An Unmatched Feeling Actually

make a girl smile today.

give her a sword.

Dick Grayson's unmatched success as a child vigilante makes a lot more sense when you remember the Court of Owls was a thing and that Dick was meant to be the next Grey Son.

There is no way that someone at Haly's Circus wasn't there keeping an eye on him while he grew up. A future weapon needs to be trained and monitored after all, and a circus, a place where weird skills are completely normal, is actually a great place to secretly train a child.

You know, just some knife tricks that translated really well into actual fighting. How to get out of restraints and pick locks while under a time limit. Death defying acrobatic stunts that coincidentally do wonders for parkouring. That sort of thing. Nothing that seems out of place for a boy growing up around circus performers to learn, but would literally any where else.

I mean, while I fully believe that most kids would want to kill the man responsible for their parents deaths, Dick was weirdly prepared to go through it. He tracked down Zucco with way more ease than any normal child should have too. He became the first child vigilante, for goodness sake. The first Robin! He only started getting formal training after he basically forced Bruce into it!

Bruce himself has no idea that this kind of competency in a child is unusual, considering he was much too blinded by the similarities between his and Dick's tragic orphanhoods.

Alfred is in a similar boat because he’s desensitized to weird children after he somehow managed to successfully raise Bruce 'The Batman' Wayne, so he doesn't clock the hyper-competency as abnormal either.

By the time the other batkids start popping up (Jason 'The Audacity' Todd, borderline-street rat with no fear) (Tim 'the greatest stalker in Gotham history' Drake, child genius, also bullied his way into becoming Robin) (Barbara 'raised by the only uncorrupt cop in gotham' Gordon) (Stephanie 'daddy issues and spite' Brown) (Duke 'Pretends he's the normal one and people believe him' Thomas) it's too late.

It would also explain how Dick got along so well with Damian out of all of them. Similar childhood with different approaches and all that. On some subconscious level, Dick recognises and resonates with the murderous ten year old assassin with strong familial ties to a secret elite assassin organization.

It isn't until after the whole Court of Owls and Grey Son reveal that suddenly Dick realises a whole lot of things about his childhood that suddenly make a lot more sense.

All of us gathering as ao3 goes down for the second day in a row.

Dick, describing his happy place: I'm in a cabin, in the middle of nowhere. Inside it's just me and that stupid slimey clown, Joker, and I'm beating the hell out of him. I break a dining room table over his head. Then I rip off his arm and shove it where the sun don't shine. Then, I reach down his throat and shake his hand.

Bruce: Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and schedule you for a psych eval.

Chloé Zhao, who just won an Oscar for best director, writes fanfiction.

That's the kind of validation I needed in my life. Thank you, ma'am.

Hey hypothetically is it considered blasphemous to dismantle your ex-catholic mothers prayer beads to use for parts for a charm bracelet or is it fine. asking for a friend

The big bang is just the largest example that the chicken and the egg question can be applied to in this essay I will

What if one day Jason just puts the gun down.

At first Bruce is estatic no more murder no more compromises it's almost like having his son back his precious Robin.

Yet as time goes on he sees less of Jason and when he does he looks not well.

He's injured more frequently the entire underworld seems to be gunning for Hood but he can't say he isn't happy maybe Jaylad will have to call for backup.

He's working at the computer when Dick storms in heading straight for him.

"What does it take for you to be ten percent of a good parent clearly it's not your child dying so what will it take Bruce"

He's furious but he's also a detective before anything else.

"What exactly are you talking about."

Dick's entire body changes closing up the earlier anger gone for something colder even his eyes icing over.

"Jason is being hunted by all of Gotham because the Red Hood was based on the foundation of being the bat that kills. He changed everything about himself following your stupid rules, for what?"

-

Dick can't breathe he wants to tear Bruce limb from limb. Smash the entire cave he feels like there is nothing that can fix this.

He stares at Bruce waiting for what he doesn't know.

All this time and he's done.

"I am not burying my brother again because you are such a narssastic asshole who could give less of a fuck about anything other than being Batman. The reason every Bat or Robin comes to me is I actually love them unconditionally they don't have to doubt because Bruce they are enough."

"They could burn down the world and I would happily cheer them the fuck on don't call me, don't call Jason. I'm taking Tim, and Damian. You can go fuck yourself enjoy Batman cause that's all you will ever be."

He doesn't look back.

DPXDC prompt: What frightens those who feed on fear?

The answer is: Gotham. Because it's so cursed that even Ghost Kings do not try to take it over, despite the city's valuable resources.

So, the reason why many heroes, villains, and ordinary citizens of Gotham seem 'incapable of dying' is very simple - residents of the Infinite Realms are in absolute horror of such neighbors and try to get rid of them by any means if they appear on their territories as ghosts.

And so, any intelligent ghost avoids Gotham. It's too bad that Danny grew up in a family where it was acceptable for a ghost to not be intelligent or to have common sense so as not to disprove his parents' hypotheses.

P.S. "Tim's parents" are always busy because Danny can't ask Amorpho for favors too often. Dude is terrified of the city.