A continuation of this post. About Dick hallucinating Damian along with Jason after Damians death.
Huge info dump about choices and more thoughts etc.
I LOVE Jason's hallucination design in the Nightwing comics. Like.... look at this dude
He looks sick as hell.
He also is more or less drawn with dot eyes so I wanted to keep up that design. But with Damian I wanted to give him a bit more of a haunting look. He carries a perpetually 'bored' expression (at least in the eyes) because that was what Dick remembered as Dami's 'default' expression.
I am running with the idea as well that the reason they are so heavily shadowed is because over time. Dick has forgotten what they look like, the finer details of their face but not their general outline. So his brain fills in the blanks by.... just not having anything there. Jason's shadowy appearance took a while to get to that point. But Dick knew Damian for less time than he knew Jason, so it took much less time for Damian to become that shadowy shell.
Also!! Jason talks, Damian doesn't. In the comics Jason is kind of just a little shit, but from what I've seen never outwardly antagonistic. He talks to Dick, jokes around and while he isn't hurtful. His presence alone hurts Dick anyway. Dick wishes he wouldn't talk so much, because as he loses more detail to Jason's face. More and more Jason's talking is starting to sound like Dicks own voice.
Damian is completely silent in comparison. No jabs, no quips, no barbs. He moves silently, makes no sound. And it absolutely eats at Dick. Where he can't get Jason to stop talking in his 'Not Jason' voice. He can't get Damian to say a word at all. Maybe because he already forgot what Damian sounds like.
However, where Jason is talkative when Damian is silent. Damian is physically affectionate where Jason is distant. Dick isn't sure how to feel about it. One he craves the connection that he couldn't ever properly get with Damian. Two, as much as he can pretend its real and that Damian is right next to him laying on his shoulder. The lack of pressure is more telling than anything and makes Dick hate the contact all the more.
Last bits:
Damian is smaller (not by a whole lot but still smaller) compared to how he was alive. That is because when Dick thinks of Damian he thinks of a child too small to be fighting. A child that was never really a child and that can now never grow up. He was too small. That's all Dick can think about sometimes.
The hallucinations don't interact! Jason does not acknowledge Damian is there. Maybe because subconsciously Dick has no idea how this version of Jason would react to Damian. So his mind can't seem to figure out how to make it work. Despite that though, Damian sometimes is seemingly staring at Jason. With what kind of expression Dick is never sure.
