conversations overheard through the batkid com lines pt 2
*Damian and Jason, four hours into a stakeout*
Damian: Jay, hand me the mango pieces.
Jason: *plastic crinkling* ayyy, Iām Jason again!
Jason: what was with that, by the way? I just showed up in Gotham and found you referring to everyone like theyāre your professor. Like, thatās not a āyouā thing, I donāt know why you started doing that.
Damian: do you want the genuine honest answer?
Jason: please god do tell
Damian: so- and you arenāt allowed to laugh. but when I first came to Gotham and I showed up at the manor, father obviously had to give me a tour of the place, right?
Damian: and they wanted to do a DNA test to check that my mother wasnāt pulling a fast one by claiming my birthright, so the first place he showed me was the cave, which was also where Tim was.
Damian: and you know that place- the first time you went to the cave, it was wild, right?
Jason: oh, like walking into the tardis for the first time. insane.
Damian: exactly. all high-tech and shit, and Iād just come from the desert compound Iād spent my entire life in- like, my first time going into the kitchen at the manor I saw Alfred loading the dishwasher and my first thought was āoh my god what the fuck kind of machine is that-ā
Damian: -so the fucking cave for the first time? as a little desert-boy ten year old? I was a little distracted,
Jason, chuckling slightly: ok, fair,
Damian: and so Iām zoned the fuck out, looking around this cave and not paying attention to anything fatherās saying, and then I finally tune back in just to hear the words ā-ackson drakeā while he like, tries to introduce me to Tim.
Jason: *slowly starts laughing again*
Damian, raising his voice to be heard over Jasonās increasing beats of laughter: -and so Iām fucking standing there, ten years old, no clue what this kidās first name is, and everybodyās looking at me like Iām supposed to be the one fucking talking right now, and ALL I can think of is my mother, who before she shipped me off to Gotham completely alone kept fucking telling me āDamian you have to be strong and show that you deserve to be the Batmanās blood son. show no weakness and take the mantle you were born to have; show no fucking hesitance.ā, so IāM panicking,
Jason, still cackling: *a clap* NO I DO- I DO REMEMBER, LIKE, BACK IN THE LEAGUE-, holy shit back in the league when your only coping mechanism for not knowing the fuck was going on around you, was literally just to pretend you knew what the fuck was going on around you and bullshit till you make it,
Damian: WELL IT WAS LIKE THE ONLY FUCKING THING MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME-
Jason, through tears: -thatās why I didnāt say shit when I came back to Gotham and found you fucking, doing all this blood son bullshit! You started calling me Todd and speaking in old english and I was just like ābless him heās terrified, just leave him beā
Damian: *cackles* and I did- I did appreciate you going along with it, because back when this happened I panicked and just started calling Tim āDrakeā because I was too embarrassed to ask him for his first name, and then by the time I heard somebody else call him Tim in passing, everybody had just assumed this was a thing I did. and I was too socially awkward to clear it up and switch back, so I just had to stick to Drake.
Jason: *wheeze* a-and Grayson?
Damian: well at first I just went along with the surname thing out of awkwardness, but then Iād gone too deep and I had no way out- AND THEN- and then Batman fucking died-
Damian: -and I went from being parented by the gymnastics version of the dark lord to being gentle-parented by fucking Nightwing-
Jason, choking: holy- holy shit-
Damian: do you know what itās like to go from *gruff voice* āDamian we donāt fucking kill, give me the katana or Iāll put you in Arkhamā to *high pitched, sweet voice* āoh hey Dames, obviously I canāt stop you from killing but I really would appreciate it if we discussed all our options and came to a mature decision together on whatās best in this scenario-ā
Jason: *crying, silent wheezes*
Damian: so DURING all this Iām trying to subtly switch back to using peoples actual names, except it fucking backfired because people just assumed I was calling Richard Richard because we had that special parental mentor bond, and Tim had pissed off to- whatever he was doing in the desert for six months- getting a hysterectomy or whatever the fuck happened-
Jason, amused: hysterectomy- he lost a spleen, Dames
Damian: well whatever happened he wasnāt AROUND for me to shift to calling him Tim! and when father was back Iād made no progress and was back to square one, except this time I was stuck calling one brother Richard and the other Drake!
Jason, still laughing: and this is where I came in?
Damian: I felt BAD! Iād already taken Robin from the guy, I didnāt want him to feel like he was lesser of a brother to me than Richard. So I demoted you to Todd so he wouldnāt feel alone.
Jason: we should probably get you a therapist, dude. I think everybody forgets that when you showed up you were literally just a very confused immigrant child with no experience of normal social interaction apart from me at the league.
Damian: oh I was like, 60% into an anxiety attack consistently for the first two years I was in the city.
Damian: the first time I was left alone with Tim we were in the kitchen and he said ādo you want wifi?ā and, yāno, coming from the league, barely any tech and the only normality was the concept of fighting to the death over everything, MY instinctual ten-year-old thought was āoh shit, wifi must be slang for brawl here, weāre about to fightā-
Jason: *laughter* youāre fucking kidding
Damian: -so Iām like, so be it, and I say ācome on thenā and get ready to start punching, only for him to turn around and grab a piece of card stuck to the fridge and hold it out to me,
Damian: and he goes āhereās the password so you can connect, Iām assuming you have a phone or somethingā-which I fucking didnāt by the way, my mother gave me a shitty flip-phone to call her in emergencies but it didnāt use wifi-, and heās holding it out to me and I had to like, subtly shift my posture out of the defensive position Iād been in-,
Jason, delirious from laughter: this is the fucking best. thing.
Damian: -and I take it from him, and he gives me this weird look like he has no idea how to communicate with me, and I was just like āshit I might have to kill this one, itās the only way to get out of this interactionā.
Jason: *wheeze* if we go through the timeline, every murder attempt on Timās life has just been an occasion where youāve felt socially awkward and didnāt see any other way out of conversation,
Damian: pretty much, yeah. I should have been on xanax for those first few years.
Jason: stories from your first years in Gotham are my favourite thing in the world.
Tim: are you telling me Iāve been stuck as Drake for YEARS all because Damianās fucking scared of social interaction?!
Damian: OH MY GOD I FORGOT WE WERE CONNECTED TO THE MAIN LINE-