front of him. Someone who looked like they were almost see-through.

He rubbed his eyes. Could he have been more tired than he thought?

“Hey. Who’s there?”

As Butter walked closer he could feel heart beginning to race. The mysterious figure in front of him turned to look at him, so he must have got their attention. At least, that’s what it looked like.

The closer that Butter walked closer to the figure, the more clearly he could see them.

Until…

Butter froze. A chill traveled up his spine.

“Babycorn…”

It was definitely her. Plain as day.

Babycorn’s hair was down and she was wearing a plain white dress. It almost looked like she was glowing but that couldn’t be possible. Butter was too stunned to speak, to do anything.

Babycorn walked closer and closer to Butter until she was standing right in front of him. Her eyes widened as she smiled wide, “Butts!” There was a slight crack to her voice. As if she was holding something back.

At the sound of Babycorn’s voice, Butter was able to finally gather his thoughts. “Babycorn! Did you escape?! How did you-?! Where were you?!” Butter tried to reach out and embrace her in a tight hug, only to find himself going right through her.

Almost like she was nothing more than thin air.

Butter looked down at his hands and then back at Babycorn. “What are you doing?” He was almost scared to hear the answer.

“I’m just projecting myself to you!” Babycorn waved her hand, “It’s a neato little trick I figured out!” Honestly it felt like she was discovering new things she could do almost every other week. “I already visited Cherrypit so I wanted to see you next! Sorry if I scared you.”

“No that’s okay…” Butter was still trying to wrap his head around what Babycorn had said.

It was clear to him that Babycorn had seen better days. There were dark circles under her eyes that no doubt matched his own. He had no idea what was happening to her but he knew he needed to find his parents and put a stop to it. “Babycorn, can you tell me where my parents are hiding? So we can come help you!”

Babycorn’s smile slowly faded, though not for long. Her smile was strained and her movements were very easily betraying the facade she was trying to put on. “I…can’t tell you. Because I have no idea.” Babycorn explained that all she knew about where she was being held captive was that it was dark and she could see small plants growing from the ground.

That could honestly be anywhere.

Butter looked absolutely dejected. This was probably their best shot so far and to see it crash and burn so easily was absolutely agonizing. “I’m sorry…” Butter said, trying not to breakdown in front of her. He didn’t want her to lose hope. Just like he was slowly starting to.

“It’s okay!” Babycorn’s tried to place her hand over Butter’s shoulder. Butter could see the exhaustion in her eyes. “I know you and everyone are gonna come and help me really soon! So I’m not too scared!”

Butter also couldn’t help but notice that Babycorn’s ears were pointed more downward than they usually were.

“It was easier to talk with Cherry before but I don’t have a lot of time right now so I stopped time for an itty bitty so we can talk more!”

Her voice also sounded a lot more tired than usual. He had heard her sound like this before, back when she first woke up in Old Sharlayan. But that was then and this was now.

Wait.

“The…You…WHAT?!”

Butter looked all around them. Everything still looked the same but now that he looked closer he could notice a few leaves floating in mid-air and in a pond about eight fulms away a duck was sitting almost perfectly still. Butter looked back at Babycorn and twirled a piece of his solid hair between his fingers. He giggled, trying to cover his embarrassment with his other hand. “Wow…You really stopped time for me…” He was beyond flattered.

“Oh course!” Babycorn brought her hands together, her face had a slight tint of pink. “I think I only had enough energy to talk with Cherry but I really wanted to talk to you so I had to find a way to do it…”

Butter was shocked out of his yearning at what Babycorn had just said. “Wait-?! Energy?! Babycorn don’t tell me…” Now that he looked at her more closely Butter could tell that something wasn’t right with her. It almost felt like Babycorn was flickering in and out of existence.

“You…” Butter didn’t even want to say it. “You aren’t using your powers to do this are you?”

Babycorn laughed and stuck her tongue out. “Ha ha! Guiltyyyy~!”

“Babycorn! You shouldn’t-! You can’t-!” Butter didn’t know Babycorn could do this and at this point he didn’t care.

If what Tilika said in her letter was true then the more Babycorn used her powers the more she was at risk of being killed. “Isn’t it dangerous for you to do this?! I don’t want you to…to…”

“Butts don’t worry it's okay!” Babycorn tried to wave his very valid concerns aside but judging from his face it was clear she wasn’t doing a very good job. “I promise I’m okay! It’s like I told Cherry once-stopping the flow of time is…” Babycorn paused, it looked like her eyes were following something Butter couldn’t see. “…it’s easy.”

“What are you talking about?!” Butter couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nothing about what Babycorn was doing looked or sounded easy to him. The whole world around them was stopped in its tracks. Somehow Babycorn had just plucked both of them out of time’s continuing flow and Butter was just supposed to think that was easy?!

“Easy!” Babycorn grinned from ear to ear, posing with two fingers close to her eye. “I promise! I’m doing okay! I wouldn’t be talking to you right now if I wasn’t! Your mom and dad made me use my powers earlier yeah but…they’re doing something else right now so I get a break! Hehe!”

Butter didn’t know what to say. There was a part of him that just wanted to apologize for everything. Another wanted to yell at his parents for what they were doing, not that either would do any good now.

“I actually wanted to come and ask you something.”

“Huh?”

There was a bright green glow coming off from Babycorn, then out from her hands a familiar necklace appeared. Butter recognized it immediately.

“I promise this won’t take long! I’ll let you go in a second!” Babycorn laughed.

Butter desperately wanted to tell her that he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.

Babycorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. With a slight movement of her hand, something that Butter could only describe as some sort of crystal window manifested in front of them. “Woah…” There was something about it that grabbed his attention, he could see his own reflection in it but there was something off about it.

He didn’t look like he expected to look.

“Groovy isn’t it?!” Babycorn’s voice was peepy and joyful, this was something she had been working on for a long time. She’d done things like this before but never on this large of a scale.

While Butter was busy looking at what she did, she quickly wiped some sweat from her forehead. As carefree as she was acting this was taking a toll on her, as much as she didn’t want to believe it.

Babycorn walked closer to the window and placed her hand on it. When she did, a ripple echoed through the entire thing as an image slowly faded into view. Butter could slowly make out more things besides himself. First he could recognize a bright blue sky, then the green grass below. Very soon, the home he grew up in was in clear view, alongside that he could see Pancake, Cinnamon and

his mom and dad.

“W-What…?” What was he even looking at?

Suddenly his reflection moved, without him doing anything. Butter took a step back in shock as he watched his own reflection run over to where his parents stood. Their mouths were moving but Butter couldn’t hear anything that was being said. He stared in silence as he watched what looked like his mom hug Pancake and then hug him.

“It’s a perfect world! A world where everything turns out right!” Babycorn grinned, “I had a lot of trouble making it so Cinnamon still existed but I managed it! Aren’t you proud?!”

Butter looked at Babycorn, her smile was somewhat unsettling. “Are you saying that-you made this?” For someone to make a whole other world…? Was something like that even possible?

“You betcha!” Babycorn stood proudly, raising a fist in her air. A gesture that was done very cutely by the way. Though as much as Babycorn was proud of herself she had to admit something first. “Well the truth is I haven’t made it yet. Right now it's sorta like the thing someone does before doing something…?” It had a name but it always slipped her mind. Mostly because she tended to never do it.

“Do you mean a plan?”

“Oh yeah! That’s it! It’s a plan!” Babycorn looked at Butter like he was the coolest guy in the world. “You’re way too smart Butts!”

Butter laughed just a little. “If you say so…”

“My plan…” Babycorn eyes shined a bright yellow, as the image in the mirror became clearer. “…I could rewrite the world. With Cherry’s help I could make a world where everything is better and you and Pancake are happy with your parents! Your mom wouldn’t be from another world and she would love you and want to stay here! Everything would be perfect!”

Butter didn’t like this.

“It would all be so much better! I think I did a great job!” Babycorn happily explained, with a wide smile on her face. All she wanted was for Butter to be happy, to be safe, and content. For completely normal reasons of course.

“Babycorn that’s…” He didn’t know what to say.

“Of course…I might not survive making the world.” Babycorn’s smile never wavered. “It might end up killing me. But that’s okay right?!”

Without even a second thought, Butter rushed up to Babycorn, grabbing her hands. Somehow he was able to hold them in his. Even Babycorn was surprised he had managed to do that.

Butter looked up at Babycorn with tears in his eyes. She was taken aback at just how angry he looked. This was not at all how she was expecting to react. “No! No! That’s not alright! What are you talking about?!” Butter cried out, “Don’t even joke about doing something like that!!” The image in the mirror started to fade out of reality.

“W-What are you talking about…?!” Babycorn raised her voice as high as she could, “Isn’t that what would make you happy?!”

“No! Not at all! I could never be happy in a world that didn’t have you in it!!”

The mirror started to crack.

“If you do this…If you do this…I…” Butter struggled to even understand why Babycorn would even consider doing this for him. “I…IF YOU DIE THEN…!!! I’LL JUST KILL MYSELF!!!”

“HUH?! HUH?! HUH?! HUH?! HUUUUUUUUUUUUUH?!?!”

The perfect world that Babycorn had created shattered into pieces. It had to, there’s no possible world out there where she wanted Butter to die himself. He couldn’t! He had to stay safe! There was no way she could live or die in a world without h-

Babycorn’s image flickered. She took her hands and held them up to her cheeks. “I…I’m sorry Butter! I didn’t think…” Tears were coming down her eyes. A leaf shook in the wind. “I thought I could solve it…I thought I could solve everything…” Babycorn fell to her knees and continued to apologize.

Butter wasted no time in kneeling right next to her. He was surprised when he found he could still touch her. “Babycorn it’s okay…! I didn’t mean to scare you but you scared me too…” He placed his hand on her’s. “I would never want my happiness to come at a cost to yours. No matter what.” He looked right at her, he needed Babycorn to understand this.

“…I’m sorry about your parents.” Babycorn whispered. “I think they’re stupid for wanting to leave.”

“It’s okay.”

“You’re going to find me right?”

Butter nodded. “I promise.”

The sound of the waterfall behind them began to get louder and louder. Butter found it harder to hold Babycorn’s hands.

“Butter…I want you to be happy.”

Babycorn mouthed something to Butter but at this point there was no sound coming from her and then the very next second, she was gone.

As if she had never even been there in the first place. A small leaf landed on Butter’s empty hands as he stared at where Babycorn had been just a few seconds ago.

As time continued to move forward Butter stayed right where he was. If only for a minute or two, hoping that somehow Babycorn would come back. Someway, somehow. Butter waited for so long it wasn’t long until he had fallen fast asleep.

Babycorn tried her best to send Butter the nicest breeze she could.

#lalapril #lalapril 2024 #Babycorn #Butter #my notes on this were Combine both tifa and aerith affinity scenes from ffvii remake #this is my first time writing stuff like this so idk #when i was talking about apakullo falls thats when i was writing this haha #babycorns going crazy from the isolation someone give her a popsicle #anyway sorry about your parents butter #it keeps happening earlier and earlier every year

[spyoikawa]

still on that saiki k brainrot so hear me out-

metori, saiki, teruhashi, aren and hairo with an s/o who really loves to bake/cook-

no thoughts just Reader learning how to make coffee jelly for saiki (like maybe they make him a tower of coffee jelly for an anniversary or his birthday-). no thoughts just Reader cooking something for metori who pretends to not want to eat it cause it’s ‘peasant food’ but ends up really enjoying their cooking. no thoughts just cooking/baking date with teruhashi. no thoughts just teaching aren how to cook/bake and having a food trade with him, bringing him lunch/a snack to school. and no thoughts just hairo hyping Reader up while they cook/bake and making stuff for him to bring to class rep meetings-

thank you! <3

the excitement I got got I saw teruhasi- i don't see a lot of writing for her and I get happy when I get to do less than common things! Thanks!

I'm running low on creative juices, so please I hope you don't mind if I use the exact scenarios you suggested 💀

Note: some of the things I wrote felt really rude so please don't mind the tone tags in parentheses, also i have not edited this yet

Saiki, Teruhasi, Hairo, Aren, and Saiko with an S/O who can cook/bake

♡romantic♡

Saiki Kusuo (italics = saiki telepathy)

Although it was undeniably tasty, your boyfriend's obsession with coffee jelly was not only getting out of hand but also quite expensive-

I mean he spent 3,000 yen for one serving-

But yanno what it's ok, coffee jelly is easy to make, and this gives you an excuse to hang out (not that you need one)

"Ok Ku, i had an idea"

I like it, just make sure you teach me how to do it too

"Rude. I wasn't finished"

You did in your head

As endearing as it could be sometimes, Saiki's mind-reading could be a pain occasionally

You wound me.

"Good. (/j)"

After a long debate over recipes and serving sizes, there it was, in all its glory, your first batches of coffee jelly

it was heaven

You did end up sharing the recipe with him, but it still became a little tradition to make the coffee jelly together

It just tastes better that way :)

Kokomi Teruhashi

In the midst of your TV and cuddles date, Kokomi huffed and turned off the TV

But of course it was rude to just turn off the TV, so she offered to play a board game instead

You did play with her, but your curiosity was begging as to why she wanted to change the activity

"Hey Kokomi, this game is fun, don't worry... but why'd you turn off the TV so suddenly?"

"Oh, it was nothing! I just thought you would like this game, and I wanted you to enjoy yourself more!"

Now, that's the answer the most perfect girl in the world would give

But Kokomi is still human, there's gotta be something wrong

You spent a while thinking to yourself about what you were watching, you two agreed on a documentary, then after the documentary, the channel played a cooking show with a guest baker/cook Makoto Teruhashi- oh.

So that was it

At the end of the round, you stood up and offered your hand to pull up Kokomi with you.

"Hey, wanna make a bet?"

She looked up with a bit of curiosity.

"I bet you, I can make your favorite dish, far better than Makoto can"

She smiled a bit, "sure!"

Her favorite food was simple, so you taught her to cook it and added in some other things just for fun (and so she can't recreate it without your secret ingredients)

Now you guys have cooking dates often and always find ways to spice up foods (and beat Makoto at whatever he was doing on tv)

Hairo Kineshi

my thoughts and prayers go to you

we all saw what happened when he tried to make crepes

but in his mind, it was a learning opportunity

You guys were taking an after-school stroll, the weather was really nice, it would be a shame if you two just went home and did nothing. Walks like these tend to get sentimental and nostalgic, so your conversation subconsciously started to drift towards school life.

"And do you remember that time we had to get kuboyasu, kaido, and nendo to play on a baseball team? Oh my god thank god it didn't go too poorly, that one player really pulled through at the end..." you laughed out

"Haha I do remember that, I can't believe we got them to play, it really could've gone worse" He smiled as he remembered that day, but then his eyes drifted up to a bakery across the road. "Speaking of poor experiences..."

after he explained to you he and kaido's crepe disaster, you couldn't help but tease fun at him for a bit

but you did agree to teach him more about cooking and baking

he's a bit too passionate about cracking eggs, but hey, at least you can work faster

after many, many burnt crepes and pans, there it was, a fallen appart, incorrectly folded, but still a properly cooked crepe sat there in all its beauty

it kinda looked like this

Although he does learn many different things with you, crepes will be the thing he makes over and over again, even when he has it down to a science, just because it's the first thing you taught him, and he will keep that sweet memory forever (get it. sweet? Cause crepes? Im funny i swear.)

Aren Kuboyasu

He actually knows how to cook pretty well

He's not really sure when he picked up cooking, its kinda just stuck around, but he enjoys it, it makes him seem more goody

and he can treat you :)

I will die on my "aren lives for the most basic/domestic activities hill"

cooking with him is always an experience, he will play music in the background, and pull you aside to dance at random times

also does that really hot thing where he stands behind you, reaches around to hold your hands, and basically has you in a cage while showing you how to do something

it's one of those spontaneous things to do, if there's nothing else to do, might as well make something to eat

firm believer in "if you have to eat to live, you might as well eat delicious foods" so he will always try out new things with you if its healthy and tasty

"bab look at this show" you called out from where you were sitting, there was a cooking show/food documentary on, and it was showing a special food. "it says this chicken has a secret sauce they dip it in"

he walked over to the tv and watched it for a couple seconds, thinking a bit.

"...wanna figure it out?"

"yes. I'll make the chicken if you figure out the sauce?"

"deal."

will you ever know if you got the secret sause? Nope, but you did figure out a chicken recipe that is good as hell

he probably writes down all the recipes you "invented" together for safekeeping and so he can return to it later, but he refuses to show it to anyone

Saiko Metori

as much as I love him, we all saw in that one episode how picky he is while eating, and is probably a bitch to please while cooking/baking

so after a lot of convincing, you got him to sit in the kitchen with you so he can watch you bake for the two of you

in reality, all you have to do is give the dish a fancy rich-sounding name, you just have to be really careful with what you say

like this 💀

you decided to bake for him today, baking is a lot more "by the book" than cooking, so you thought he would take a bit of comfort in knowing it was done in a professional way

"alright tori, so I think I'll make a heavy pastry made with fine cacao and extracts, baked into a rich dessert for a fine sweet palette"

"you're making brownies aren't you"

"🧍‍♂️"

Told you, you have to be as specific as possible

He does eventually get interested in what you're doing though, as he never really sees his personal chef cook, and wants to help you by the end

He really did enjoy it! It quickly became one of his favorite treats

But funny enough, no matter how many bakeries he tried or how many times his chef tried, they never tasted the same

(you put in special spices as your own little mark on the treat)

so he ends up having you over for more cooking dates

Which he really does enjoy btw

as a tsundere he will look all annoyed and probably call you a plebe, but these are his favorite types of dates

#saiko metori #saiko x reader #metori x reader #kuboyasu x reader #saiki x reader #teruhashi x reader #hairo x reader #saiki k hcs #kuboyasu hcs #hairo hcs #saiki hcs #saiko hcs #teruhashi hcs

[soulmate-game]

Maribat March 2021 @maribatmarch-2k21

Day 1: Found Family

“Ah! Bonjour!” A cheery voice called, as a short Eurasian girl bound over to the unfairly intimidating mob of tall people with sharp eyes. Chloe had called in a favor. “My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Chloe told me that your tour guide cancelled at the last minute, so she blackmail—sorry, begged me to fill in for them. You are the Wayne’s, non?”

The one at the front of the group, clearly Bruce Wayne since Marinette didn’t live under a rock and had seen the man on several American news broadcasts before, nodded and cleared his throat. Man, was he intimidating. Even when he shot her a dazzling smile that was sure to blind Paparazzi with fake cheer. It was a nice smile, Marinette wasn’t about to deny. But it was empty. Distant. And Marinette wasn’t going to buy it for a second.

“Yes, that’s us. Mademoiselle Bourgeois mentioned she had asked a close friend of hers to take care of our tour.”

Marinette nodded again, clasping her hands behind her back. “I guarantee, you won’t miss anything the tour guide would have shown you. In fact, Chloe mentioned that you all were very curious about the now retired Parisian heroes, right? My former best friend ran the Ladyblog back when they were active. I am more than confident that I can answer any questions you have while we go through the city.”

A boy with a white streak in his hair rose his hand, as if he was in a class and needed to wait to be called on. Which, considering the sheer size of their family, Marinette was actually grateful for. But damn, this was another imposing figure. Slightly taller than even the six-foot-three-inches that Bruce Wayne owned, he was solidly built and rocked a brown leather jacket and ripped black jeans. Marinette smiled and nodded for him to speak.

“How old are you? Because I don’t know if twelve year olds are allowed to do guided tours,” there was an obvious tease in his voice, but there was also legitimate concern in his blue-green eyes. Marinette almost missed that concern amid her quickly building annoyance. She even felt her eyes twitch.

“I’m turning eighteen in a few months if you need to know, Monsieur,” she evened out the bite in her voice with an overly sweet smile. “And if you want to get lost and possibly pickpocketed in the busy streets of Paris, then please continue to make comments on my height. If not, we can begin our tour and you might even enjoy it.”

Several Wayne’s snickered at her comeback, one man in particular elbowing the white haired gentleman with a little too much glee. Even the stoic Bruce laughed softly, and a boy with enough bags under his eyes to make the airport jealous nearly fell over himself with his suppressed laughter.

The man himself just snorted, sending her a lopsided smirk that oddly radiated approval. It was almost as if she had passed some sort of test.

“My name’s Jason, Pixie. You already know B. The guy trying to break my ribs,” he pointedly shoved off the one who had elbowed him, “is Dick. He’s Bruce’s first adoptive casualty. The one that looks like a zombie is Tim, we might need to take a break to get him more coffee before he passes out halfway through. The one who hasn’t stopped glaring at you is Damian, the badass redhead is Barbara but we all call her Babs. The annoying blonde is Stephany, the other cool badass over there is Cass. She doesn’t talk much. And the one trying to pretend he doesn’t know us is Duke.”

Each member he introduced gave her a little wave or nod. Even Damian managed a short nod of acknowledgement before resuming his glare. He looked to be a couple years younger than her, so she just brushed it off as teenage drama.

“Alright then! It is very nice to meet you all. Now, Chloe did inform me that you guys are very multilingual, which is another reason she asked me instead of one of our other friends. If you ever need it, I obviously am fluent in both French and English. But added to that, I am fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, and I know basic survival Japanese. I also know French Sign Language, though I’m not sure if that’s very useful for you unfortunately. If you ever need to communicate non-verbally, I will do my best to accommodate that. Now, I believe you guys were scheduled to start the tour with a visit to the Louvre, non? Right this way.”

As Marinette led the large group out of the Grand Paris, they didn’t bother taking time to admire the sights before asking questions.

“Have you ever met one of the heroes?” Dick, who might have been shorter than Jason and Bruce but was muscular enough to still inspire caution (and admiration), asked. His blue eyes seemingly stared right through Marinette as he continued; “If you’re almost eighteen, then they must have been active through a lot of your school career.”

Marinette smiled. “They did only retire last year,” she agreed with a nod. “Yes, I have met all of the Parisian heroes at least once,” she snorted at a stray thought. “In fact, I met Chat Noir quite a lot. You see, my old College was basically ground zero for a lot of akuma attacks. And by a lot, I mean a majority of them,” she shook her head before pausing to get everyone to cross a street. “After a while, Chat Noir started calling me ‘princess’ to make fun of how often he had to save me. He’s an annoying ass.”

Despite her words, everyone behind her could easily hear the fondness there. They all traded glances. What if this was a Lois and SuperMan situation? Regardless, they all had a suspicion that Marinette knew more about the heroes than she let on. Or, at least more about Chat Noir.

“When you say that your school was a hotspot for Akuma attacks,” Bruce spoke up cautiously, his Dad Senses going haywire. He didn’t like how nonchalantly she had said it— she was far too casual. Sure enough, he watched as the muscles between her shoulders stiffened slightly at the conversation change. “What do you mean? Surely it couldn’t have been that bad if the school is still around.”

Marinette sucked her teeth, grimacing. “The school is still there, yeah, but only because of Ladybug’s ability. You’ve heard about the Cure, right?” It was Tim who answered her;

“Yeah. It fixed the damage done during a fight, right?” He asked, tilting his head a little. Marinette ignored her brief thought that the gesture made him look like a curious puppy. She sighed.

“Yeah. But when they say damage, they mean everything. Injuries, collateral. Death,” she said the last example darkly, far too much weight behind the word for it to be meaningless. She heard Jason hiss in sympathy. “But there are good things. The Cure also erased anyone’s memories of dying besides the vague knowledge that it did happen, so there isn’t much trauma there to unpack. Not as much as there could have been anyway,” she assured them. “And I’m one of the lucky ones. I never died, and I was never Akumatized.”

“Hmph,” Damian’s voice cut through the brief silence that followed her admission. She looked back at him to see his sharp green eyes staring right into her. “You don’t honestly believe that’s lucky.” It wasn’t a question. Marinette clenched her jaw, turning around and ignoring him.

Because, no. It wasn’t luck. It wasn’t lucky that she was the only one that remembered everything— all of the deaths, all of the Akumatizations, everything that others mercifully forgot. Since she lived through all of it, she remembered all of it. And survivor’s guilt is nothing to scoff at.

But she wasn’t about to reveal her trauma, or at the very least the full scope of it, to people she had just met and was leading on a tour.

“If you look to the left, you’ll see a statue that was made depicting Ladybug and Chat Noir back during the first years of their activity,” she suddenly told them, gesturing to the still-standing statue. Nobody missed the obvious topic change, but nobody commented on it either. Turns out the statue was something they had been looking forward to seeing in person, Tim even went up to take a few photos with his camera. Barbara took a few circles around the statue, easily pivoting her wheelchair around it as if she was trying to see every angle and imperfection possible. Marinette couldn’t help but chuckle fondly at the sight.

“Your family are pretty big fans, huh?” She asked Cass and Duke, the only ones that had stayed back with her. Duke snorted, and Cass gave her a small grin.

“They like to keep up to date with all the heroes,” Duke answered with a shrug. “Since we’re so high profile, it isn’t weird for us to be saved by one here or there even when we’re away from Gotham.”

Marinette just gave him an odd look, furrowing her brows. “But the Miraculous team has been disbanded since HawkMoth was defeated,” she reminded them. “There’s no need for them to save anybody anymore.”

“Old habits,” Cass spoke up softly, her voice barely a whisper. Her eyes locked with Marinette’s. “Not easy to break.”

The smaller woman had a feeling that Cass wasn’t talking about her family’s habit of keeping up to date on heroes.

“Alright! We need to head to the next stop or we might not have time to see everything!”

The tour went pretty similarly. The walks between stops were pleasant, and filled with questions about the period of time where HawkMoth was active. Marinette wasn’t even the least bit surprised nor put off; everyone was curious about those years now that the tourism restriction was lifted and people could ask freely about it. Besides the many questions about the Heroes, Marinette found the group to be very pleasant company. They were polite, but also rowdy in a very endearing way. She caught a lot of inside jokes they had with each other, and a lot of good natured teasing and fighting. They even managed to rope her into it somehow, and she found herself snidely teasing Damian or casually threatening Tim with not allowing them a coffee break. She even got to ride on Jason’s shoulders for a bit after he made another comment on her height that she Did Not Appreciate. But the ride she got made it worth it.

But soon the sun was high in the sky, and it was about time for them to take a lunch break. They had all been walking for hours with only a few chances to rest, and honestly Marinette was impressed that none of them seemed too tired out by it.

“Alright,” she put her hands on her hips proudly. “Since some of you won’t stop whining about needing coffee or being hungry— Dick, don’t you dare buy anything from that vendor! I’m gonna lead you all to my parent’s bakery so we can have lunch and caffeinate all of you. And conveniently enough,” she smiled widely. “The bakery is right across the street from my old College! So you’ll be able to get a look at where the majority of Akuma attacks happened, and maybe I can tell you a few specific stories if you want,” she offered. There were a couple cheers (Tim and Dick) from the crowd and everyone seemed pretty pleased with the next step in their tour. Smiling, Marinette turned and began to lead them in the direction of her home.

Sirens blared, a fire truck zooming down the street next to them.

Headed in the same direction.

Marinette frowned, watching it go. “That’s weird. I hope everyone’s okay, whatever happened,” she mused idly. But as they kept going forward, the sirens didn’t get any softer. If anything, they started getting louder again after a while. Marinette was visibly concerned by then, her pace picking up. “This is my neighborhood,” she told the solemn group behind her. “I know everyone on this street—“ they rounded the corner, and Marinette stopped in her tracks. Her world ground to a halt.

There was the fire truck, stopped right in front of her bakery.

Which was completely ablaze.

A string of curses flew out of her mouth, the little Eurasian wasting no more time before sprinting towards the building. She could hear people yelling at her to wait, slow down, stop! But she ignored them. The only thing on her mind was that her home was on fire.

“Marinette! Wait!” Dick reached out to grab her arm, but like a snake Marinette easily slipped out of his grip and continued forward. Steph was next, deciding to just tackle Marinette— to no avail. The Parisian just shouldered the bigger woman off of her with pure adrenaline fueling her muscles, and everyone else knew by then that they could not stop her. The Wayne’s decided all they could do was jog behind Marinette, keeping her in sight as they tried to gauge the damage.

“The top floors don’t look like they have even been touched by the fire yet,” Tim whispered, though his eyes flew between the building and their tour guide. Marinette was speaking rapidly with a firefighter that wasn’t immediately busy, trying to get information. But before anyone could decipher what was said, Marinette tore a large strip off the bottom of her shirt and tied it in a hasty mask around her mouth.

“Wait!” Bruce was the first to realize what was happening, with his years of experience with self sacrificing children and their stupid stunts. But Marinette managed to kick him away before he could grab her, dashing into the inferno without paying any heed to the many protests that followed her.

The group of Gothamites could do nothing but watch the flaming building, then. If they went inside, it would only overcrowd a hazardous area. Minutes passed, and there was movement in the fire. Out of the doorway came Marinette and a firefighter, both having to work together to carry the body of a large man outside. The sight of the man made the Gotham family blink— he was as big as Bane! And that was nothing to scoff at. But despite his unusual size and muscle mass, the man had all the signs of being a normal civilian.

Marinette didn’t stop there. She ran back in. Coming out a lot more quickly this time with a barely conscious Asian woman— everyone saw the resemblance between her and this new woman immediately.

It had to be her mother.

“Shit,” Duke hissed. Nobody else could say a word. It wasn’t looking good, and this wasn’t a situation where random vigilantes showing up out of nowhere could actually help. Not this late into the fire. Bruce’s hands curled into fists.

The woman that everyone guessed was Marinette’s mother was suddenly struck by lucidity; she gasped and grabbed at Marinette’s hand without seeming to see who she was even talking to. A single word that none of the Waynes could hear left her throat, and judging by Marinette’s returning panic it hadn’t been good.

She rushed right back into the building, and came back out with the last firefighter who had been searching inside.

Marinette carried a child. She screamed out in panicked French;

“She’s not breathing! I need first aid now!”

That was their cue. The firefighters started their hoses, focusing on getting rid of the flames now that nobody was left inside the building. Bruce and Damian got to Marinette first, and this time she listened as they instructed her to set the child down. Damian, being smaller and having more hands-on medical knowledge, took charge of the resuscitation. Marinette sat there silently, eyes riveted to the small child— a girl.

But Marinette wasn’t reacting like a normal civilian to tragedy. She was eerily calm, eyes focused and barely concealing a terrible rage. She took over chest compressions when Damian started to lose momentum, not giving up.

But then the EMTs arrived, and it was only five minutes with the child hooked onto oxygen that the news arrived—

Marinette heard the monitors on the ambulance flatline before she even registered what people were trying to tell her. Manon. Manon was—

Marinette didn’t register Nadya Chammack at first. She was just another body in the quickly growing sea of them. That is, until she heard Nadya’s pained shriek. A mother who had just lost her baby girl.

“Perhaps we should head back,” Bruce offered softly, giving Marinette space but keeping a keen eye on her. He saw her begin to tremble, then shake. He was pretty sure he could hear the grinding of her teeth for a second before she went still. Just… all movement stopped, the tears that had been building just falling silently for a second before they ended.

And he recognized that carefully practiced emptiness in her bluebell eyes. The same emptiness he had seen in Damian’s eyes when he had first arrived at the Manor. The same emptiness he saw in Dick’s eyes in the days following his parent’s deaths.

The same emptiness he saw in the mirror, every time he had another nightmare about the day Jason had been taken from him, years ago.

Suddenly he could imagine all too well exactly what kind of strength she had to have, to avoid her negative emotions ever being used against her during Hawkmoth’s reign. Especially if she had constantly been dealing with her friends and family being Akumatized and/or dying on multiple occasions.

She didn’t even seem to have heard him. Bruce sighed.

“I called Chloe,” Barbara informed everyone solemnly, holding up her phone for emphasis. “She’ll be here in five.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Chloe hadn’t come alone. With her had been Adrien Agreste, former model when his father hadn’t been… well, in prison. Nowadays he was just a normal student who occasionally gave lectures on neglect and child abuse, and how to help children in those situations.

And, apparently, he was also Marinette’s closest friend. Even more so than Chloe. As soon as they arrived back at the Grand Paris, Chloe herded everyone up into her suite and she and Adrien surrounded Marinette with pillows and blankets. Adrien curled around Marinette like an affectionate cat, and Damien even swore he heard the guy purr at some point

“We should probably leave,” Bruce whispered to their hostess, who looked inbetween him and her friends for a moment before jerking her head towards the door.

“I wanna talk to you first,” Chloe whispered back. Once they all filed out into the hallway and the door was safely closed, Chloe took a breath. “First, I want to tell you that I got a call from the hospital. Marinette’s father is stable, but in a coma right now.”

“Is that the man who looked like he could bench press a car for fun?” Dick asked, earning a weak grin from the Bourgeois heiress.

“Yeah, that’s him. But…” Chloe’s face fell, and she looked around as if to double check nobody was eavesdropping. She still lowered her voice anyway. “Her mother, Sabine. She…” Chloe swallowed a lump in her throat, images of the extremely kind Chinese woman flashing through her mind without permission. “She didn’t make it.”

Several people took a sharp breath, acknowledging everything that had gone so wrong for Marinette on a day that had started so perfectly.

“The smoke?” Cass asked gently, but Chloe winced and shifted on her feet.

“No. They… there were rope marks on Sabine’s neck,” Chloe clenched her eyes shut at the admission. “Marinette’s dad might be big, but he’s not a fighter. Sabine, though… Sabine was. She was raised in a martial arts family back in China. I’ve seen Sabine take down five men at once, all twice her size,” Chloe kicked her lips, shaking her head in disbelief. “Somebody knew… somebody knew that the little Chinese woman was a threat but the big baker with tons of muscle was harmless.”

Nobody took that well. Not only had Marinette just lost her home and half of her family, but her father was in a coma and it had all been foul play.

“Okay,” Bruce nodded once the news had time to sink in. They could help with this; this was their specialty. They might have only known Marinette for six hours, but she had made a big impression. It wasn’t just anybody that could mesh with his family so seamlessly in that short span of time. “Is there anything else?”

“I want you to get temporary custody of her,” Chloe said it the way only Chloe Bourgeois could. With her back straight, chin high, and the tone of a woman who expected to be listened to or else she’d make life Hell for the person that didn’t take her seriously. Bruce could only blink.

“Can I ask for your reasoning?”

“Marinette has been closing herself off more and more over the years,” Chloe admitted. “Hawkmoth’s reign was hard on her. Only Adrien really knows everything she went through during those years. But even after the disbanding of the team, she hasn’t… she hasn’t allowed herself to get close to anybody new. That’s why I tricked her into doing your tour. She needed to socialize with new people, and if she wouldn’t do it herself then I had to pull some strings.”

A few eyebrows raised at the admission that Chloe had fully planned for Marinette to be their tour guide the whole time. It honestly seemed like the kind of well meaning manipulation that one of them would try to pull off.

“She likes you,” Chloe’s voice went soft again, showing how uncharacteristically serious she was about that fact. “She was comfortable enough to let you guys carry her back here. To let you try to help Manon. That might not seem like a big deal to you, but it says a lot to me and Adrien. And… getting her away from Paris for a while is probably a good idea. She was planning to go to Gotham for university anyway.”

The Waynes traded glances before Bruce crosses his arms and asked some more questions first. Doesn’t Marinette have other family? Answer; only her grandmother, who travels all the time and nobody ever knows where she is until she shows up. Bruce agreed that Gina Dupain didn’t exactly seem like a good candidate for Marinette’s new guardian with that description. But finally, to none of his children's surprise, he did end up agreeing.

“But,” he held up a single finger. “We’ll Wait here in Paris for a week, so that she can try to salvage everything she can from her house and so we can get an idea on how her father is doing. There’s still a chance he’ll come out of his coma fairly quickly. And of course, we will only go through with this if Marinette agrees when we ask her tomorrow.”

Chloe agreed to those terms, looking like a weight had been lifted off of her.

Chloe never cut corners when taking care of her hive. And if that meant making sure that her brave soldier bee could move on to start a new hive, one that was better equipped to take care of her, then Chloe would do everything she could to help that move. And really; Chloe was far more resourceful and observant than people gave her credit for. The butts definitely matched, and Bruce Wayne was her last hope to get Marinette the support she needed. Outside of Adrien, anyway.

Chloe took a breath, watching the Waynes trickle off into their own rooms. Marinette was like the little sister she never wanted, but grew to love more than anything. Though, Chloe knew she really chose Marinette as her sister the same way they both chose Adrien as their brother. She just didn’t want to admit she was sentimental like that. But Chloe knew that someone like Marinette needed a bigger family. More support.

She could only hope that Marinette and the Waynes grew to become family for her like she and Adrien had. Kwami knew that Marinette needed all the help she could get for the foreseeable future.

“You did good, my Queen.”

“I know, Pollen. Now we just have to find out who dared hurt my hive.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Dude this took so long to write, but I’m actually really proud of it. Probably gonna take this Maribat March a little differently than last year, and make a few longer stories by connecting some of the prompts together. Maybe each week will be a full story? Idk I’ll figure it out. I know I’m behind but I’m working on it.

I tried to keep the angst out, but it found it’s way in here anyway. Oh well!

#mlb x dc #ml x dc #maribat #maribat march 2021 #Maribat March 2k21 #platonic brucinette #found family #day 1 #Maribat March #day 1 found family #I was a little late but oh well

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

Hi hi! I was wondering if you could do a dick Grayson x Avatar like fem reader with either a jealous Babs or Zatanna I hope that made sense🥲

True Love’s Kiss

Pairing: Dick Grayson as Nightwing x Reader

Warnings: I don’t think so

Word Count: 4.1K

@writing2sirvive : Hi love, me again but with a request this time. If you have time of course. I was thinking true love’s kiss with Dick Grayson. You can go crazy with it because I know you love Dick Grayson as much as I do. Btw I love your writing so much.

A/N: I think I did it wrong...cuz even though this is a Dick Grayson x reader fic, it’s mostly centred around reader and Zatanna???? Sorry about that???

You were fine with knowing that Dick was still friends with most of his exes. You completely accepted that he was able to keep functional relationships with most of them. In fact, it showed you how amicable and neutral Dick was and how he never held any grudges against people.

Of course, you were surprised by the sheer number. And the fact that he seems to interact with them practically every day. But eventually you managed not to let yourself get too bothered by it.

I mean, how could you? Barbara was the smartest, funniest, most approachable person you had ever met. She always made sure not to overstep her boundaries and was unusually open with you, given that Dick was her ex-boyfriend.

Raquel was adventurous and fun and you always had a good time when you were around her. She was another one who was respectful of your relationship. She never brought up her past flings with Dick, nor did she ever try and put you down. In fact, she was one of the people who really shipped the two of you.

You liked most of his exes. To the point where it made Dick kind of uncomfortable.

You liked most of his exes.

Ever since you had joined the team, being introduced as Nightwing’s significant other, Zatanna had been a constant thorn in your side. She was nice and sweet but there was something about her that rubbed you the wrong way. You could tell almost immediately that she wasn’t quite over her relationship with Dick. Short as it was.

Or maybe she was just the type of person who didn’t want someone, but didn’t want others to have the same person either.

Nonetheless, being around her put you constantly on edge. You lost count of how many times she redirected a conversation to be about her previous relationship with your boyfriend. ‘Oh, Dick took you to a fancy restaurant for your birthday? Well, I remember back when we were dating, he threw a huge party for me on mine.’

‘Oh, you celebrated your one-year anniversary with Dick in Paris? Well during our 3-month-aversary he bought me an expensive necklace.’

It didn’t bother you in the slightest. At least, not in the way that she hoped. It didn’t make you insecure or doubt or feel intimidated by her. It was just an annoyance that you couldn’t shake off, like the teacher you didn’t like or your annoying neighbour.

Unfortunately, Zatanna couldn’t take a hint that it made you and your friends (Barbara and Raquel included) uncomfortable and slightly irritated. Yet, everyone was just waiting for you to express the slightest distaste, not wanting to step on your toes. However, they were quick to change the topic in case they thought she was going too far.

Dick had been blissfully unaware of everything and you wanted to keep it that way. The last thing you needed was this turning into some sort of issue, especially since Zatanna was still his teammate.

However today you had enough.

You could look past Zatanna’s petty jealousy but allowing the jealousy to come to the forefront during a mission was where you drew the line.

Dick, M’Gann and Conner had been on a covert mission for Batman and out of the country and under team vote decided that you should be made in charge until he returned, since you were the only other older member (other than Zatanna but you were voted leader unanimously. Something you were extremely proud about). That was well and good, until you had been given a mission.

Regardless of how much you did not want to work with Zatanna without the others there to wrangle her, you had to put your personal feelings aside when you had a mission to complete.

You thought you could both be professionals about it and act like mature adults.

You were dead wrong.

If it wasn’t disagreements, it was insubordination. If it wasn’t insubordination, it was blatant arrogance. She questioned your judgment in front of the other members and even had the nerve to argue with you about mission strategies. You were trying to look out for everyone and put yourself in the line of fire since the squad members were better at stealth.

Zatanna seemed to think you were trying to steal the show and insisted that she be partnered with you even though you wanted someone with the younger members to keep them safe.

When you relented and agreed to go stealth, she accused you of ducking out and intentionally trying to put her in danger. The others had to watch as steam practically came out of your ears when you relented once again and decided you’d be with her because you honestly couldn’t argue with her much longer.

As if that wasn’t infuriating enough.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she refused to work as a team, putting the mission at risk and nearly getting the both of you hurt. She was fighting on her own, not bothering to have your back and going into it alone. Obviously, the two of you were overpowered quickly once they realized that you were pretty much behaving solo.

Luckily, the others pulled through and got you both out of there before anything horrible happened.

You sat in the ship, jaw clenched so tightly that they swore they could hear your teeth cracking, fists nearly white as you tried to control your anger and keep yourself from screaming at her while you were still in the air.

Once the ship landed in the docking bay and Zatanna was the first one to leave without saying another word, you snapped.

“What the hell did you think you were doing today!” You growled out, fisting her collar and stopping her in her tracks.

“What are you talking about?” She feigned innocence and you felt your skin burning. Everything around you faded out and all you could feel was fury. In hindsight, you would have liked to handle this issue in a more refined manner, but you honestly couldn’t care.

So, you didn’t notice the rest of the team, along with the a few members of the Justice League watching you chew Zatanna out.

Whatever would keep you from lighting her on fire was enough.

“I’m talking about putting the mission, not to mention ourselves in jeopardy, all because you can’t stop acting like a spoilt brat!” You hissed.

She rolled her eyes and you and the thought of strangling her briefly crossed your mind before she shoved your hands off her, dusting herself off like your fingerprints were dirt, “You need to stop blaming others for your inadequacy.”

She turned on her heel sharply and walked away. Blood pounded through your ears and your fingers twitched by their sides before you formed a whip of water from the bay and lashed it against her feet.

Zatanna, caught off guard, was thrown across the room before she caught herself with a muttered spell and turned around, glaring at you furiously.

“We’re going to settle things, right here, right now!”

“If you would stop being so insecure, then we could sort out our differences like mature adults!” She screamed back at you and before you could control it, flames erupted from beneath your feet and raced towards her, scorching the ground beneath it.

Each puff of breath you took released sparks. Zatanna immediately got into an offensive stance, levitating one of the weapons crates and chucking at you. You blocked it effortlessly using a wall of earth before throwing an inferno at her.

You kept fighting, flames and splashes of water going into the air every time you collided. The others watched in fear as you both raced towards each other, it looked like neither of you were holding back.

Before you could strike her again, you were being pulled away by Superman and as Zatanna was by Batman, they both pulled you yards apart. Even with his strong, authoritative grip on you, you couldn’t stop thrashing in his arms, throwing gusts of air at her.

“(Y/N). Enough.” Superman spoke in your ear and you calmed down, relaxing in his grip. He let you go after and you winced, feeling your skin bruise where he grabbed you. He gave you an apologetic glance at that.

“You both have to put your differences aside and work as a team or you won’t be allowed to go on any more missions.” Batman told you, voice firm but it didn’t shake you.

“No, Zatanna is going to have to put her issues with me aside and learn that when I have been elected as leader of the squad then you are supposed to put your petty jealousy aside and know your place.” You spat.

“You weren’t right for the position!”

“I did everything right! And if it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t have been under open fire tonight!”

“You’re not the boss of me!”

“When I am the leader of the squadron then I am! And you’re meant to listen and not question my judgement because you’re being blinded by your pathetic jealously!”

“I’m not jealous of you!”

“Oh, please! That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve heard from you and it was all proved today! Admit it! You were immature and fucking stupid because you can’t get over that fact that you dated Dick for what? 3 months?”

“That’s because he’s supposed to be with me!” 

“LIKE HELL HE IS!” You roared.

Batman felt a little helpless watching the two of you scream at each other. All this fighting? Over a boy? His son, no less? He had other sons and you were free to have your pick. But at this point, he wasn’t even sure what to say.

“You just can’t seem to accept the fact that he doesn’t love you anymore! Get over it! Because he certainly has!” You shouted, spinning on your heel and stomping away from her, determined to have the last word. Superman sighed in relief. He thought another fight would break out.

“You’re just insecure because you know that if he had the chance, he would come crawling back to me!”

A chill went done your spine and you felt cold fury run through your veins, turning around to glare at her murderously and clenching your hands tightly. You were so angry your feet were rooted to the floor, body seizing up slightly.

The others looked anxiously between the two of you as you glared at each other for a minute before you spoke with the calmest, yet most terrifying voice they’ve ever heard from you.

“Zatanna, you can try your damn hardest to win him back. But I promise you, you’re never going to get what you want.” You told her darkly, before walking away.

As Zatanna glared at your receding figure she decided she was going to prove you wrong.

***

To keep you from fighting with Zatanna again, when Batman came to you with a solo mission you couldn’t agree fast enough. Even though you knew you’d miss Dick’s homecoming, you still wanted to get the hell away from here. Not like you’d be missing anything important, other than Zatanna fawning over him.

You’d get to tell him how much you missed him in private anyway.

As soon as you were out of the cave, you couldn’t help the relief that filled your bones. You had been so on edge the past few days, still furious with her so the distance between the two of you was appreciated.

When Dick got home, he was ecstatic to see you again. It had been nearly 3 weeks since he had last held you and his skin was practically buzzing with excitement when he reached a cave, desperate to hug you, kiss you, touch you.

He got to the mess hall quickly, running all the way there and when he opened the door, he was instantly disappointed. You weren’t there.

“Where’s (Y/N)?” He asked Beast Boy, hoping he would tell him that you were just back at your apartment or that you had gone out for a while and would be back soon but he felt his heart sink when Gar gave him a sympathetic smile.

“She’s on a mission for a week.”

“A mission? Who’s with her?”

“No one. It’s a solo mission.”

Now he was worried. You usually didn’t take solo missions, liking to work in a team, knowing that there would be people who would be watching your back was reassuring. He knew you were more than skilled to handle a solo mission but not being by your side made him nervous and slightly antsy.

He was also upset that you weren’t here. So, he decided to do the most adult thing. Go home and sulk in bed while holding your sweatshirt that smelt like you.

But apparently the world had something against him because when he was about to go through the Zeta tube he was intercepted. By non other than Zatanna.

Now, poor clueless Dick had no idea that you had thrown hands with Zatanna just a day ago and was the reason why you weren’t there to welcome him when he got back. If he had he would’ve sulked at her and whined loudly for her to hear while he dragged his feet.

But, poor clueless Dick had absolutely no idea Zatanna was the reason he was being deprived of your kisses. So, he just smiled brightly at her and asked her if she needed anything.

“As a matter of fact, I found an old spell and I need someone to test it out on!”

“I don’t know how I feel about being your non-scientific experiment, Z.”

“Come on, it’s totally harmless, I promise.”

“I don’t know...”

“Don’t you trust me?”

He did. But there was just something about this situation that made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was because he missed you like crazy and just wanted to go home and sulk until you came back. Maybe it was because he felt uncomfortable to go somewhere private with his ex-girlfriend without telling you first. Or maybe it was because of the way Zatanna felt the need to guilt him into it.

Nevertheless, he agreed, albeit reluctantly and went to her room. Inside Zatanna had a bunch of ruins written on a paper and some weird poultices beside it.

“Now this isn’t going to work unless you give me your consent.” She informed, bustling about the room and Dick suddenly felt the air was a little stuffy.

“What do you mean by consent? Consent for what?”

“It’s a love spell.” She told him, smiling slyly but he couldn’t quite understand why. His hands got a little clammy at the announcement. What did she mean by love spell? Was she trying to get him to fall in love with her? Why would she be so open about it then? Especially when she knew he was in love with someone else?

“What do you mean?”

“Oh relax, stop being so tense. It’s just a love spell that proves who you truly love.” She said, immediately noticing how stiff his body was. Though she chalked it up to confusion. Dick was simply confused about who he loved, he was clouded by his attraction to you and he felt guilty about being unfaithful. But deep down, he really loved her. And this spell would prove it.

“In the olden ages, people would use it on their wedding to prove that their significant other truly loved them.”

He nodded, mouth falling open with realization. He already knew what the answer would be so why even bother? He assumed it was because Zatanna was curious to whether it actually worked.

“Too bad (Y/N) isn’t here, I mean I know who I love but I’d like to try it out on her. I mean, who takes a mission the day before their boyfriend comes back to town.” He complained, more to himself but Zatanna still heard it.

“Anyway, can I cast it on you?”

“Sure, couldn’t hurt.”

Oh, how he’d come to know just how wrong he was.

***

You raced through the halls, panicked, hearing your heart beat out of your chest as you sprinted to the Med Bay. Even though you were running as quick as possible you still pumped your legs to run faster, needing to get there quickly.

As soon as you saw Zatanna outside the Med Bay, you skidded to a stop in front of her and grabbing her collar, pinning her against the wall. She hit it with a thud and she saw white for a second when her head collided with the hard surface.

It was then you got a good look at her face. Her eyes were red and face wet. Her lips were bitten until they bled. You gritted your teeth, grip tightening around the collar as tears pricked your eyes.

“What the hell did you do!”

She whimpered, eyes getting glossy again before she started crying, incomprehensible words leaving her lips and you snarled before shaking her again, “You don’t get to cry! What the hell did you do to him!”

“It was a love spell!” She cried out, “It was supposed to reveal who he truly loves.”

“AND?!”

“It’s activated by a kiss.” She sniffled, “And I did.”

“Is it done?” Dick asked just as she finished casting the spell. His body was enveloped by a slight glow that was only visible to her and Zatanna’s lips curled when she realized it had worked. Now there was only one thing left to do.

“Yep.” She said, slinking over to his side and he pouted curiously.

“Are you sure? I don’t feel any different. You said it was supposed to reveal who I love. What happened?”

“We’re gonna find that out. Hold still.” She said, smiling and wrapping her arms around his neck to press a kiss to his lips. Dick froze, feeling her lips move against his and his mind went blank for a second before his chest contracted painfully.

He gasped against her mouth, before his legs buckled and he tumbled to the ground. Zatanna’s eyes widened when she saw the way his body twitched, pained gasps leaving his mouth and tears began falling from his eyes.

“Are you okay?!” She panicked, wrapping her arms around his thrashing figure but he couldn’t choke out an answer.

“Someone help! Anyone! Please!”

“A kiss doesn’t put people through cardiac arrest!” You screamed, feeling your chest tighten as you heard it out loud for the first time. Your eyes began burning and your throat contracted, feeling tears build. It was the first time you had admitted it to yourself.

You were scared. Emotions that you could barely process or understand swirled around you in a dark cloud and you were scared that Dick wouldn’t make it out of his critical state. If he was taken away from you because you hadn’t been there to stop it, you would never forgive yourself.

“I’m sorry.” She whimpered, sobbing and her body went limp in your fists. The urge to rip her head off her shoulders resurfaced. She didn’t get to be upset, not when this was all her fault.

“I don’t give a shit.” You hissed, “How do we save him?”

“A true love’s kiss should stop all the side effects.” She whispered, looking up at you with wide eyes, “If Dick truly loves you, then when you kiss him, it’ll reverse the spell.”

You needed to get in there.

You released your hold and Zatanna and she slid to the floor pathetically, holding her body as she cried. But even with her heartbroken sobs, you couldn’t feel any sort of remorse to her, glaring at her instead, “You better hope this works. Or I’ll kill you myself.”

And then you rushed in.

When you got to Dick’s side your breath stuttered when you noticed just how many things he was connected to and you felt your body shake. Batman was carefully watching him from his bedside.

You carefully walked to his side, gently brushing your fingers against his cheekbone. He looked like he was in so much pain. He looked so weak. You wanted to help him but a part of you was scared. For the first time in your life, you doubted Dick’s feelings for you.

The time you needed his love and devotion to be true the most, you were doubtful. A million thoughts rushed through your head and for a second you were tempted to just avoid doing this at all. But you knew that you had to at least try.

So, with trembling hands, you held the ventilator fastened to his mouth, taking a deep breath before tugging it off. Batman, already knowing what you were about to do, let you pull it off him before pressing a fluttering kiss to his lips. Tears gathered underneath your lashes when you didn’t feel anything happen.

Just when you were about to pull away, Dick took a deep breath through his nose and panted against your mouth, kissing you more firmly. You couldn’t help the sob that bubbled out of your throat and he swallowed it without any qualms.

Even through bleary vision, you were able to make out his blue eyes and the small smile on his face. 

His hands came up to weakly cup for cheeks, gently wiping away the tears with his thumbs, “I missed you.”

You sniffled, letting more tears fall because you knew he’d be here to wipe them away, “I missed you too.”

***

Bonus:

You walked into the mess hall quietly. Dick had just fallen asleep in the Med Bay where he would be kept for a couple days under observation. It was past 1 in the night and you wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed but you had some unfinished business left to handle.

It was dark and it was hard to make out your surroundings until your eyes adjusted to the darkness. As you walked to the kitchen island, your eyes landed on the sorceress that had her head in her arms and wondered if she was asleep. Batman had said you were free to deal with her anyway you liked and that had been exactly your plan.

“He’s okay now, if you’re curious.” You told her. Her head shot up and she looked at you out of the corner of her eye before bowing it away shamefully. But you caught a glance at her face. She looked like she had been crying for hours, eyes bloodshot and face red and blotchy.

“Thank god.” She croaked out.

There was a beat of silence.

“I’m so so sorry, (Y/N).” Zatanna whimpered out before crying again, “You were right. I was jealous. And I did a crazy, wrong thing. And I’m so sorry.”

You sighed, nodding at her apology even though you knew she couldn’t see you. You weren’t sure if you accepted it, and you didn’t have to. For now, it could remain in the air.

“He really doesn’t love me....” She whispered out and you sighed once again, stepping up beside her and setting something on the table.

Zatanna glanced at the bottle of tequila and the two shot glasses you left. You didn’t look at her, instead choosing to stare straight ahead. You opened the bottle, pouring yourself a shot before tilting your head back and downing it, hissing at the burn.

“Obligatory break-up drink.” You mumbled, pouring her a shot and passing the glass to her.

She sniffled, looking at the glass in her hands before gulping it down. You took a deep breath, refilling the glasses. You still didn’t look at her, didn’t speak to her, just poured a refill when either of you finished and downed it in one gulp. The excitement from today and the tense feeling from sitting beside Zatanna kept you from getting drunk too early.

You two ended up finishing half the bottle, drinking in the dark until she passed out first and you followed soon after.

The others found you the next morning, passed out at the kitchen island, clutching empty shot glasses.

***

Bonus bonus:

Batman sighed, smelling the overwhelming scent of tequila as he came closer. None of them were able to wake either of you up. You were out cold, face scrunched up and head against the table in a position that would no doubt have your neck in a crick.

Zatanna was no better. Her hair was a mess, tequila spilt on her clothes and she was drooling all over the table, snoring unattractively.

“All this over a boy?”

Forever Taglist:

@simonsbluee

DC Taglist:

@emmacata

@p--e--a--c--h--e--s

@sometimeseverythingsucks

@sokkas-honour

@unstable1902

@lostgirlheart

@missdisapear

@tadpole-san

#dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson headcanon #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson oneshot #young justice #young justice x reader #young justice imagine #young justice headcanons #nightwing #nightwing x reader #yj x reader #robin x reader #robin #young justice fic #dc titans #titans imagine #titans fic #jason todd x reader #dick grayson x you

[fancyfade]

NGL I do love pre 2011 batfam all having such different internal motivation around killing (and if they agree it's never OK, the why it is not OK is different for people).

Like Bruce has rules that he tries to follow. these are for many reasons, some to keep himself in check, some because if the entire point of Batman is that no other family is torn apart him killing people is literally defeating that point, it reads as generally ideology based. and I think that Bruce's character traits in the 70s or 80s where even if he doesn't kill people he isn't super distraught if they die is kind of interesting and it's a shame the writers dropped it. tho IG it could also be character development. (should note: he also has accidentally killed people but doesn't blame himself for it in some 80s comics like son of the demon)

Cass's rhetoric is based on her compassion and perfectionism and just. it's wrong period. no one deserves to die, and since she always has to be perfect, she always has to be able to save everyone even people who are trying to kill her. i feel like even if there was a case where someone had to kill someone else in self defense, cass would never view that as acceptable for herself because she should always be able to solve everything perfectly.

babs is sometimes vocally anti-killing people but i think it's fucking fascinating that she is also shown as being willing to potentially kill someone pretty often (at least pre new 52 when they removed 95 percent of her personality). not wanting to be faced with the prospect of being a victim again, she lures thinker into a trap with the intention of killing him. even after she's gotten more solid footing, she still is willing to kill to protect other people (she starts getting ready to snipe black mask when she thinks he will kill someone who was working for her in no man's land, before helena as batman shows up) and she is willing to authorize huntress to use lethal force to protect tim.

and tim's rhetoric for not killing people is very 'becuase bruce said so'. no seriously like (link) his rhetoric for a lot of what he does as robin is based on following The Rules ™. who made the rules? Bruce. and if he breaks the rules he feels unworthy. it would've been cool if the writers had acknowledged this way they wrote him so he could develop his own moral code, but I'm not sure they did in what I read. generally bruce was right because he's batman, so tim following bruce's rules for the most part is tim being right. no need to think of it further

dick is very anti-murder in ntt because heroes don't do that ™ and he seems less so in later comics. like he beats himself up a ton for nearly beating the joker to death but in later nightwing issues he's fine with people getting hit by ricochet when they are shooting at him and it is unclear if he maybe causes this guy to get hit by lightning, which kills him (but he had to do it to save a baby). i guess like with tomasi's run on nightwing and late new earth continuity, he just seems in general unconcerned with the whole debate and like. he doesn't use lethal force b/c that's not what you do, but he also doesn't let himself get too concerned about it, and when he was in NTT it was very much just. those are the rules (like tim)

damian's rhetoric starts out opposite from everyone's because killing your enemies is just what you do. like not even out of malice if writers are keeping anything consistent from the original LoS/LoA goal it should be to save people/the world. and he evolves from there. post R:SoB, fter his character arc, he seems to be one of the more anti-killing members of the batfam, probably behind cass, and a lot of it is based in the belief in people to change and his own feeling of guilt and empathizing with the people they fight because! Why was I any different from them? (he does not accept that he was a kid as a reason for why he should be held less responsible). and it's not just a case of 'not killing people b/c they are like me' he often tries to get them to reform. cass does this too.

and you have helena who is portrayed in batfam comics as like. having a super high body count but its fucking hilarious if you read her solo b/c she really doesn't. and she does kill 2 people in her solo, a lot of the time it seems to be based on even if they are a bad person and by her rhetoric they deserve to die, how she is feeling when it is going down. like she was going to rescue one of the guys responsible for killing her parents before he said something indicating he was intending on using her or something that triggered her (I can't remember the exact dialogue) which like what an IDIOT. and she also killed a serial killer, but i believe she felt personally responsible for the serial killer since she had inadvertently provided him with the means to escape from prison and failed to stop him before. i feel like even if she goes in a situation thinking "I am definitely going to kill this guy" she does not always do it, and frequently she can lean to leniency barring external circumstances. but she doesn't consider herself as someone who considers killing automatically wrong, even though there isn't a ton of things different from her situation than from dick or babs's, both of whom who have either been ready to kill people or been unconcerned if people they were fighting died or both.

and then obviously you have jason who is very pro-murder (i'm only going w/ pre flashpoint continuity b/c that's the one i've read more of), who does not care if people who aren't 100% deserving to die by his standards are killed by him (he kills drug dealers w/o giving them a chance to follow his rules to intimidate people or b/c he has no need of them after consolidating his power, he poisons people he can't control who he is poisoning in prison, causing many people to die -- both of these written by winick, generally regarded as the 'good' pre FP jason writer), because he is acting from a place of trauma and pain but believes that if he can control crime correctly he can 'fix' things -- but his reasoning is very based on his own personal experiences and not in compassion for others, or at least the people he allegedly is helping are very abstract and not real for him. and like. it's an interesting character trait because LOTS of batfam members' motives aren't really even tied into compassion when talking about not killing (dick's aren't, tim's aren't, babs's aren't), and some also have their personal experiences highly motivating them (babs, cass, damian).

i realize that steph is not on here but she is also like. really changing based on the writer (so do the others, but her evolution felt harder to track). i feel like pre batgirl-ing, she definitely feels some people deserve to die and might kill someone in anger if they reminded her of her dad and no one stopped her. batgirling, her writing is different, the writer wants to portray her as a little 'softer', more based on hope, but the writer does not actually show us how she changed, which is frustrating.

anyway i just think they're all so interesting and i love them

#batfam #dc comics #barbara gordon #dick grayson #bruce wayne #cassandra cain #damian wayne #tim drake #helena bertinelli