#neglect reader

— masterlist !

imagining a&a reader walking up to a room one day because they hear voices coming from there, taking a peak and seeing bruce help cass pack up for her ballet recitals, bonding together, alone, while he'd awkwardly sweep away any stray hairs from cass' forehead. watching how afterwards, she laughs as she does a gentle spin to showcase her pretty outfit for practice, watching how bruce never once keeps his sight away from his daughter, eyes gleaming with pride, never once hesitating to clap for her. then you hear his silent praises, witness him helping her tidy the straps of her ribbon, tell her she's doing great, better even, as he cups her face and kisses her forehead.

it's a beautiful sight that could've warmed anyone else's heart.

a moment between a father and daughter.

a moment you never had.

you would've thought that after all these years, you'd already have moved on and accepted how you'll never be quite close to bruce anymore. or at all. and yet that loud pang in your heart, the one you thought you'd bury alongside your hopes for a better life, it resurfaces once more.

it was always bruce and his kids.

never bruce and you.

the tiny gestures, their little inside jokes, and the comfort they feel being in their own space, unaware of their surroundings — of the ghost watching from beyond the door — as they talk about mundane things were the things you wished for all your life. things any other child who entered bruce's life could easily have.

it was little moments like these: bruce being present for their practices, cheering for damian on the side of the bleachers, even visiting bludhaven when dick sounded too down in their calls— it had you remembering all the times you've knocked on bruce's door when you were five, begging your sick father to just come pick you up at school, come to your school plays—

to just eat dinner with you for once.

knowing others could have his love so easily just makes you sick. and jealous. and bitter all over again.

knowing how they didn't even have to ask hurts even more.

knowing that bruce just somehow knew. about them. them and their lives. their hobbies. their relationships. their hardships. all without them having to go through all the conscious effort to remind him that they exist.

all the things you desperately tried to achieve.

all the things that never came true.

knowing you could never conjure a single memory where bruce would lay his warm, comforting hands on your shoulders, like a blanket of assurance and safety, a symbol of fatherly love, like he did with all the others—

the thought just... stings.

more than it should after all these years.

you'd have to physically pull yourself away from the slightly ajar door and hold in the bile slowly rising from your throat, reminding yourself that you're way past these theatrics, past the stage of yearning and what-if's.

yet it just reminded you of how different you were.

from them.

because while it's always you who always has to run, to catch up, to lose every breath in your body, just to see bruce's back already leaving your line of sight.

... you'll know he's only facing away from you—

because his eyes are already set on them.

What if the reader wants to be someone their dead parents can be proud of and decided to study ? And I mean study in the way : they will spend all their time studying, top of the class, they skip so many grades that at 16-17 years old they go to university.

Because for them, their parents would be proud of them if they become someone in life.

That can also apply to a neglect reader that want to impress/being part of their new family.

You know that lyric in Harvey : "Success for my buddies, success for my friends. Success is the only thing I understand." That's the neglect!reader i'm talking about.

Someone who think their only way to make their dead family and new family that neglect them proud of them, is by being smart, being the best of everything.

And imagine the reaction of their adoptive family when they learn that the reader will go to university, even if they are still a minor.

For exemple, imagine in the batfam, when the reader ask a signature for the university, and they are just so confused because since when did they have finish high school ? What do you mean they're Tim's age and going to university while he's still in high school-

Or imagine with a reader that is younger than Tim, like Damian's age. And everyone is just questionning their lives choices, because since when a 14 years old can apply and be admitted to a university ?

That would even be better if their dead family was actually a caring family.

Two others lyrics because I can and why :

^ The Reader because they never truly did their grief. They took refuge in their studies to avoid thinking too much about the death of their parents and the fact of being neglected.

About the neglected reader, have you ever thought about what it would be like if she was like Angel Dust in personality, and similar in appearance?But of course, she would have a chubby and healthy belly just because.

The reader could be gender neutral, I like to read feline readers, but also Angel Dust and men and any problem the neutral gender solves ✨

My idea of a serious story is that the protagonist would mostly be in constant action, like Angel Dust himself, so often that he doesn't even know how to be his own self.And that the reading or reader would somehow end up working as an informant for some specific villain, but also works in the area of prostitution, being a dancer and porn actress,We're not going to lie that finding out about his job would be a mix of funny and extremely weird.

"Ah, but they're living with their rich family, isn't money easy?" Not exactly, he could receive it normally at first, but because of the times he almost died, Sometimes they simply ignored the hospital's phone numbers, or forgot to pay some medical bill related to him, he simply gave up trying to remember or ask for his allowance,he decided that he wanted greater independence, so that he could at least have something to buy that was better than his brothers, which in his words would be:"At least I don't depend on daddy's money to pay for my things, you bunch of egg-suckers!".

Instead of only realizing after he left, like almost immediately, why not a few years later? Or better yet, they realized briefly before he even left., but simply ignored or did not take it seriously? Like a mixture of thoughts like, "finally he will become independent", "at last he left", "he will probably go to a friend's house" or even "Well, at least we can walk around the house more freely."

And how would they be perceived? I don't know, there are many possible scenarios.Their target may end up being accompanied by them for a night of pleasure and deceit,Tim might end up finding something related to them on the internet and then he got curious about some comment about it and went to research it more deeply... only to be traumatized and yell about it and immediately go and gossip to batman,Or even worse, what if someone teased Bruce in public about it, whispering to him how surprised they are that no one knew about his son/daughter's affair over interesting career choice, and who certainly learned to seduce like or better than his own father.

How I imagine her reaction in each scenario: 1st):

Reader:

2°)Tim:

reader:

3°) Bruce:

Someone who told:

Reader:

So I found someone on Tumblr posted a headcanons about Jason being the mother of the homeless or abandoned kids in gothom and them calling him mother.

And there is also @cheust ex juvenile reader where they are a street fight due to wanting someone to physically touch them after years of neglect and to let out some steam and is famous in the underworld.( Not even the full story! go check out their whole lore it's amazing)

What if I combinee those two together?

Like a neglect reader from the batfamily that roams around Gotham who is a kickass street fighter, known all over the underworld, but also takes care of the lower class children of gotham.

Maybe the reason why the reader wanted to help those kids is that they know what they're going through and want to prevent them from going down their path.

And maybe after a while, the reader steals Bruce's one of many credit cards and just buys an apartment building, and just begins a building for kids in need and the underworld calls it the sanctuary for the children. Like if you're a kid in Gotham and need a place to feel safe?

Go to the sanctuary.

— masterlist !

has anyone ever wondered about what would happen in a world where your mother in again &. again is alive...? 'cause tbh, you'd still end up with a miserable fate either way. one way or another, you're bound to meet any one of them. it's just a matter of time and place and i like to think about that a lot. either way, neglect or not, there's always guilt that would also be embedded into bruce's heart at the realization that he never did truly care for this child— his child, you. and it's only once he's too late that he realizes his mistakes, especially if that child in question became an even darker version of him.

i'd like to imagine you'll follow your mother's footsteps, too. become a criminal, check. live your life under the shadows, check. but you're far more brutal than her, you kill for the sake of pleasure, maybe, but every little finger jabbed into someone's neck meant ridding the world of the people who killed her. you lack that softness, that gentle touch when she's died right in front of you. you weren't taken in by the officers to be given off to the manor, no, unlike in the main universe, the people who took her out were efficient in hiding their tracks.

so you're just left there, kneeling by her lifeless body— cursing the world, cursing the batman, whom you'd sought, hoped, would be there to save the only person in the world who'd loved you the most. the only person who loved you.

you follow your mother's footsteps, yes, but you grew up nothing like her.

you weren't trained like her, forced to learn by yourself, which led you to actually almost die by the hands of an even stronger force, which by coincidence, is the same day you finally meet your father, the batman. and he wouldn't have known you were his child at all, which makes you despise the man even further. even if your punches towards him were personal, even if the venom laced in your words after every hit doesn't make sense to the bat.

he'd simply leave you off for commissioner gordon to arrest, the hatred burning past your domino mask would only register to him as another criminal's way to try and get him caught off guard— but once he runs a profile check to you, curious about your criminal identity, does he notice your physical similarities to...

well...

his deceased parents.

and then he realizes he'd thrown you off to arkham asylum of all places.