The Crushing Guilt Of Being Unproductive Vs The Exhaustion Of Being Burned Out. Fight.

Everyone should be able to express their small and mean opinions to someone who won't clutch their pearls about it. Being a bitch is a human right

"So do you know how you're able to do this?"

"No, but I have a theory,"

"What is it?"

"So, you know the Geico gecko they use in their ads?"

You adopted what seemed like a normal gecko. One day, it starts walking on two legs and learns to talk back to you in your own language.

Dick Grayson was very familiar with the homeless population, in both of his uniforms. Gotham wasn't a nice place, and neither was Bludhaven, so he was a lot less surprised than he should've been to find a teenager bleeding in an alley.

Cold blue eyes locked onto his, a noise like a rumbling growl emanated from the teenager. Dick held up his hands, "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'll just stay right here," A beat of silence while the kid narrowed his eyes, gauging how me he wanted to trust a stranger. He shifted backwards, but made no other move. Dick relaxed back onto his heels, dropping his grocery bag in a slow, deliberate movement. "That's a lot of blood you got there,"

"Wow, Sherlock, you've done it again," The kid grumbled, once again meeting his eyes as he pressed down on top of his hoodie, blood seeping past the pressure he put on it.

Dick grinned reassuringly. "Why thank you Watson. I've got some bandages and pain killers. Just bought 'em, you can check the seal,"

"Can't pay," Mystery Potentional Bruce Adoptee muttered, before hissing as a further tide of blood seeped past his hand.

"Not gonna make you pay, kid. I should really be taking you to a hospital right now," The baring of slightly sharp teeth told Dick all he needed to know about the kid's opinion on such a thing, "But I can tell you'd bite me first. My place isn't that far, and I'm pretty good at stitches,"

"Why?" The kid asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion once more. His movement's were more sluggish, and Dick tried not to show the anxiety that inspired.

"Why my place or why stitches? Well, to answer both, I've got a bunch of little brothers. I love them more than life itself, but the amount of trouble they get into? Tim skated headfirst into a wall, three stitches. Jason dropped half a bookcase on his head when trying to grab Jane Austen off the top shelf. And Damian's a bit too trusting with animals, he gets a rabies shot as often as his pets," Dick teased with a grin, slowly moving closer as he talked. The kid let him.

"Only little brothers?" He asked, flinching slightly as Dick came into contact with him before deliberately angling himself towards Dick.

"No, my little sister Cass just knows better than to get into trouble. Sole holder of the brain cell,"

The kid snorted, before grunting in pain as Dick helped lever him up, looping the arm not holding in his blood around his shoulder. "'M Danny,"

"Dick," he replied as he quickly reached down to scoop up his back of first aid kit restockments.

"Rude,"

"No, that's my name,"

"I'm very sorry,"

Duck barked a laugh as he started helping the kid hobble back towards his apartment. "Aren't we all?"

Prompt fill from the Discord server. This one is courtesy of @tourettesdog

Prompt where Danny keeps showing up like a stray cat at various hero's houses. He just comes and goes and they never know when he'll show up next. He's just this like pseudo-adopted child who will come over for dinner, crash on the couch, and he's gone by morning. No amount of research will tell them who he is past the limited information he's given them

The various heroes are unaware that his stray cat range wanders so far until someone mentions him at a JL meeting and all hell breaks loose.

There's eventually an intervention

Stray Cat Danny

Clark had just got home when he noticed the heartbeat on the fire escape two floors above him. As far as he knew, that apartment was empty, so it couldn't be the residents going out for a smoke. It was weird, very strange, and not his business.

He tried to leave it alone, but the heartbeat stayed on the fire escape for a few hours. Every now and again Clark would hear whoever it was shift, but other than that they stayed quiet. Again, weird, but not his business.

Until it started to snow right when Clark was about to start dinner.

He was just going to make sure whoever it was had somewhere warm to stay. Maybe direct them to a shelter. Clark opened the window and looked up, there was a dark bundle, worryingly still, on the fire escape.

"Excuse me?" Clark called. The bundle shifted but whoever it is didn't respond. Clark grumbled and made his way up to them, squatting down a few feet away.

"Are you alright?"

The bundle shifted, revealing one blue eye and a tuft of back hair.

"''m fine" a young male voice answered. The blue eye closed.

"You know it's going to snow tonight. I'm sure you'd be more comfortable in a shelter than on a fire escape."

"They're full." The boy answered. "All both of them."

Only two shelters for all of Metropolis? That can't be right. Clark looked up to the sky, the snow was starting to come down and he could swear it had gotten colder since he'd been out here. He couldn't leave the kid out here to freeze.

"How about you stay the night at my place? My couch is pretty comfortable, and I'm making beef stew for dinner, Ma's recipe." He let a bit of his Kansas accent show through. Hoping the country accent would put the boy more at ease. He was watching him now with both eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Did your Ma ever teach you about stranger danger?" The kid asked.

"Not exactly. She taught me to help people out if they need it. Did your Ma teach you stranger danger?"

"No," the boy said, "my mom taught me to put a full-grown man on the ground if I needed to."

That surprised Clark into laughing. "Well, you won't need to with me. What do you say you come inside?"

The boy watched him for another second before shivering violently and glaring at the sky.

"Yeah, alright. Just one night."

"I'm Clark, by the way," Clark said as he closed the window behind the kid.

"Danny." The kid said. He was rooted to the spot just a few steps into the apartment, eyes scanning the room.

"It's nice to meet you, Danny." Clark held out his hand to shake, but Danny didn't take it. After an awkward second Clark cleared his throat. "Uh. The stew is going to be a little while. You're welcome to the laundry and shower if you need it." Danny was pretty clean, but there was visible dirt on his face and clothes. "I might have some clothes my nephew forgot that you're welcome to." Dick was bigger than Danny for sure, but he was closer to Danny's size than Clark was.

Danny gave him a long look, before shrugging off his backpack. "Sure. Might as well."

Clark left to go get the clothes while Danny loaded some of his clothes and blankets in the washer. Once he presented the tee shirt and sweatpants Danny disappeared into the bathroom. When he reappeared he was scrubbed clean, his cheeks rosy either from the hot water or scrubbing.

Danny was even smaller than Clark was expecting. He was downright scrawny. Dick's shirt hung off Danny's shoulders, and Clark could clearly see his collarbones. This kid was not getting nearly enough to eat. Well, he was going to tonight if Clark had anything to say about it.

"The stew should be ready in about half an hour. Feel free to make yourself at home." Clark said. He expected Danny to sit on the couch and watch TV, but instead, Danny found his home office. it wasn't more than a desk with his work laptop on it and some of Clark's better pieces and awards framed and tacked to the wall above it.

"You're Clark Kent, the reporter?" Danny asked, eyes switching between the wall and Clark.

"That's me," Clark said. "You know my work?"

"I read your piece on metahuman and alien rights last year. It was good."

"Thanks. I really liked working on that piece."

"Did you always want to be a writer?"

"uh. No. When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut." Clark said, stirring the stew. Danny snorted. "What's funny?"

"Nothing," Danny said, taking a seat at the little kitchen table. "I wanted to be an astronaut, too."

"Yeah? You still could." Clark said.

"Nah. It's hard to be an astronaut without a high school diploma. What made you change to writing?"

"I went through a few different career paths before I landed on journalism."

"Do you like it?"

"I do. I like uncovering the truths people try to hide." Clark said. "You'd make a decent journalist, I'd think. Half of it is just asking the right questions."

Clark served up the stew into two bowls and brought them over to the table with some rolls and butter. "I don't have much in the way of drinks, is water okay?"

"Water would be great, thanks."

They ate in relative silence, Danny was too focused on his food to ask more questions. After they ate Danny nodded off on the couch almost as soon as he sat down. Clark couldn't bring himself to wake him up, so he just covered him with a blanket from the linen closet and headed to his own room.

Maybe in the morning he could make Danny pancakes or waffles and get him some new gloves and a jacket. The question was what to do after that? He didn't want to drop Danny off at a shelter, and taking him to the police would only destroy whatever trust he had gained with the boy. At the same time, he only had a one-bedroom apartment. He couldn't keep Danny here. Clark sighed. He'd have to talk to Danny in the morning and see what he wanted to do.

When Clark woke up he was greeted by the silence of the apartment and it took him a few minutes to figure out why that was wrong. There should be another heartbeat. Fearing the worst, Clark rushed into the living room to find it empty.

The blanket and clothes Danny had used had been neatly folded and placed on the back of the couch, along with a handwritten thank you note.

How did Danny leave without him hearing? Moreover, how'd he leave with the doors and windows still locked?

what is your favorite thing to write or read in fanfiction? Or in general?

Fix-its. It's just so satisfying to see something get better. To see how authours justify and manipulate the timeline and circumstances to make a believable way that things can be better. I love seeing someone go no, this tragedy will have a happy ending because I will MAKE one. Hope is made of gritted, blood stained teeth, and fix-its are biting on and not letting go.

It was supposed to be revenge, but now they're both kind of enjoying it?? Marvel enjoys thinking up new dead languages, Batman enjoys cracking them in a low stakes scenario. Sometimes Marvel throws in a fake language and sees what Batman comes up with.

When Billy’s mad at Batman he fills out justice league reports in dead languages

Being a sex-positive personally-sex-repulsed ace is weird cuz like reading about sex? Awesome. Writing about sex? Not much more intolerable than writing about anything else. Sex is good. Sex is normal. Sex is only as important as you let/want it to be. Kinks are natural expressions of sexuality. Sexual purity is a scam. Bodies are nothing to be ashamed of. Sex work is no more exploitative than any other kind of labor. If you touch me I will throw up on you.

So, fanart for @hermesserpent-stuff and their story on Ao3, Thundersnow!

@hermesserpent-stuff Right back at you.

Give this to one of your most loved mutual

Mines r: @jadescortaurius1 @thevisitmaxxedfriend @misschuckito @ethanthespookymonth @softwolfiee

Imagine if Danny didn't even know he was the 'heir'. Vlad 'what's proper/informed consent' Masters would just go ahead and do that. Announce it to the world. Everyone would know. Except for Danny and his friends. He doesn't pay attention to whatever the fuck Vlad does on social media platforms unless it has to do with Phantom. He has it tagged so he gets notified, but otherwise doesn't pay attention.

Now the Bats? Who have Vlad tagged as 'extremely suspicious definitely hiding something' notice. And now the kid's showing up with an evil smirk to watch their battles, generations in the making? A plot. They must look further into this.

Family Traditions

The Mansons and the Waynes always had a...rocky relationship. Starting with Alfred facing off against Ida on the battlefield during his time in the British secret service. And cursing when the girl scurried out of his sight.

Although they no longer wanted to kill each other (maybe, they had children to take care of), their rivalry prevailed, and they could start fighting over anything. It was one of the reasons Ida attended to the Wayne Gala and only the Wayne gala. Just to upset the butler.

And this didn't just stay with them, Pamela HATED Bruce Wayne (and the feeling was mutual). They attended galas since they were kids and he was the most fucking annoying person she knew. She couldn't believe how he fooled everyone with "the playboy Brucie", he was obnoxious. And smarter than people gave him credit for. (Also, Pamela was pretty sure he was gay anyway)

Sam didn't want to follow this family tradition but when Damian Wayne tried to stab her with a cooking knife (after she kindly gave him an advice, taking responsibility as the eldest between them), the war begun, again.

Danny started attending those galas only to see things explode after being told this piece of information by Sam. The entire Manson family knew about it but the Waynes had no idea why the Masters heir was there. He even brought popcorn!