#so traumatized

Pines boys platonic affection <3 I love platonic hugs and platonic handholding, especially with these boys. mrrgh. I love them and their boat. LET THEM SAIL THE ARCTIC TOGETHERRRR we all know they'll get up to all sorts of whackado adventures (foreshadowing? I'm writing a fic.)

the batfamily is smart. so smart. and they deal with the mentally ill population all the time. and most of the time they treat them good! they help them!

i find it absolutely impossible that bruce isn't educated on psychology. there's no way he isn't. no way he hasn't studied psychology, whether it was to understand the joker or any other villains, whether it was to learn how to instill fear, practice for going undercover, hostage negotiation, how to tell the difference between mental health issues and just violent criminals (because he wouldn't know which ones he could talk sense into without understanding why they were doing it), whether it was to learn better methods of interrogation, or even just an interest in how the brain works.

and i guarantee most of the other batkids are too. bruce had to have taught them that so they could learn how to go undercover or how to tell whenever violence is necessary or if you can just talk them down.

dick has a law degree, which means he had to do undergrad. i think it's insane to think that he wouldn't have taken a psychology class. he also was able to understand damian and how to handle him, and he wouldn't be able to do that if he wasn't aware of how his upbringing would've shaped his neural pathways.

tim has a genius level iq. no way he doesn't understand how the brain works. also, he was able to tell that bruce was in a terrible mental state just by observing him as batman, where bruce does everything in his power to hide his emotions. he's also, several times, shown to be one of the only if the not the only batfamily member to understand why jason acts the way he does.

damian likely isn't terribly empathetic to mental health issues. probably a little more now, but not very. but like. he might not be empathetic to it but there's no way he doesn't understand how it works. how the frontal lobe works. how the amygdala works. how to manipulate someone.

stephanie was in college, and just like i said with dick, i find it hard to believe she wouldn't have taken a psychology class.

cass is cass. enough said.

also!! they all have a pretty good relationship with leslia thompkins!! a psychologist!!

all this to say: how on God's green earth do none of them realize they need therapy.

and like i get why. bruce has suppressed his emotions so much that he genuinely think he's fine. dick is too focused on being a support for everyone to worry about himself. jason and stephanie push it all down. cass, and this is not a diss because i love her, would realistically be very emotionally stunted. damian wasn't raised to be empathetic to the mentally ill and even if he was, he's 15. his frontal lobe is so not developed. plus the trauma they've all endured? the training they've had from bruce, who probably wasn't that concerned about teaching them self care and most definitely taught them to put their emotions aside. so like i get it. but also.

they know all this stuff and??? don't for a single second (except for tim that one time) be like "hmmm i could benefit from CBT and EMDR"

except duke.

how is duke the only one who's like "yeah. you guys aren't okay." duke knows. he tries to reason with them and has several times been like "you guys are crazy. why are you chill with this."

Are you insane like me (Bucky's belief of being completely abnormal and how he thinks he can never be the same) Been in pain like me? (Bucky's torture for years) Bought a hundred dollar bottle of champagne like me? (building up his relationship with Steve) Just to pour that motherfucker down the drain like me? (Bucky thinking he fucked up with Steve and made him hate Bucky, that's why he left to go to Peggy) Would you use your water bill to dry the stain like me? (Bucky going to therapy and despite it not helping, him lying to himself he's getting better thanks to it)

Are you high enough without the Mary Jane like me? (Bucky's constant pain) Do you tear yourself apart to entertain like me? (Bucky doing everything everyone else wants just so they forgive and accept him) Do the people whisper 'bout you on the train like me? (Bucky being judged wherever he goes, no matter what he does) Saying that you shouldn't waste your pretty face like me? (HYDRA's conditioning on him about his potential going to waste)

Are you deranged like me? (Bucky's deep depression and psychosis [hc] ruining his everyday life) Are you strange like me? (Bucky being out of time in the 21st century) Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me? (Bucky's tendency to self-sabotage) Do you call yourself a fucking hurricane like me? (Bucky believing he ruins everything be touches and hurts everyone around him) Pointing fingers 'cause you'll never take the blame like me? (Bucky blaming HYDRA for everything because he's scared that he himself really is the problem)

And all the people say (his friends, government, HYDRA in his head, his love) You can't wake up, this is not a dream (Bucky just wanting to be himself, before everything had happened) You're part of a machine, you are not a human being (HYDRA's conditioning making him believe he's nothing more than a weapon and will never be human) With your face all made up, living on a screen (Bucky's constant masking to fit in) Low on self-esteem, so you run on gasoline (Bucky living only to serve other people's needs and believing he's worth nothing without them due to his guilt of the Winter Soldier)

I think there's a flaw in my code (Bucky thinking, literally, his programming from HYDRA had made him impossible to love) These voices won't leave me alone (his past mistakes haunting him every day and night)

Scout tries to get every guy. But ya know, he may not. :3

Onyx belongs to @lenainris

Scout belongs to me

this is Maggot, Magg for short!! they're a new OC/d&d character.

they're a Circle of the Blighted druid Changeling.

they don't have a concrete backstory rn, but i do know that they have a twin somewhere out there and are affected by the Far Realms.