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dragonsandwolvesohmy · 2 years

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So... I'm having thoughts about a previous post of mine, regarding a Gotham Zoo au. (Gotham Zoo AU)

I see this going two ways; Zoo au happens despite of Batman. (aka, Batman's origins still happen, but doesn't go through with becoming Batman.) or Zoo au happens instead of Batman. (Aka, Bruce never considered being Batman, Zoo happens, no superheroes in this universe kinda thing.)

Let's go with Despite Batman first of all. (Be warned, this is along. So friggin' long. As in 3k +)

Bruce finds out about Damian before Dick's parents fall. There's this small child he's created with Talia, who struggles even more than his father in connecting with people. (perhaps Talia handed him over because Damian is on the spectrum?) He's broody, moody, resentful of being treated like a child, and a bit entitled. and he's not even double digits yet. Bruce, in short, has not one clue what to do with his son.

(Alfred help.)

Bruce finds out Damian likes animals when his grumpy little shadow abandons his side for the first time during a gala, because one of the heiresses brought her new, expensive, pure-bred cat.

It's perhaps the only time Bruce has seen his young son show childish interest in anything. Because cat fluffy.

He brings home a tuxedo cat the next day, freshly adopted from the shelter. This prompts a 'teaching moment, master Bruce' from Alfred, where Bruce tries to explain to Damian why adopting is better than buying from a breeder. In the end, he loads a tablet with a bunch of documentaries and docuseries about animals, habitats, endangered species- what that means, and consequently why and what causes these species to be dispearing- and why 'adopt don't shop' is a good thing. There is also a sorta kinda age-appropriate explanation for inbreeding of dogs and cats, and why Damian's new mixed breed, unknown origin cat might have better health, and live longer.

(The first time Bruce sees Damian cry, it's because of a Sarah Mclachlan commercial. Bruce full-on panics. This is how they adopt Titus from the shelter.)

Bruce is making an effort to Bond with His Child. Volunteering at the shelter sees a surefire way to end up with more adopted animals in his house. Alfred would not forgive him for turning the place into a zoo. Hence they go to the actual zoo.

Gotham Zoo... isn't great. There's a tiger who paces around an island of grass surrounded by cement, a few monkeys in artificial trees behind barred glass, some tropical birds, hyenas, a few tarantulae, some stick bugs, and a large pond of koi as a centerpiece to the zoo. It's small, run-down, the animals are healthy, but clearly not happy.

Damian is dismayed. Bruce is... tired and sad and wondering when the little things like the zoo he remembered so much better with rosy childhood memories became so run down.

Bruce buys the zoo.

Alfred is exasperated.

Damian is delighted. He spends more time with Bruce than ever, childhood joy and excitement and energy at the forefront as he shows Bruce all the bits and pieces he's picked up from documentaries, shows, and reading- all too happy to share his special interest with his father, knowing his ideas would be considered if not used.

That's how it starts.

Animal Welfare, and the zoo, become synonymous with the Wayne name by the time Haly's Cirus rolls into town. Bruce takes Damian to see the circus animals, the way they're trained, and the relationship with their caretakers and trainers. As well as assure Damian they're treated okay, and if they aren't, they'll do something.

(The moment he hears the snap of the rope, he's tucking Damian half under his curled body, covering his ears, desperately wishing he could be doing the same to the boy who seemed larger than life when he was flying through the air just moments ago. now he seems so very small.)

When Bruce adopts Dick, he buys Zitka the elephant from Haly's Circus. It means shipping an elephant across multiple states by the time he tracks down the circus, as well as having a proper habitat built in the slowly improving zoo, and hunting down some good and proper caretakers.

(Damian tries to bond with Dick by showing him his ever-growing collection of animal-related media on his tablet, but the older, grieving boy wants nothing to do with them.)

The first time Bruce takes Dick to the zoo, he's withdrawn the whole time, a little resentful over the 'bonding activity. then Bruce takes him to see the new elephant exhibit.

Dick cries when he sees Zitka, hugging her trunk.

They don't leave for hours.

(Dick hugs Damian when they do return to the manor. He asks about elephant documentaries. Damian is very pleased (smug) to say he has multiple he's willing to share.)

Going to the zoo is an everyday thing after that. Dick teaches the keepers there everything he knows about his beloved elephant, from favorite treats (she loves apples) to tricks he knows how to perform with her. Damian likes watching Dick play with Zitka like Damian plays with Titus.

Bruce ends up taking on more management items from the zoo purely because he's there so often. It's when he's staying late, glaring at the paperwork trying to strongarm him into giving up his tiger despite the old cat no longer being in his prime for breeding, that someone breaks in.

(It's Jason.)

Dick is sleeping in a hammock on the 'safe' (trainers) side of Zitka's enclosure, and he's pretty sure Damian is still religiously taking notes about the dusk activities of their python. Yet... there is a child. A child wearing a too-big red hoodie with tiger ears on the top. It's a hoodie sold in the gift shop downstairs, but this one is worn, old stains and frayed cuffs.

(It was his mothers. She took him to the zoo during one of her better moments, when she was sober, when the Waynes showed their completely redone tiger exhibit. it was no longer grass and cement and a feeding ball. It's trees and rocks and shaded areas of viewing glass, a modest sides piece of a tiger's natural habitat for their boy. He's been so much more lively, happier with space and enrichment and good care, drawing the eye of annoying management wanting to breed a tiger passed his prime because he acts like a kitten now.)

Jason broke in because he remembers there being a display of food by the cashier, and he's more likely to get away with stealing food from a closed zoo than any proper store.

Bruce gives him a packaged sandwich, and a bottle of milk, from the little fridge by the cash register. Then find a tiger-themed backpack among the dusty boxes of merchandise in the back rooms, fills it with water bottles, beef jerky, applesauce squeeze pouches, and 'granola bars' that are more like slightly healthier candy bars. He sneaks a board book called 'The Very Brave Little Lion' and a stuffed tiger in the bottom, despite the kid being older than Damian who 'was well passed the age for such simple things, father'.

It lasts Jason a few days on the streets, but he comes back every day for free kids admission to the zoo. It's safer than wandering the streets, and no one looks twice at the kid reading a library book on the bench. (If it's a board book sometimes, well. That's Jason's business.)

He falls asleep, tucked up against the viewing glass of the tiger enclosure, to be woken by Bruce making the nighttime rounds to see the animals before taking Damian home to go to bed. He takes three sons back to the manor that night.

(Bruce calls Jason his little tiger unironically. Jason allows this with token protests. Tigers led him to his new family, after all. Privately, he thinks it might've been his mom looking down on him. making sure he knew where to go when she was gone.)

Barbara comes to the Waynes by way of a protest. She's protesting zoos; animals shouldn't be entertainment, they should be in their natural habitat, outrage at the treatment of animals, at humanity abusing them for their own gain.

Bruce takes her around the zoo. Shows her the enrichment, the detailed meal plans for each and every animal. The habitats meant to be a piece of natural habitat in the city. The safety measures for both animals and humans. Their conservation efforts, their efforts to raise awareness of habitat loss, climate change, poaching, and more. The way their elephant herd may only be three large, but it's because there's a mother-daughter pair living with Zitka, and elephants grow their herds via family; when the mother or Zitka has babies, the herd will grow. Ideally, they'll have eight or more elephants, but they don't want to cause any upheaval with the current matriarch- no need to stress her or cause fighting with another, mature female wanting to lead the herd- or try to merge more families. If an orphaned elephant needs a home, but can't live in one of the sanctuaries meant to raise, then release orphaned elephants back in the wild, Gotham zoo will gladly take them, assuming the existing herd of three takes to them. Their other animals are solitary by nature. Other than the elephants, they haven't taken in any animals- from the wild, from confiscation with illegal pet trade, from other zoos- instead focusing on making the animals already there has the best life they could. Be it better food, habitats, enrichment, etc. these animals can't be released, so they do the best they can for them.

Then, Bruce takes Barbara to the office. He offers her a job. 'Be our moral compass, you can change the zoo from the inside. Do what's best for the animals. If that means a zoo is the only way that animal will survive, can you handle that?'

She can. She takes the job. She runs that office like she was born to. She likes digging dirt on any animal-related person she comes across. How do other zoos treat their animals? sanctuaries? Is conservation happening or is it breeding for public entertainment? Who's doing what's best for animals, and who needs the full force of animal welfare brought down on them? Turns out having the Gotham Zoo backing you makes animal activism more easily heard.

Barbara wants what's best for animals, no matter what. Sometimes that means human care. Sometimes that means release into the wild. She refuses to give up her values; in the ideal world, all animals would be wild, there would be no more zoos, no more captivity, except for the animals who wouldn't survive in the wild, and even then, it'd be more of a national park/haven situation for animals. That's the ideal- they aren't there yet, but Barbara will do what she can to make this zoo one less problem. One step closer to the idea.

Tim comes on a school field trip and just... never stops. He takes pictures of the animals, of their habitats, of every little detail he could get. The increased security for animal safety- no public getting into enclosures, little chance of someone 'dropping' something in. The plants found all around the world, and the different terrane carefully mimicked to make an animal's space as close to natural habitat as possible. Animals playing, sleeping, exploring, interacting. All of it.

(Poison Ivy keeps growing plans in their zoo, and Bruce has to pay for a lot of corporate clean-up before he gets a meeting with her to ensure she only grows safe plants for their animals, and only ones found in their natural habitats, please. she agrees, but only because the zoo if taking good care of the animal habitat plants, and has a whole program related to turning animal waste into fertilizer, which then goes back into green spaces in Gotham, including the plants at the zoo. They try to grow food for their animals, after all, instead of buying it where they can.)

Tim inadvertently gets photos of Harley Quinn stealing the hyena pair and takes them immediately to Bruce. Bruce gets the hyenas back. The Drakes do not get their son back. The little photographer is theirs, and his photos of the zoo if their number one advertisement strategy. Especially for the Scarlet Macaw flock- two paired birds and their eight collective offspring- which are Tim's favorite animals in the zoo. He loves the bright red of the bird's feathers.

He loves even more when the head keeper of the birds starts training him to train the birds. Dick, by now a full-grown elephant handler/keeper/trainer, is delighted by this kid who starts training brightly colored birds to do tricks for enrichment. Babs is less than pleased. Macaws, despite being kept as pets, are not domesticated animals. However, Tim approaches it more like falconry- these 'tricks' he's teaching aren't meant to be 'cool', they're meant to engage natural, wild behavior, in a safe, regulated way. Babs allows it, but keeps a close eye.

Cas is brought to the Waynes by the Justice League. Bruce has been lowkey funding them since they busted some black market animal trade going on, and arrested a bunch of poachers and people with 'exotic pets'. In turn, sometimes the league calls upon Bruce to find them various animal/habitat/climate experts to help them with something they've encountered. In this case, they encounter an alarming amount of various venomous snakes, being cared for by a mute, terrifyingly lethal girl. Cas gets to fly Air Superman to the zoo, because the league doesn't know what to do with all these snakes other than taking them to the only zoo they know well, and silently instructs reptile keepers on all the snakes. at least until they're put into zoos better equipped for them, or dubbed releasable into the wild by experts.

Cas never leaves, unlike most the snakes. She stays with the Waynes. So does a blind Black Mamba.

Cas is worryingly close to the snake. this never changes, but she reluctantly shifts to protective contact to ensure it's less likely she- or anyone else- will be bit by one of the most venomous snakes in the world.

(Steph walks into the Waynes life one day and never leaves. No one's really sure where she came from, but she's there, and they love her, so they don't care. She works more on the domestic animal side of things, which gets the whole family into ensuring Gotham's animal shelters are up to par with their standard for animal care. She's the Barbara of cats, dogs, ferrets, and other domestic pets. except more likely to bully people into better treatment rather than Babs shaming, throwing the law into their faces to get them shut down, to steadily ruining them in any number of ways.)

Duke comes on as a Veterinarian, intending to work with domestics, but there's an internship at the zoo and he takes it because how could he not? He works with the emperor tamarin monkeys there, and the funky mustache-wearing monkeys convince him to stay with the zoo even after he finished his degree.

Duke is also the one to convince Bruce to expand the zoo. He asks if they can look into expanding their primates via rescues; just keep an eye out to take any in, as the zoo hasn't taken in any animals except the elephants since Bruce bought it.

Bruce says he'll think about it. No chimps, though. Chimps are vicious, Bruce doesn't like them. Too violent, too triggering for him.

Bruce presents him with a family unit of golden lion tamarin rescued from a fire, deemed unreleasable due to various injuries and disabilities. Dick loves the bright golden orange monkeys.

Dick stays with his elephants, but he also gets to start working with rhinos. He loves a rhino named Exxy, who was rescued after poachers almost killed her for her horn. She lived, barely, but her snout is mutilated where her horn used to be. Dick thinks she's beautiful.

His favorite animal will forever be Zitka, however, closely followed by Zitka's baby with an elephant Superman brought to the zoo. Rescued from inhumane treatment in the south, in a privately owned theme park. He's a good bull, a gentle soul to Zitka's brightness, and their baby is precious. Dick stayed in the keeper's side of the elephant habitat most of Zitka's pregnancy and was the first to meet the baby after having been there when they were born. Dick loves them dearly.

(Dick names the baby 'Nightwing')

Jason prepares to beg for Bruce to take in a lion from New York. The male can't stay with the current pride there, having grown to the point he's competing with the pride leader for unrelated females in the pride, and they don't currently have the resources to keep him. Not when it means a new exhibit, plus finding him his own females to form a pride. Jason's tiger was passed his prime before Jason started getting his degree in animal sciences, and eventually, he had to be put down from age-related issues. He's been working with various animals in the park, but he misses working with big cats.

Bruce redoes the whole habitat previously housing Jason's beloved tiger, and soon Gotham Zoo is home to a lion named Rizu. (it means brave. Jason reads him the board book he's kept all this time on the ride from New York to Gotham.)

Tim slowly moves on from only training only red macaws, into raptors, then vultures. He still takes pictures, which are plastered all over the zoo, their advertisements, and sometimes travels to other approved zoos to take photos for them too. He likes his bird, however. They challenge him to challenge them. sometimes they're too smart for their own good. (Yes, he means the crows he's started training to pick up litter in exchange for treats. Don't tell Babs or Steph. They'll murder him.)

Cas gets some snakes back. Black Mama (her blind black mamba) is still her favorite, but she's loving the little group of pancake tortoises Bruce got her. (Green Arrow brought the Gotham zoo a chimp one of his 'not villains' had. Bruce refused to keep the chimp. He reached out to everyone on the approved list to find another place for the chimp- any place- and the only one that would take it would only do so if they took a group of pancake tortoises seized from illegal ownership. Bruce snapped the deal up quickly. No Chimps.)

In other news, completely unrelated, Green Arrow is not allowed in Gotham Zoo.

On the other hand, Black Canary and Wonder Woman are absolutely allowed at the zoo. Why? Because they brought Cass' Rosie to the zoo. Who's Rosie? A 132-pound (60kg) freshwater crocodile.

Rosie is Cas' baby.

Steph deals with all their acquisitions, ensuring their rescues, and works with Babs to get animals released. She still works mostly with domestic animals to ensure they're treated well, but she really likes busting black market, illegal pet trade/animal poaching, and making sure the animals find safe, healthy homes.

She finds Tim a toucan.

Tim loves his toucan. His name is Reed. He don't take no shit from crows and seems to be coordinating their efforts to keep the zoo litter free. (to the alarm of everyone else.)

As for Damian? For now, he's bouncing around working with any animal who needs him that day. He's looking into starting up a petting zoo with Steph, especially wanting to show alpacas and their story of domestication and treatment for wool. While waiting for everything to fall in place, he's working on the education part of the zoo. He's the driving force behind the department; from signage, to field trips, to fundraisers, to research. He wants everyone to know about animals, how they're threatened and could do their part to save them.

(He butts heads with Babs about zoos. He believes zoos, when done right, are great for animals. Babs is of the opinion all wild animals should be wild, no zoos, only sanctuaries when needed. Damian thinks that's unrealistic. They argue this many, many times. They never come to an agreement, nor budge their opinions, just go in circles until they're distracted from fighting.)

Eventually, he'll take over the zoo. Until then, he likes educating people.

...Where's Alfred, you ask? Exasperated his family spends more time in a zoo than at home. When he said the manor was turning into a zoo, he did not mean, go buy a zoo to spend more time in than at home. However, he loves his family, he loves what they're trying to achieve to better animal lives, and better the planet for animal habitats. He's proud of them. (And look, Master Bruce, all the children went to College. and finished. look at that.)

(He dearly loves the little group of penguins Bruce shyly got because they reminded him of Alfred.)

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