RUN

Dick: I hate how everyone thinks or just assumes that my favourite superhero is Superman. Like how did that even get out? Why is it like something everyone know about me? It isn't even true!

Tim: As a professional stalker, it's probably because Clark and Bruce think it's Superman.

Dick, serious: Trust me, Clark knows it isn't Superman.

Jason: Then why does he keep giving you his merch?

Dick: It's different, okay? He always gives me the first piece of his new merch. It was originally because I was possibly the only child he knew, but now, it's just our thing.

Tim and Jason: *raise an eyebrow*

Jason: But you know what that looks like to others, right? Superman giving you his merch?

Dick, opens mouth, closes it, opens it again: I never considered that. But still, you'd think people would ask, right? I mean, between the three of us, we have the same favourite.

Jason, immediately: My favourite is Wonder Women.

Tim, not having it: Your favourite member of the Justice League is Wonder Women, not your favourite superhero.

Jason: *huffs but doesn't disagree*

Dick: And you know what? Even when I was younger, Supes was never my favourite—

Bruce: *walks within hearing range but not visual range*

Dick cont.: I liked that he smiled and laughed, you know?

Jason and Tim, with their backs to Bruce: *look absolutely baffled*

Bruce: *freezes*

Dick cont.: Superman could just... save a kitten... or you know... stop a crash and then go fight Lex Luther and then crack a joke with a kid. He could do anything and that appealed to me. I liked that.

Bruce, heartbroken at the implication that Dick liked Superman more because Clark smiled and laughed whilst in costume while he was bound by the constraints of the persona he created for himself: *walks away, out of hearing range*

Dick: But really, my favourite superhero was never costumed. It was Bruce... Well, it is Bruce, not was.

Tim, grinning like a gremlin: Was huh?

Dick: NOPE! Not was, is and forever has been and will be. Just like Batman is my favourite costumed hero.

Jason: I still say Wonder Women is bet—

Dick and Tim: *give him the look*

Jason: Alright, fine. But Bruce is my dad, okay? I'm biased. Of course, he's my favourite. He saved me! If I wasn't biased, it would be...

Tim and Dick: *Stare harder*

Diana rests a hand on Clark's shoulder, shaking her head. "I am sorry, friend." His shoulders sag, and Dick feels worry flutter in his stomach as he steps properly into the room.

"Supes? You alright?"

The blue fingers of his glove itch to reach out, but he needs a better read on the situation first.

"Bruce is avoiding me."

Okay.... "And you're not mad? Usually you two get into a second fight about it."

Diana nods. "Indeed. The issue is, Nightwing, they never had a first fight."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

"Which is why..."

"Yup."

"You're worried."

"You know it's bad when he gets like this." Clark rubs his face. "Have you guys noticed anything?"

Dick thinks back. "No, I was at the manor with Tim and Jason yesterday, but we didn't see Bruce."

A week later, Dick climbs through Clark's window, smiling apologetically when Lois startles. "Hey guys, sorry to bust in."

"'Marry a superhero,' they said," she mutters, giving him a kind smile as she takes her plate and moves from the dining table to the kitchen island.

Clark's gaze rakes over him, and Dick slips into Lois' vacated seat.

"Dick?"

"It's Bruce." Clark's fork freezes on the way to spearing a piece of pasta, and it's Superman whose eyes snap to his. "I've noticed something."

"Everything alright?" Lois calls when Clark sags in his seat, like he did last week on the Watchtower.

"'S not hero business, Lo, c'mon back."

The three of them catch up through dinner, after Dick is served up the serving Clark was going to have for lunch tomorrow. (Lois had offered hers, but the garbled noise of affront from her husband set the two of them into a fit of giggles as Clark made perfectly clear he was not going to let that happen.)

It's afterwards, as Dick curls up in their armchair and the couple settles into the accompanying couch, that they return to the broody elephant in the room.

"He won't look at me. Not when I'm looking back. But he's just been staring at me, all sad-like, whenever I'm not looking at him. And it's even worse on patrol! The first thing I noticed was he smiled at me, in the cowl, which wasn't that unusual, but there wasn't anything smile-y around. Then I was joking with Tim, and he laughed, which he never does in the field, you know what he's like."

"Mm," Clark hums.

"So, you know, I checked him for contamination, and that's when the staring started. He looked so down in the dumps during the checks, and it hasn't stopped since."

Clark nods, tracing the lines of Ma Kent's throw as he thinks. "He's like that with me, too. That's how Diana and I caught on, anyhow. Every smile, or time I was the one to guide a child away, he'd get all down until the mission distracted him again."

"But Bruce loves kids."

Lois takes a sip from her water, humming in the back of her throat. "And you know he's always gearing up that deadpan humour of his, to try and make the Superman crack a smile at the wrong moment."

"Ass," Clark mutters, without venom.

"So, it's both of us."

"What did you do?" Lois asks sternly.

"Nothing."

"Really?"

"Not a thing, babe."

"Really? Nothing at all in the last week? You didn't talk bad, you didn't do anything?"

"No!"

"No."

I watched this documentary once about drinking culture in the UK and in it there was a doctor who was emphasizing how alcohol is a known carcinogen and drinking too often has these health risks.

She also admitted that she drinks alcohol more than the recommended amount.

Like somebody trying to inform you about what you’re doing isn’t always a demand that you change your ways. You can choose to do something that’s bad for you. You can choose to do something that’s mean or inefficient or boring or rude or whatever other negative descriptor. You’re just going to experience the consequences of doing that. And sometimes people will try to inform you of the possible consequences. That’s not automatically an attack on you.

Dick expected laughter. You know, the pre-recorded, fake kind of sitcom laughter that was played after a joke. But no one was laughing. Superman wasn't smiling.

"Cassandra?" Dick repeated, unsure. "Superman, I know she is an alpha, but people will notice that she is not... she is not mo... Bruce."

The correction had been instinctive, as it had been a thousand times before.

It had slipped off his tongue, without anger, without sarcasm, without anything but pain.

For the second time in his life, Dick had been left without a parent, and the pain was so great that he felt a hollowness in his chest.

There were no words to describe what he felt. The correction hadn't gone unnoticed by Superman.

The alien alpha's expression hardened, "She's Bruce's daughter. She has the right. When Damian is old enough, and if he wants, he'll be her successor. But Gotham needs Batman now, and Cassandra will be."

Dick pursed his lips, "I'm his first son. I should be the new Batman."

Please, I've lost everything, at least let me have this, were the words he couldn't say, because never, not once, had he truly thought he'd see a day when Bruce would no longer be there.

He'd been naive, he knew it.

Their lives weren't suited to those who wanted to grow old. Many died.

But many also came back (and hadn't Tim been so stubborn about it? Hadn't he said Bruce could go back but Dick hadn't listened? He couldn't allow himself to listen to Tim and be crushed by reality, again.)

Superman growled, "No, you're not."

He felt his blood boil in his veins, "I am! I'm his first Robin, the one who started it all! In the eyes of the law, I became his son years later, but I..."

"You never wanted to be his son."

Superman's words silenced him, stunned. The Kryptonian's eyes were red. "You made that clear. You screamed it in his face. You spat at him that he was a poor excuse for an omega, that he was not and never would be your mother. You were right. He wasn't. For this reason, the cowl will not go to you."

Dick's heart tightened, began to stammer, skipping beats as if on a string. "I was frustrated. He's... he wasn't an easy man to love..."

"For you, you mean. Because he wasn't normal enough. His problems were an inconvenience to you. You didn't care how they affected him, only how inconvenient it was for you to live with someone who wasn't normal!"

Superman paused to catch his breath, closing his eyes, as if fighting back tears. Dick tried to speak, but the Kryptonian wouldn't let him. "He always tried to do the best he could. He tried. But it was never enough, was it? Your help...you denied him his autonomy, always so righteous, Nightwing. A good alpha. An alpha who had to remind the omega of his place..."

"That's not the case, you know it's not..."

"I know you hurt him. I know that to you, he was a worthless omega. You can't even say he was your mother, Nightwing. Because you always refused to consider yourself his son. So no, the cowl will not go to you. You will not stain his legacy."

"So, you're telling me we are dating?"

"Mn."

"We?"

"Yes"

"Together?"

"... Usually how it goes, yes."

"Oh, don't be a smartass..." Hal contemplates for a second, not lifting his eyes from the Bat as he moves around machinery. "Why would I even date you?"

Bruce slowly turns around. The cowl covers his lifted eyebrows, but knows Hal can feel them rising to the sky. "What do you mean?"

"Just that, why-"

"No. I'm asking. Why would anybody not want to date me?" He half expected Hal to catch on the joke. He deflates at Hal's incredulous stare. A sigh "It was a-"

"HAH!" Hal barks. "How are you so full of yourself, Spooks?" And Hal is laughing. Bruce lets the air out of his lungs and turns to keep watching whatever it is on screen. "Who do you think you are? Bruce Wayne?" Hal is so busy laughing he doesn't notice the flinch, or the new input on the information about his memory loss.

"Why?" Curiosity wins. But he's still enough self aware not to turn around for the next question "Do you... Like Wayne?" He knows the recordings are going to hunt him every family meeting from now on.

Hal takes a second too long to answer. Bruce fears the answer.

"Who doesn't, dude?"

The way his body relaxed to the answer surely needs to be studied. He'll note that down for another occasion.

"I don't like him" He blinks in surprise to his own voice.

"Of course you don't" This time, he does turn around.

"What does that mean?"

"Exactly that. Of course big bad bat wouldn't like our Brucie." He bites down the smile forming "What's there not to like?" And Hal sighs.

He shakes the silly thoughts. "He's too fake"

"Too fake?!"

"His persona. He's just too-"

"Oh, shut up! He's lovely!" No. Don't let the dissapointment slip. "Sure. He is obviously acting for the cameras," oh? "but you can't tell me the way he smiles and coos at his children is an act!" Oh... "That man is pure love!" Oh. Oh shit. "And when he hugs the people he does charities for?! COME ON!!" Oh shit, oh shit indeed. "He's just-" a long sigh. "Just."

"Just"

Hal shrugs "Just."

Bruce takes a deep breath and sits on the cot's border. "Hal" he takes the man's hand, never missing how the man freezes on contact. Or maybe was his name. "Please don't panic"

He oh so slowly and carefully unclips the cowl from the back of his neck with one hand, never releasing Hal's from the other hand's grasp, and goes to pull his cowl forward. The movement has him looking down, so he lifts his head as he brushes his fingers through his messy sweaty hair.

Hal's eyes are comically wide. "Holy fuck"

"Love, breathe"

"Holy fucking shit"

"So-"

"How the fuck did I score Bruce Wayne?"

"... Wait. Now you believe me?"

"Shut up! Wait no, don't dump me. Sorry. Holy shit. Oh my fucking god. How the FUCK did I-? OH MY GOD AM I DEAD?!"

"Hal."

"This is insane"

"Hal. Love."

"Dude, you can't just- fwoosh! Hi! I'm Bruce Wayne at me!"

Bruce sighs, endearment slipping through his smile. "You're so stupid. Now I understand why you reacted that way the first time"

"The first- We're really dating"

Bruce nods.

"Oh my god. I need to call Ollie" Hal covers his mouth "I'm dating Batman AND Bruce Wayne"

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

:> thanks loving all the undies lolol (also why i didnt bother asking #10) im a silent enjoyer but damn how i enjoy! loving the sterek in 2026 <3

Hi there - thank you for the ask ♡ And you are not a silent enjoyer at all, I see you in my notifications all the time (:< !

Weirdly specific artist ask game:

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing:

Drawing things in a simple style and/or taking care to only insinuate detail when doing backgrounds instead of just drawing all the details - it takes a lot of concentration for me to limit myself to just barely enough lines to get the point across, and not over-do it.

The results usually end up pretty good and I'm happy with them, but I'm always holding myself back from just going ham on it lol.

Here's a good example with a WIP I'm currently working on where I over-did it and I now have to go back over the lines to keep it more in line with how it started:

Maybe I could save it by coloring the lines, but I think it's better to just keep the outline of the tree and the bush behind it and delete most of the 'inner' lines lol.

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated:

Short version: Honestly, none of them! I am genuinely blown away by the response to everything I post. I get so excited when someone else lets me know what they thought of something I made, or engages with the idea - which happens a lot currently and I feel incredibly lucky!

Longer version: I've been sharing my art online for almost two decades, and I think at some point you start to pick up just how much of how many eyes land on your stuff/how many engage with it, is out of your hands. Did someone with a large reach happen to share it? Does it happen to hit some kind of zeitgeist currently going on? Does someone else add something to the post that hits a chord with a lot of people? Did you incidentally include something that a lot of people who don't follow you get invested in? A lot of factors have nothing to do with the choices I made as an artist, much less how much time or energy I put into it.

To speak of the idea of something being 'underrated', I think it's hard to apply to posting art online like this. My personal feeling of whether something's 'well received' is if someone else engages with the idea or lets me know what they think - people reblogging things and adding their thoughts in the tags, replying to the post, or sending me an ask always bring me so much joy!!

While the yarn was made of what seems to be high-quality material, the overall quality of the scarf isn’t so good. It was clearly homemade.

“… this is scented…” Bruce rumbled, looking up at Hal, who was very pointedly looking away from him. "You scented this."

“Oh?” Hal scratched the back of his neck, leaning back on his heels and rocking, a sign of anxiety and nervousness. “Uh, yeah… I guess I did scent it…”

Bruce looked down again and rubbed his hand over the soft scarf. “Is this your way of courting me?” Despite his voice not wavering, Bruce asked the question with a certain sense of hesitance.

Hal sputtered, his face scrunching up like he was going to deny it, before his entire body drooped like the fight got drained out of him, and he looked down at his hands. “Yeah…”

Bruce gently rubbed the soft yarn between his fingers, even holding it away from his face; he could smell Hal's scent drenching the scarf. "It's pretty fragile." He noted, looking over at a few loose pieces of yarn that would unravel the entire thing if he tugged on it.

"Uh, yeah..."

Bruce pressed his lips together, glancing up at Hal before looking back down at the scarf. "It's so fragile that I couldn't possibly wear it out in public. It could get snagged on something and fall to pieces."

Hal's entire body seemed to collapse on itself as Bruce talked, his pheromones gaining a sour, despondent scent. "L-look, we can forget this entire thing; I can take it back-" Hal reached his hands out, intent on snatching it away and hiding out in space until the Earth exploded or something.

Bruce dodged Hal's hands and hugged the scarf to his chest. "No, this is mine. I simply meant... it's so fragile that it should be kept inside my nest for safekeeping..." A soft flush took over Bruce's cheeks as he looked away from the other man.

Hal blinked, and then his own blush came over his face. "O-oh! So... so is that-?"

Bruce rolled his eyes and grabbed Hal by the collar, dragging him forward and planting a soft kiss on his lips right then and there. After a minute or two, Bruce pulled away and grinned for a moment at the stupid, dazed expression on Hal's face.

"You're drooling, fly boy."

Hal blinked, trying to come up with a snappy response like he always did, but he felt as though his brain was completely fried after kissing Bruce. "Uh... yeah... so is this a yes?"

The corner of Bruce's mouth twitched up. "Yes, it is." He stated firmly. "I suppose it would be unreasonable of me if I didn't give you a chance..."

A wide smile broke out across Hal’s face, and despite thinking it might not go well, he surged forward and hugged the omega in front of him tightly.

It was a testament to how much Bruce liked him when all he did was sag into his hold instead of pushing him away. "You're not gonna regret this, Spooky, I swear."

"Don't call me Spooky when you just asked to court me."

"... My Omega...?"

"That would also make you My Omega."

– https://searchmysite.net/ Search engine for the indie web, personal websites, digital gardens. You can also find them in websites like Neocities, Indieweb, Blogarama, and write.as. There is also a big list of personal websites.

– https://search.marginalia.nu/ Search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and promotes websites that aren’t usually at the top of the list.

– https://www.worldcat.org/ Search engine for items in libraries (books, but also maps, articles, sound recordings, theses, etc.)

– https://scholar.google.com/ Search engine for scientific papers, reviews, etc. It’s still google, but a lot better than the normal search engine counterpart.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines A list of search engines sorted by subject, area, and more. If you’re searching on a specific area, it might be worth checking if there is one focused on that area.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines A list of academic databases and search engines.

and let us not forget Sci-Hub itself!

"You? A mother? Don't be ridiculous. "

"God was drunk while he was making you."

"I needed comfort! Not you! You cannot even do that! You are a worthless omega!"

Since his presentation, Bruce knew he wasn't the classical omega. Alfred would have preferred him to be an alpha - a true heir, a true Wayne- but he wasn't.

And Bruce tried. He didn't believe in some sexist shit, because he had a mission.

But he got Dick. He got Jason. His mother's instincts kick in. And he tried for them. He really tried.

But it was never enough. The boys were so concentred on their ideas of how a omega parent should be, that they couldn't appreciate what he was doing for them.

Sometimes, they hated it because for them, it was Bruce who didn't want to be their mother, who didn't try.

They didn't want to see.

The frustration grow, then came Damian - an experiment, born without Bruce's knowledge, but oh, so loved- and it get worse, because still Bruce didn't live up to anyone's expectations. And it hurt, knowing he wasn't good enough.

It hurt to never be loved because you weren't good enough.

What a worthless omega Bruce Wayne was.

(Those were Dick last words to his mom Bruce before he was lost in the timestream, and for the first time in years Dick was truly without a parent in his life. For the first time, he saw Bruce when he was no longer with him, not the omega parent that he thought he wanted, and all he could do was ask a ghost for forgiveness, knowing he would never get it. It was better not to get it, after what he and the others had done to their mother.)

He's straddling Clark as he cups Clark's chin and tilts his head up to kiss him. His fingers trace a slow path down his neck and drag slowly under the collar of his Forest Service uniform and the plain t-shirt he wears beneath it until his fingers are dragging against his chest hair. Bruce's hands, usually so perfectly still, have a tremble as he hooks under the first button of Clark's shirt.

Clark sits up to help him pull them off and fling them off the side of the bed on to the floor of the cabin.

leave no trace @etexcrucior

but YOU. you see children deliberately choosing to consume adult contents and say "oh no we need more children's space, and in doing so, we must ban and censor adult contents FROM ADULTS' SPACE that children deliberately choose to be in.”

Oh hey pals, new AO3 scam just hit!

Just like the tumblr scam where they pretend to be "the support team" this is also a scam.

I edited out the link because I GUARANTEE if you go to it you will get your computer hacked and your AO3 or discord account stolen.

I am so mad because I got this 30 seconds after posting a new fic.

DO NOT FALL FOR THESE SCAMS.

No legitimate website support will EVER contact you like this!