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meow

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Nightwing is objectively terrifying on his own, but the fact that he has escrima sticks that can electrocute you? Like, escrima sticks Bruce probably rigged with the power of a small planet because he doesn’t know how to express parental affection? And Nightwing is just slinging those around with a big, dopey smile?

The sound of those lighting up must be dread-inducing.

Batfam AU

Damian was captured by some villain, and Dick just saved him.

Nightwing: Why didn't you send a distress signal? You could have gotten hurt. What if I didn't get here in time?

Robin: tt, stop your incessant nagging, Grayson. I can handle myself. Besides, I did send out a distress signal.

Nightwing: Really, cause I didn't get it, and neither did B.

Robin, realizing something: Ah, I believe I may have alerted someone else of my capture then...

Nightwing: who-

He's cut off as a red figure barrels through the window, shattering it.

Red Hood, guns cocked as he looks around the room: Who the fuck do I need to kill?

Robin, deadpan: Impeccable timing as always, Akhi.

some Jason doodles a did at like 3am

I saw a tiktok where the first spoiled cat, that lives there since it was a kitten, is a menace to society vs. The ex stray cat, that appreciates literally everything, is a ray of sunshine, and I had to think about Dick Grayson as a child vs. Jason todd as a child.

In this essay, I will-

*in a hospital room*

Tim: Am i in trouble?

Bruce, who just found out Tim doesn't have a spleen: Take a guess

Tim: …no?

Bruce: Take another guess

The GIW did it!

So! Danny gets captured by the GIW, gets experimented on for a bit, and breaks out.

He manages to get home, but in his rush he accidently de-transforms before checking that the coast was clear and his Parents see his Ghost Form. Before he can turn invisible or fly to run away, his parents charge at him and Hig him tightly.

They start crying and hugging him, just happy that is is back.

Oh yeah, he had gone missing for a full week with no explanation...

Eventually his parents calm down and Danny is forced to explain everything, but in a Classic Fenton Misunderstanding, when Danny explains that he had been taken by the GIW, his parent instantly assume the GIW was the ones to turn him into a Ghost.

Before Danny can correct them, they are already rushing into their Lab to plan out their takedown of the GIW and all their affiliates.

Well, that works, he guesses...?

Tim drake but he has a completely unexplainable beef with one of the lesser Gotham rogues. I'm thinking like kite man or something. Where anyone who sees him fight them feels the need to pull him aside because it sounds like he is deliberately digging in to deeply personal traumas of that villain to hurt them. He regularly makes this rogue cry. He only ever says "they know what they did". Asking the rogue? "I know what I did :(". And yet, the rogue still makes specific effort to trap him.

Years later it comes out that he and this rogue thought it was funny watching the batfam and Gotham's collective concern and confusion. I headcanon that every Gotham rogue has been to at least one summer camp for theatre. The rogue can cry on command. It's literally just a bit.

Reverse Robin au but the ages aren't changed. Just adoption order.

I’ve recently come around on “Jason’s death is big in true crime community” aus. I hope Bruce is the main suspect and I hope that there’s a small but very loud and annoying group of white women in their 30s who are trying to gather enough evidence to send him to jail I hope the true crime girlies are on his ass!!

Maybe it's the eternally distrustful loveless child in me but idk something about the way DC has been writing familial relationships in recent years rings so false to me. There's no room for the complex, nuanced, unnamed relationships Batman and Nightwing used to have, nothing like the warped mother-daughter-sister thing Barbara Gordon and Cass Cain had, nothing like Superboy's weird obsessive hero worship/bone-deep dread of his clone fathers or Max Mercury's weary undefined protectiveness of Bart or Wonder Woman's dogged loyalty to her little "sisters". Cause — for me, at least, I know I actively seek little moments of connection in stories; when I write or when I read it is to seek comfort. I think that's why DC has made this shift. Readers like me gravitated to those little warm moments, and DC noticed that we did without stopping to think about why.

But there's a point at which I notice diminishing returns of comfort from fluffy writing — it ceases to register as real. It's too good, too saccharine, too empty of any of the pain and frustration it takes to express genuine love for the other person. It's all hand-holding and no sweaty palms. It's so easy for someone to say they love you. It's so easy to see when it's all just words. And part of this is, yeah, bad writing; all that stuff about show not tell. They're trying to tell us these characters care about each other without giving us any real proof. but. idk. I need my love to be real. I need to feel the bones behind each embrace. I can't accept affection without struggling my way into it. Honestly I'd rather get a grim gritty Batman who forgets he HAS kids until they throw themselves into the line of fire than a milquetoast helicopter Batdad who tells his kids exactly what they mean to him without actively being in a state of bleeding out.

Jason: *kicks wall* Well, that mission went terribly.

Tim: Bruce is gonna be so angry at me.

Dick: *having read that validating feelings is important* Yeah, that would suck. Last time I made him mad he kicked me out. But I just showed up a month later and he completely forgot. So it’ll work out fine! *cheery smile*

Tim: *eyes wide* He could kick me out?

Jason: *takes out pistol* If he kicks either of you out, I’ll shoot him.

Dick: Thanks, but it’s fine.

Jason: Oh no…I know that look.

Dick tries to hug him and ends up grazed by a bullet. Tim is now worried that he’ll be kicked out. Jason is even angrier than he was at the start.

All of them are extra hurt. None of them are comforted. But it’s the thought that counts.

Hurt/failure to comfort.

The Batfamily, by proxy of being raised by Bruce (undercover pro, lies every other word) and Alfred (actor in another life and in possession of the world’s blankest poker face), are probably the best at just running with something (a con, a secret identity, an undercover job, etc) and acting it out 100% believably. With zero hesitation.

Someone runs up to Red Hood one night in an alley and says “pretend to be my boyfriend! please, he’s following me!” and suddenly that’s not Jason Todd, Crime Lord. That’s Todd from the upper east side, and what the fuck man? leave her alone, you’re fucking tripping!

Etc etc.

mornings w the core four (on a good day)