Jus' tryn'a survive

Some warnings for this blog: Violence, death, kidnapping, and maybe suicidal ideation, though that will likely fall on the passive end of the scale 8/10 times. Both the character and I are Christians, and that will come up, so warning for religion/discussion of religion/religious trauma, because some "christians" can be awful.

Jade's lore, I hope this isn't that confusing, any questions are welcomed and will be answered as best I can.

Early life - anything posted set in this era will be tagged #Little bird growing wings

She spent most of her early life on crime alley, born and raised there, even if her family sometimes didn't have a home. Her mother helped run a Christian home group down the street, and both her parents were very devout in their faith. They taught Jade compassion and how to be handy with a first aid kit, which led quickly to their house sometimes being a shelter for injured local heroes/animals. Jade loved high places and a lot of her safe spaces were on rooftops, so she tended to run into the local heroes here and there, but didn't keep up with them too much. When she was around eleven years old, her parents had already found a semi-steady situation in a rent house, and scraped together the change to buy the house and get out from under the drunkard landlady, and it was the first time she'd lived in a home they owned.

Years alone - Anything set in this era will be tagged #runaway bird

A few months after that she was orphaned by the joker. (Rip Catherine and Joe Johnson). She was sent to the foster care system only to escape when she realized it was pretty much a trafficking front, and spent a while surviving on her own off of odd jobs and thievery in the home her parents bought. She found out that if she left books on the windowsill a certain someone would borrow them sometimes and occasionally leave his own books, and thus started a strange book-trade-friendship thing, though they did eventually start talking rather than just silently leaving books out for each other.

After a while of knowing Jason and noticing strange connections, it's not hard for her to put two and two together to realize "oh man Hood's the dead Wayne kid" annnd there go the rest of their secrets too. She eventually panicked over knowing something so dangerous and tried to hide it, only for her already iffy mental health to topple leading to a breakdown. Jason found her in the middle and she panicked, thinking he'd kill her for what she knew, but this honestly sealed the deal for Jason that she needed a home and a family (lore post here. More to come, i.e the aftermath of that, her actual adoption).

Life with family - This will be the default, but stuff in this era will mostly be tagged #songbird-bat

When faced with a child who needed a home, was heading down a path of thievery, and knew something incredibly dangerous, B folded like a collapsible table (who really expected the serial adopter to say no to a new kid though). Jade Lisett Johnson was welcomed into the Wayne home the next day and was offered the choice of whether she wanted to be a crime fighter. Three guesses what she chose, guys. She took up the mantle of Nightingale after a few months of training.

A few months later Jade is out patrolling in the dead of night, and she comes across a dead woman. The woman was killed with a knife, there's a little boy that was staying by her side. She asks the boy who killed his mom and he just asks if she'll wake up. Jade is heartbroken by this, it reminds her too much of trying to go back and find her parents' bodies. She catches a streak of red paint and a smiley face written on the wall, and she knows exactly who it is. She runs home to tell the others, only for them to give her the news she already knows of the Joker's escape.

Jade is infuriated and heartbroken and tries to check up on the little boy only to find that he was marked missing. That was the last straw, and she leaves to hunt joker down (here). The bats find out later and try to stop her only for her to drop all communication and vanish. A hunt is started.

Lenna Sandlin (@lennasandlinnerdygothamrp, shout out to Nerdy, a really cool person), a friend of Jade's who's unaware of her work as Nightingale, called her trying to check up on her friend. The line miraculously connected just long enough for Jade to get the message through that she was stuck in the basement of Arkham, and injured. The line cuts, and Lenna calls the emergency number Jade gave her, Tim's number. Tim thinks it must be a ransom call or something and picks up, gets the info from Lenna, thanks her, and hangs up (here)

Jason returns from a short "business" trip to star city (here) and find out about Jade's disappearance (here). He reacts as might be expected and goes with Tim for the rescue.

Jade is found and rescued after nearly three days in Arkham (here). The event left her with physical scars and mental scars: She has two gash scars on her gut and a stab scar below her left eye. She will react badly if someone is holding a large glass shard or if someone grabs her wrists or face. She recovered entirely. That arc will be tagged #event: arkham on this blog and the civies one, and will be tagged #birdhunt on blogs related to this one.

Random details that aren't very important but that I like: Tim, upon learning how she found them all out (being a stalker), immediately nicknamed her "Copycat". She shares Jason's passion for books and classic literature, and her house on Crime Alley became an open shelter. She's fluent in Spanish as well as English and knows most conlangs in her fandoms pretty well. Oh, and Poison Ivy unofficially adopted her as an aunt and is one of the many reasons Jade is still alive. Jade calls her Aunt Pam.

Lore posts: tag is #🪞 a piece of my story

Jade has a breakdown and Jason finds her: here.

Jade is rescued from joker's clutches by Jason (THREAD, VIGILANTE ACCOUNT): here (This is part of the Arkham event, all of which will be tagged with #Event: Arkham on this blog and #birdhunt on other blogs related to this one).

This will be an attempt at a coherent and straight storyline, but there may be details that don't line up. Don't think too hard about it. An unfortunate amount of lore is scattered on other blogs playing Tim and Jason (Tim: @caffine-is-better-than-sleep and @tired-baby-bird Jason: @broken-winged-jaybird and @dead-red-bird). Anything pertaining to Jade will be tagged #Little J and the events will have the same tags. I'll be writing most everyone in the family as loving, if a bit emotionally constipated sometimes, so that means that both Jason and B are loving here. Don't send me hate for it, please and thank you, I can't believe I have to say this.

Vigilante account is @gothamitenightingale.