:)

“Open the door or I’m gonna throw rocks through your windows, you dumb whore!”

Bruce, voice frantic and muffled from the other side of the door, “Who taught you that word!”

“I HEARD IT ON TV!”

“WHAT TV SHOWS ARE YOU WATCHING?”

Imagine one of the younger bats, who think they have a good understanding of Dicks childhood just coming up short when they hear Dick say “Uncle Clark” in a not-quite-a-joke voice because they knew Dick was close with the og Leaguers but not that close.

Or imagine they see Dick interact with Talia for the first time without Damian present and realize that have evil stepmother level beef that Dick has simply never acknowledged.

It could even be as simple as Dick offhandedly mentioning that time his apartment got blown up or that he does actually know how to shoot a gun because he was forcefully taught by fucking Deathstroke the Terminator.

Secret Grudge (1327 words) by eaglerayys Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: DCU, Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Jason Todd Characters: Tim Drake (DCU), Dick Grayson, Talia al Ghul, Jason Todd Additional Tags: POV Tim Drake (DCU), Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Dynamics (DCU), Talia vs Dick, they hate each other, But Only When Damian's Not There, Humor, canon? I hardly know her, Rated T for language, Dick Grayson Has Secrets Summary:

Somewhere along the line Tim had neglected to account for two very glaringly important facts: Dick Grayson could stage a performance like no other, and he was uniquely adept at manipulating the way he was viewed by younger heroes, especially those he considered to be his younger brothers. And Tim, being one of said brothers, made the fatal mistake of forgetting that he was not immune to Dick’s maneuverings.

These realizations came rather synchronously as Tim watched Nightwing and Talia al Ghul exchange blows in a dark warehouse on the outskirts of Blüdhaven.

 Or

i mean they have a lot to bond over!

@happybabysloth yeah but like who's gonna know. who's gonna know he's wearing red. definitely not these guys, he's invited <3

I’m not sure at what point you picked up this little Harlequin gay sports romance and confused it for “Racial Trauma” by Kenneth V. Hardy, the DSM-5, “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love” by bell hooks, or “Born on a Blue Day” by Daniel Tammet, but boy, you have opinions about it.

Two thoughts here:

1. As someone who has worked in advocacy environments for two decades, it has been deeply woven into me by equity denied advocates that we will never be perfect in our advocacy, but that’s okay. Write with love for the character when you write someone whose experience is not your own (ie ALL CHARACTERS). Rachel has been pretty clear about her love for both characters, despite expressing frustration when her writing wasn’t what she envisioned or how she wanted it to come out. That’s life and that’s writing. No writer is perfect, but if we tell them not to include diverse characters and experiences in their writing, how does that exposure begin?

2. In the genre she is writing in, she brings attention, she doesn’t teach. It is not her job in this novel to explore the complexities of an equity denied athlete in hockey, except for the ways it consciously and directly impacts the plot. It is to the reader to bring your knowledge or to expand their knowledge to connect with the text. That is literary analysis. This isn’t non-fiction, it isn’t dramatic fiction, it is romance. The requisites for a Harlequin romance tend to follow specific tropes and be light enough for people to pick up and put down without too much brain power.

My point is, by all means, wish it was more. Take the work, research, and write a dissertation on the real impacts of race on athletes, on neurodivergence in identity, on the impacts of childhood trauma on mental health, on neurodivergent, anxiety, and disordered eating. But don’t turn around and shit all over a writer because she didn’t use her vehicle, that was designed for something else, for not doing it. If you don’t like it, put it down. There is no need to lambaste and tear down someone because you dislike what they created, OR because you feel like you know their creations better than they do.

Farai: but you don't like to be touched