• Sofi •

Dash trying to flirt with Phantom and fail in the process (again)

Tim: *prompting hum*

Damian: …and then i met you all.

Tim:

Tim: and now?

Damian: i feel like there’s better things to do with life.

Tim, easily: yeah, going behind the scenes really takes that respect away, doesn’t it?

Damian: so you know what i mean?

Tim: oh yeah. when i first became Robin i adored Bruce and the concept of being Robin. thought it was magical. thought it was gonna be the best time of my life.

Damian: and then?

Damian will die on the hill that Jason Peter Todd is his son, and he takes no arguments on the matter.

listen i just really like those AU's where Jason is practically comatose/zombie-like when he first comes out of the pit, especially when Talia then assigns him as Damian’s protector because the only muscle-memory instinct Jason keeps is 'protect those smaller than him', because i really like the dynamic of Damian then having to be the one that takes up the mantle of helping Jason with everything he doesn't remember how to do.

Damian spends all day every day with Jason at his side. he washes Jason, dresses him, teaches him how to walk and move again, to speak and communicate, write and draw; and because Jason is Damian's bodyguard, he follows Damian around like a lost puppy. to Jason he's just slowly coming back to himself as a person while doing his job by protecting this kid--but Talia never told Damian that Jason was his protector, she just told Damian to keep Jason alive. And so everything Jason does, in Damian's mind (especially with the added context of Damian teaching him how to be alive again) is the actions of a vulnerable being looking to their guardian out of comfort. and of course, nobody else would fit the bill of guardian but Damian, the person who is practically raising Jason from re-birth.

Jason follows Damian around the compound because he knows he needs to protect Damian--Damian sees this as Jason wandering around after the only person he feels safe with, the person who looks after him, his guardian.

Jason watches over Damian while he trains with his tutors--Damian knows it must be scary for a child to be left alone in a place such as the compound; it's only natural for Jason to prefer watching his father train than be alone.

Jason takes care of Damian, ensuring he eats and sleeps--well Damian raised Jason by doing those same things, it's only natural that his child pick up on the only love language he is exposed to, trying to turn it onto his parent.

it goes on and on and on; everything Jason does with the mindset of looking after his new baby brother, Damian takes as a son showing appreciation for his father. it takes like. a solid six months for Jason to be self aware enough to clock that Damian is literally calling him 'son' and 'my child' and by then it's too late. Damian absolutely will not let it go.

i imagine it's one of those things where like, Jason tried to argue it at first but Damian was really insistent, and eventually Jason gave up because it was like 'what the hell, it's not like the kid has much that sparks joy in his life anyway, might as well give him this' and starts ignoring it, letting it happen. and then after a while he realises how much it seems to agitate Talia and Ra's and the whole thing becomes kinda funny so he starts calling Damian 'dad' and 'old man' and this delights Damian which encourages him even further and the whole thing just kinda ends up being one of those jokes that you go along with for so long that it's not even that funny anymore and you just do it out of instinct.

like--to be clear Jason is still the mental guardian figure out of the two of them, and he takes care of Damian. it's just that Damian's in complete denial about this and instead chooses to believe it's the other way around, which Jason lets him believe because it's kinda funny to watch peoples reaction to it. like at dinner, when one of the servants will bring out some kind of dessert and Jason will just turn to Damian and go 'can i have dessert now?' and Damian will look at his plate and say 'finish your potatoes' and Jason will sigh before listening. to Damian this is normal, and he does this because of course Jason would look to him for permission, that's his child; meanwhile Jason is watching Talia stare at them both across the table like she's about to call a fucking exorcist and internally he is just Busting The Fuck Up just waiting for the moment Damian decides it's his bedtime.

i also just wanna point out how funny this would be in Gotham, when Bruce takes in his biological son who for some reason seems to HATE him but refuses to say why and after a couple months of Damian treating him like dirt to the point where even Tim and Dick are confused he finally gets Damian to tell him what the fuck he did and Damian is just like 'you are the reason my son is in such mental pain.' and Bruce is just like.

what.

"did mother not tell you you are a grandfather?"

"w- NO??? YOU'RE ELEVEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE A FATHER- ARE YOU OK?"

"of course. i consented to being my child's father from the beginning."

"ELEVEN YEAR OLDS AREN'T ALLOWED TO CONSENT TO THAT."

and Bruce is. having a fucking panic attack about the whole thing until eventually they run into Red Hood on patrol and Damian straight-faced tells him that this 200+ lbs clearly adult man is the grandson in question and he just fucking. mentally checks out for about 20 minutes.

for the record Jason has never been so excited in his life. he fully intends on coming around the manor in-mask twice a week from now on just so he can call Bruce 'grandfather' and Dick 'uncle' while they stare at him like he's the fucking predator from Predator.

Danny got caught by the GIW.

At first, they just had him in a phase-proof cage, shackled so that he couldn't do anything, but so that they could still easily reach him. They'd been siphoning his ecto to use in their weapons. (He was glad they'd decided to do that first, instead of going to vivisection immediately, no matter how tired it made him - he could work through exhaustion, but he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't transform back even instinctively if they got him on the table, and he couldn't afford that-)

Except, well. Ecto is... kind of highly contagious. Okay, maybe "contagious" isn't the exactly right word, but still, ecto very easily spreads and contaminates whatever it comes into contact with. Sure, his parents' lab safety might not have been the best, what with keeping samples in the kitchen fridge, but there was still a reason those samples leaked way too often (ecto-weenies, ugh).

The point is, ecto leaks and contaminates stuff, and the GIW freaked out about that when they noticed they couldn't just keep the ecto where they wanted it to be.

So now they had him in some kind of energy-proof cage, where his ecto couldn't leak, while they decided what to do with him next. Which was all well and good, except a healthy ghost (and halfa, apparently) constantly generates their own ecto, some of which leaks out to saturate their haunt and let other ghosts know there's someone else around, and which dissipates through the atmosphere and into the Infinite Realms after a while (or so Frostbite had described it).

However, his ecto couldn't leak outside the cage right now, and couldn't dissipate. He could feel himself growing stronger as part of his expelled ecto necessarily got absorbed back into him because there was just so much. He could feel the concentration of it in the cage grow and grow. He could hear the cage creaking under the strain. They couldn't. (He wasn't gonna tell them.)

He could feel the air slowly get syrupy with it, and then heavier still. He was stronger now than he'd been when they caught him, he'd be alright. They... maybe wouldn't. (He still refused to warn them. He'd heard them talking about what they were planning to do. To him. To Lunch Lady. To Boxy. To Johnny, and Kitty, and Shadow. To Ellie.)

The cage kept creaking. The ecto kept growing.

And it

was set

Oh, I think he would still feel guilt. He wouldn't regret it, wouldn't regret taking the only means available to him to protect those precious to him. But he would definitely still feel guilt, and grief. This is his first time taking human lives - his first time taking any life, since I don't think he's outright killed anyone at all before. (correct me if I'm wrong!)

And these are still human lives. No matter how awful they were, they were still human - they breathed, they laughed, they cried, they loved, they hated, they got drunk with friends and gossipped amongst each other and got into arguments about pineapple on pizza with their families. They were humans. Cruel humans, yes. Arguably even monsters in human skin. But even the worst people – are still people. And death, even for the greater good, is always a loss. There is no winning in it. It is always a tragedy.

So Danny had struggled with his decision not to warn them. But what choice did he really have? Warn them and end up in a different cage, watching his peoplefriendsfamily other ghosts get brought in to be used as lab rats? Or not warn them, and, though indirectly, damn them to die in this place? There was no "good option". But he didn't want to die all the way, either. He didn't want to be tortured. He didn't want his friends to be tortured. He was, still, just a kid. A kid in an impossible situation. So, he chose – the only choice he really could.

He'd had time to come to terms with it, while he was stuck in that cage. He knew what would happen when it blew. He knew the GIW agents possibly probably definitely wouldn't survive. He felt guilty about it before it even happened. Maybe he'd cry a little, looking at the GIW agents working through the walls of his cage, already grieving them while they were still alive. (They just thought he was afraid. And he was, of course. But he knew they should've been, too.)

He wouldn't regret making this choice. He would know, actually, that it wasn't really his choice at all. That it wasn't his fault. (See, Jazz? He was listening when you talked!) ...His subconscious didn't get the memo, though. He'd still feel like it was all his fault. Maybe for getting caught in the first place. (But then, they'd have just caught someone else, wouldn't they?) He couldn't really regret it all. But he'd still feel guilt, because he felt like he should. (Because only monsters don't regret killing someone. Did this make him the monster his parents thought he was?)

[The answer is no, Danny. This is a shit situation and not even remotely similar to that. And logically, he knows that. But emotionally? Things like this are always difficult.]

Additionally, the Danny I'm imagining here is the type of person to stick around for a little bit after the explosion. A couple of minutes, maybe half an hour. Try to comfort their spirits, to help them move on. He knows they'll be there. It was an explosion of a metric fuckton of ectoplasm, obviously they'll be there. He'll cry. Not loudly, not overtly, just exhausted tears slipping down his face. He'll let those spirits half-formed cry on his shoulder as they feel their deaths. He'll help them fade, and move on. None of them will stick around, they have too much internalized revulsion for ghosts to become any themselves.

Maybe a little blob will form from the traces of their remnants and the excess ectoplasm. And he'll mourn. Mourn their families' grief. Mourn the loss of their lives, even if not them personally. Mourn that he had to make that choice in the first place. And crying, he'll hug that little blob, that has not the slightest idea what's going on - just knows that it's a little bit sad, for some reason. He'll embrace all that's left of those terrible, awful, twisted –

...

people.

So no, he won't regret it. He made the only choice he could've made. He can't regret protecting his friends and his family. And he won't regret protecting himself.

But he will feel guilt and grief. And it will still stay with him far into the future.

damian, age 4, wondering why jason looks white if he's his brother: you're colored wrong

Bruce, on the phone to Talia: please, come on, you must at least have ONE. that’s my baby boy! i need to see photos of him when he was little!!!

Talia, not paying attention because she’s fighting like twelve men one handed: i don’t know what to tell you, i just never took any! there were more important things to do at the time.

Bruce: JUST ONE.

Talia: beloved, i didn’t- *distant scream and thud* *sigh* look why don’t you ask his brother, i’m pretty sure he took some when Damian was a babe,

Bruce, pausing: …what? Tim and Dick didn’t meet him until i did.

Talia: *distant gunshots* yes well maybe if you used that detective brain for once you could puzzle out that i mean MY other son; honestly beloved, sometimes you concern me.

Bruce:

Bruce, bluescreening: um.

Bruce: you have. you have another son?

Bruce: is he…?

Talia, abruptly coming back to herself and remembering Jason’s insistence on NOT telling the bats that he’s alive:

Talia: *winces* uhm.

Bruce: TALIA?!

Talia:

Talia: *hangs up*

-two days later-

Jason, talking to a video call on his phone that’s set leaning up against a crate of guns in a warehouse he’s clearing out: *upper cuts a guy* -she told me she fucking panicked, which is SUCH bullshit, so she told him i wasn’t his biological son, *roundhouse kicks three people at once*

Ra’s, watching boredly through the phone in his personal chambers at the compound: *hums in disinterest*

Jason: -and now he fucking knows Damian’s mysterious older brother is in Gotham and apparently he’s trying to figure out who i am so he can ask for baby photos- *shoots somebody* *redirects punch aimed at him*

Ra’s: to be honest i’m just surprised it wasn’t Damian who let it slip. i’ve been betting on him for months.

Picture Dick just trying to go for a hug from his father because he had a very rough day but instead people keep trying to get between him and Bruce. So he goes for the next best thing… a hug from his favourite hero Superman which also goes wrong

League members thinking Nightwing might be asking for a threesome (which already went horribly wrong the last time another JL member asked—SuperBat was furious and talked about their monogamous closed relationship) and they’re trying so hard to prevent another fight between SuperBat and the Justice League

Fics:

Nightwing is a Home-Wrecker

they're pulling batman outfits bruce couldn't even remember designing out of there.

they turn it into a competition. damian, the only one refusing to participate, is the judge

Which I think would lead to moments like

Roy: The second robin? I thought you died, what-

*Damian enters*

Roy:

Roy, empathetically: Must’ve been hard

Jason: NO

Or,

Reporter: And Jason and Damian, do they share the same mother?

Bruce: what

A cloaked figure in the stands: *loudly* YES THEY DO

Bruce: Talia???

Not to forget,

Jon, waking up after getting knocked out from a battle with Damian, watching Jason enter the room

Jon:

Jon, more panicked by the second: ...Damian? Is that you?

Jason:

Jason, reading Damian's handsigns from out the window