#vanessa augustine

Another thing that says a lot about the Bats’ actual relationship with Jason that makes me iffy but correct me if I’m wrong. Please tell me that they’re actually affectionate towards him when they are in better terms

So how effective would that be in the face of him having a friend that is actually openly affectionate to him, or would it still work just for the fact that it’s familial affection he craves

Context:

Vanessa Augustine is my oc created to be Jason’s friend. She’s his ride or die, any allyship with the Bats - outside of Stephanie - is through him

She is not loyal to the Bats

She is definitely not bending over backwards for Batman’s approval

Ngl, them weaponizing affection like this would be something that would tank Vanessa’s opinion of them - I can’t see a point where she will start liking these people independently

Bruce actively excluding Jason from the family despite being in agreeable terms, the others don’t seem to have much issue with it [aka the opening of the newly reconstructed manor and what seems to be fuzzy wuzzy family feels, and Jason no where in sight]

And I immediately thought up a bittersweet little blurb of Jason thinking about the day, watching them from a distance and wondering if he actually had a place in the family

Cue flashback scene ending abruptly to the sound of Vanessa’s raucous laugh, looking up at her talking to her sister on the phone while they both make dinner or something, throwing him a sweet smile

Looks at her and feels the ache of the uncertainty and rejection ease in her presence

Maybe his place in the Bat’s family isn’t as certain as he hoped it would be but for once he’s actually alright with it, ‘cause he has family right here.

I’m mostly thinking about how we used to run around outside the house and at our neighbor’s yard playing and goofing around.

So I’m just thinking of the time Jason finally got to see Vanessa again after being picked up by Bruce. Finally getting homesick once the distraction of Robin training starts to tamper down

Six months is definitely a lot longer than I originally went for and would definitely result in a whole different reaction to the one I created when Bruce finally takes Jason to see Vanessa

Six months of not knowing what happened to him would have Vanessa blubbering with relief at the sight of him lol [And would result in a much meaner disposition from mama when she invites Bruce in for coffee and a chat]

But schematics!

Just picturing two preteens goofing around in this giant backyard and getting into shit when Jason gets to invite Vanessa to the manor for the first time [once wariness in the face of overwhelming wealth wears off]

Bruce watching with a bit concern when he sees Jason show off and teaching his friend how to do a cartwheel

She gets it at the third attempt, foreshadowing for vigilante potential here shhh jk

Just at the height of childhood innocence [or at least the amount they were afforded by their circumstances], when things were looking up for Jason

Jason’s life essentially being described on a comic panel as “too short before it could create ripples” while ignoring the people he had in his life who cared about him

Thinking about my oc, Vanessa, and wondering if Bruce would even invite her to the funeral at all.

I have a whole scene of her and her family’s heartbreak. Vanessa taking her grief out on Bruce, blaming him for Jason’s death, throwing things at him, crying and screaming at him all while he stares at her with an empty eyed expression.

I must rectify this

So here are some more tidbits about her:

She listens exclusively to Mariah Carey, Selena, Reik, and Alejandro Fernández

Has a very high pitch girly laugh [Think Faline from Bambi] - everyone experiences some level of shock the first time they hear it. She kinda hates it

Speaking of things comparatively Bambi-ish, her and Jason’s first meeting went the same way [girly getting overly excited at the idea of her first friend and accidentally knocked him into a puddle lol] - it’s something her parents won’t let her forget

Considering just how far she is willing to go to support Jason [Will literally follow him into hell level of devotion], I figured that must have sparked some kind of conflict between her and her family - I thought I’d make her dad the head of contention but then again that dynamic is infamously taken up by Batman and Red hood, I made it her mother instead

She and Stephanie go to a karaoke bar every random Saturday

Will treat herself to un esquite when patrols are quiet that she will share with Jason

Used to share her lunch with Jason back when he was still going to school with her

Was in the journalism club in high school

Would like to take up gardening

Has become quite proficient in using a bazooka during RH and the Bats’ antagonistic era

Has threatened Stephanie several times with a comb whenever they patrol together

Likes to dismiss Bruce and Tim for what she calls “white nonsense”

Calls Tim “Richie Rich” and not in a good way

Spent the first couple of weeks she first started living alone eating maruchans on her kitchen counter, and accidentally started a fire when she first tried making quesadillas on the comal her uncle gave her

Finds her coworkers at the tailor shop obnoxious

Is grouchy when she gets sick

Scrunches her nose when she’s confused

Has a mean backhand

Learned to swim alongside Jason when Bruce was first teaching him

Has a habit of biting pencil erasers

Once ran over the Joker at full speed and likes to call him a cockroach given human form

Her brother jokingly wondered if she found herself a sugar daddy the ‘ith time he visited her apartment and found it fully furnished for the first time [she does not tell Jason that this is what her siblings call him]

No matter how still she sleeps, she always wakes up with a crazy case of bedhead. Jason once watched it happen in real time….she’s a head turner

For up to the age 17, she has shared a room with both her younger siblings. She couldn’t sleep the first two nights after moving back to Gotham City to live with her uncle

She talks in her sleep

Has a fox beanie baby her dad got her for her third birthday. His name is Tod

Whenever she and Jason share a bed, she always winds up the big spoon….and a clingy one

Hates the fact that she can’t talk shit about the Bats in Spanish

Is the reason Jason is consistently bear shaped

Has no idea why Stephanie continues to align herself with the Bats even after the way they treated her like dirt……or why Jason would either

Once choked out Scarecrow with her grapple gun cable and was stopped before she could consider hanging him - she succeeded in doing it to the Joker a month later

Her aunt once came to visit when she was a baby and got her ears pierced when her mom left her as babysitter

She and Nightwing had gotten buzzed three times on the quiet nights she deigned him tolerable before Jason came back [“You’re a minor” “Yeah? And we’re both vigilantes, what’s your point??”]

You know the thing Jade from Victorious does where she imitates Tori with an exaggerated accent? Vanessa does that to Tim

Seeing this hysterically goofy ridiculous reaction of hers just gave me ideas for what Vanessa was like as a child

Established lore of mine is that they met in kindergarten, so ridiculously goofy high pitched giggly behavior is explained lol

I also wanted to establish Vanessa being a friend who matched his freak [Aka being a couple of teens who called themselves daddy]. Jason liked acting goofy as Robin, he was emulating his already goofy friend

Also just wanted to add that gut punch of how Jason’s death affected her and how it influenced her parents to make the decision to move the family: She became reclusive, fell out of touch with her other friends, prone to anger, desperately clinging to his memory [doing quite the opposite of what Bruce and co did]

Light just gone from her eyes.

She used to have a friendly resting face, it’s now completely somber.

Need to write Jason seeing her just chilling next to him one day and noticing that difference. His death changed everything, he shouldn’t be surprised that included his friend

Vanessa got the aforementioned counseling, the grief became manageable and easier to live with - her life doesn’t feel like it has come to an utter halt

I think he also died in Battle for the Cowl[???] where he falls from a moving train[or was it from a bridge??] and into a river

Which of course made me think of my girly, Vanessa Augustine, as always lol

Which also made me think of the scene of Hunchback of Notre dame where Esmeralda is lurking in the shadows and dives into the torrent river to save Phoebus

How did she wind up in the position to immediately dive for him without interference? Idk maybe she got left behind and caught up just in time to see his fall

Just her being there to be the first person Jason sees the moment he comes back. Once again holed up in some dingy bolt hole, recuperating from the aftermath of the fight

But that wouldn’t make sense ‘cause he was homeless and wasn’t going to school in that time

And then I remembered that he was middle school age when he met Bruce and there’s a comic panel of Alfred checking in on a sleeping Jason thinking about her

With that in mind, did he go to a public school? Or a private rich hoity toity one?? ‘Cause I want to work out if my oc, Vanessa Augustine, would be going to school with Rena

Or maybe he went to a public middle school that was better off than the one Vanessa went to 🧐

Considering Vanessa didn’t have a crush on Jason at that point and his was in the hopeless and resigned phase - I would like to think Vanessa and Rena got on like a house on fire