30s | she/her | aro-spec & ace | This is for super random stuff. No method or reason. Just whatever strikes my fancy. Mostly reblogs. And the occasional pic of my cat. Writing blog is Wolfjackle-Creates
The Demon Piper: Crowley is in Hamlin, Germany in 1284 and offers to help the children of the town. They take him up on it and the legend of the Pied Piper is born.
AO3, 24k words, rated T
An Evening In: Human AU. Aziraphale has a bad day and Crowley promises to make it better. PWP
AO3, 18k words, rated E
Carry On: After the garden, the First Family has to find their way in the wider, more dangerous world. But Heaven and Hell aren’t ready to leave them alone so Crawly and Aziraphale tag along. When Cain has the idea to sacrifice the best of his harvest to God, Abel also wishes to sacrifice the best of his lambs.
God chooses Her favorite and the First Family is left to pick up the pieces as best they can.
AO3, M rating (Prequel to The Demon Piper)
DP x DC Fics:
Bring Me Home: Tim and Danny are both neglected by parents who care more about their work than their families. They deal with this by spending too much time online and find each other playing MMORPGs. They keep up their friendship as Tim becomes Robin and Danny becomes Phantom and when Danny’s parents take his reveal poorly, Tim helps get him safe.
Ghost!Robin Haunts Jason AU: Jazz is dating Jason, so she and Danny are invited to dinner at Wayne Manor to meet the family. Danny arrives and meets Jason for the first time only to be distracted by the ghost of the dead Robin that is hanging off of him. T rating
Answer My Call: (Wrong Number AU) Jazz, Sam, and Tucker manage to help Danny escape the GIW, but they can’t follow him and are under too much surveillance to communicate with each other. Sam snuck Danny a phone as he ran and Jazz sends him a text every day, hoping to hear he is all right. But he’s not the one getting the texts.
Jason was away for several months on a mission with the Outlaws. When he finally returns home, he is surprised to find dozens of messages from an unknown number begging a Danny to tell her he’s okay. Looks like there’s not going to be a break between missions this time around.
T rating (might go up to M for fandom-typical violence)
I’ll Carry Your Heart (Until I Find You Again): Danny and Jason meet in the zone after Jason’s death. They become friends (and more). But Jason doesn’t think it’s enough. He finds Desiree and wishes for his life back. But for every wish, she exacts a price.
Want to Hold on and Feel I Belong: Danny is finally settling into his new life with the Waynes and loves them. But then he finds out their secret identities. The Justice League works with the US Government. And the US Government funds the GIW. He won’t go back to them. He won’t.
Empathy Verse: Jazz literally runs into someone outside the library when she’s distracted. She’s about to apologize when she feels the ghost-empathy radiating off the stranger. Instead she relaxes into his embrace.
Remember, Remember: Danny is a failed clone of Dick by the Court of Owls. Erasing his memory, they threw him out onto the world where he eventually got adopted by the Fentons. If the portal accident somehow knocked loose the mental block hiding his memories… Who knows what could happen.
Electricity: Danny Phantom has been brought into the Justice League and it’s great!
Or, well, it would be if Danny could be paired with anyone who wasn’t an electricity user. The post-mission panic attacks are getting old and Jazz is worried.
School Nurse!Danny: Danny gets a job as the nurse at Tim’s school. He recognizes the type of injuries Tim comes in with almost immediately but doesn’t say anything, happy to patch him up in the office or let him take a nap when needed. Until Red Robin decides to go out in costume the day after Tim was in his office with a broken arm. Looks like he has to call a parent-nurse meeting.
Constantine Bingo: Danny is being introduced to the Wayne’s as Jason’s boyfriend. During dinner, he gets notice that he won that round of Constantine Bingo.
Tumblr prompt fill, 873 words, G rating
Stalker Danny: Jason is being stalked and threatened by some sort of pit demon. Danny hopes the new halfa he just came across will accept his courting gifts.
Tumblr prompt fill, 764 words
Justice League Mechanic!Danny: When Danny applied for his position as civilian engineer with the JL, he filled out the demographic information stating he was a half ghost. Apparently, a number of the heroes didn’t get the message and are freaked out when his heart stops beating or he puts a pause on the whole breathing thing.
And in an attempt to intimidate Phantom, he utters his name-
“Inviso-Bill.”
AKA
Danny would really, really like that specific name to die off, thank you very much.
He hates it.
But also, hearing that come out of Batman’s mouth, with that serious deadpan and growl, is so surreal its hysterical. It is literally as far from intimidating as it could possibly be.
Danny is laughing so hard he can’t breathe and if he weren’t already dead that might have been the thing that killed him. Batman is clearly disgruntled by this reaction and that only makes it more hilarious.
Danny still hates the name and hopes it dies in a dumpster fire. But maybe he can accept it having existed for the sheer hilarity of this moment. It might just be worth it for this.
…
Danny is still laughing. Batman is starting to look concerned now. He reaches up towards his ear, tapping what Danny can only assume is some kind of Bat-Comm.
“I need backup at my location immediately. I’ve got a Meta possibly dosed with Joker Venom.”
I think a lot about how in Ice Age 1 a huge theme is the slow but unstoppable advancement of the human species as they start to threaten previously unchallenged megafauna (hunting the pack of the antagonist sabertooth and killing Manny the mammoth’s family) and then in all the sequels they just fuckin disappear
I think a lot about how the first movie was actually pretty somber and dark with moments of lightheartedness and comedy, about three animals who had lost their own families finding family in each other while trying to return this baby to his own family… The first sequel, while wackier, touches on the existential dread and loneliness Manny feels at being the apparent last of his kind, his exhilaration at meeting another like him, and the question of “be together because we want to be, or we HAVE to be?” as well as Ellie having been part of a found family herself…
….and then the franchise from then on out turns into “wacky animal hijinks.”
OKAY FOR REAL i rewatched the original ice age a little while ago for nostalgia and this movie is GOOD you guys—i literally rewatched it all over again the next day. there are a couple of key things i noticed:
1. they know how to shut up. the animals know how and when to shut up. yes, even the comic relief one. do you have any idea how important this is? yes, they play it for laughs when diego first confronts manny and they fight and then diego stops, clears his throat, and asks manny politely for the child (which was brilliant, by the way, i laughed aloud), but aside from that, when there’s a serious moment, they let it be serious. when manny accepts the baby from the mother, when he sees the paintings of the mammoths on the cave wall, when he returns the baby to its father, these are moments where everyone is dead silent, even sid, and the music is soft and heartwrenching and the next line is rarely, if ever, a joke that undercuts the prior moment. they let these scenes linger and it really makes this feel like an emotional, somber, serious movie with fun character interactions rather than a comedy that makes cheap appeals to emotion.
2. the way they characterize manny at the beginning is SUPER interesting to me. by the end of this movie, we know manny is a big softie who was deeply wounded by the loss of his family. we as the audience don’t know this yet, though, and the first time we catch a hint that there’s something deeper going on here, it’s when manny firmly, sharply insists to sid that partners should be loyal to each other. it’s not an obnoxiously blatant “hey i have trauma” flag, since it could be interpreted as the writers playing with the monogamy of mammoths and promiscuity of sloths, which i’m fairly certain they bring up in this movie, if not one of the others. still, though, it strikes that perfect balance of not making the Oh Frick Manny Had A Family reveal later on completely blindside us while also not telegraphing it too obviously. at the beginning, manny is clearly a loner who wants nothing to do with sid, but to avoid making him come off as a straight-up jerk, they make it abundantly clear in the introductory sequence that he has a strong moral code that he holds himself to (”I don’t like animals that kill for pleasure”). i just thought this was really well done, opening the movie with a scene that demonstrates both that manny is a complex character who comes off as cold but cares deeply (which sid basically sees straight through and i love it) and that sid is incredibly unlikable and as such nobody likes him. i didn’t realize it at first, but that’s such an interesting move. we open the movie with sid getting abandoned by his family, but then we find out how annoying he is and go “oh, well that explains it.” but then he tells manny all about how they regularly do their best to ditch him and it’s so clear that he’s just too pure and innocent to hold any malice towards them. under it all, though, it’s clear that he’s lonely, too, and has been for a while. these characters have depth, and feel like people, and every quiet moment just drives it home even more that they really don’t have anyone except each other.
3. DIEGO! we stan. i think it’s really interesting how instead of just throwing these characters into the world together, the writers make it clear that they had other people, before, but those people either were toxic and ditched them (sid’s family), were toxic and needed to be ditched (diego’s pack), or were loving but torn away by circumstance (manny’s family). i dunno, it just adds a really interesting layer of depth here. but anyway, diego’s arc was just really well done. he’s only there to get the kid, and though he does start to enjoy himself, he still has his mission. but when manny risks his life to save diego’s and sid makes that comment pointing it out, you can SEE how he starts to linger, starts to dread, the guilt builds up until he TELLS THEM. that’s so important! he tells them!!! there’s no stupid, “liar revealed” plotline where they figure out that he’s been tricking them because he comes clean himself, without provocation or pressure, and they do eventually forgive him and that’s SO important. diego wasn’t being honest with them, was living a lie and planning to betray them, and he made the incredibly difficult decision to stop in his tracks and come clean on his own terms because he knew it was the right thing to do. there were So Many Ways the writers could have handled that reveal, but to have diego just stop, think, change his mind, and confess was SO GOOD. also the dynamic between the three of them was just really, really great. i’m so emotionally attached to these early-2000′s CGI creatures okay.
4. speaking of which, this movie is surprisingly good-looking. like it came out in 2002. that is IMPRESSIVE. manny’s fur holds up shockingly well and my suspension of disbelief was never fricked up by poorly rendered CGI graphics. props to blue sky, man.
5. okay point five is lowkey the whole reason for this rant because it’s a really really cool point i only noticed on my second watch through: the parallelism. why does diego have to kidnap this baby? because his pack’s leader (soto, apparently) wants to eat it alive as revenge for the humans killing half of his own. why does manny want to rescue this baby? because he, too, is a parent who lost a child and doesn’t want the humans to go through that. but, wait, hang on a minute, how did he lose his child? oh, yeah, the humans killed it and hiswife right in front of him. both soto and manny lost most of the people they care about to the humans—these humans, specifically, since they seem to be the only community in the area—but where soto swears revenge, manny doesn’t want them to go through what he went through, even though this very act could be what perpetuates that. and they acknowledge it in the movie. diego mentions how this baby is gonna grow up to hunt them and sid counters that maybe the fact that they saved it means it will remember their kindness and things will change. but the whole movie carries the somber atmosphere of a tragedy because, as someone else mentioned above, the humans are steadily encroaching and all of these creatures are going to go extinct, and this one act of kindness may not have the intended effect and may soon be lost to the uncaring tides of history, but that doesn’t make it any less worth it. manny isn’t doing this to try and make a statement or change the humans’ behavior, he just wants to prevent them from going through what he did. calling this story one of “breaking the cycle of violence” cheapens it, i feel, because the humans are hunting the mammoths, not out of malice, but out of necessity for furs and meat and bone and tusk. it’s nothing personal—they’re predators. but still, manny seeks them out to return their baby to them. and when the baby’s father is raising his spear at manny when he’s trying to return it, you can just see that look in manny’s eyes, that he’s begging this human to understand, but he’s prepared to get speared if it means this kid gets to be with his father and MY HEART, YOU GUYS.
6. FOUND FAMILY FOUND FAMILY like i know found family isn’t really all that hard to come by, but this movie is REALLY explicit about it in a good way! they make the distinction between a pack—a group who wants you for what you can do for them—and a herd—a group who regularly looks out to see what they can do for you. and a saber-tooth tiger leaves his PACK to join this HERD! and they joke that this is the weirdest herd they’ve ever seen, but a carnivore has just joined a herd and that makes me feel SO MANY FEELINGS
ultimately, ice age is a movie about choices. manny’s choice to return this kid to its parents, even though he lost his own kid to those very parents, diego’s choice to come clean about his betrayal and his choice to join a herd even though he’s a carnivore, manny making the choice to risk his life to save diego, diego making the choice to return the favor, and all three of them making the choice to not give up hope that they can find a new family again after losing what they had before. this is a movie in which characters are more than the way they were born, are more than the circumstances of their lives, are more than what happens to them. they make choices and their choices matter and they choose to be kind, even when they have absolutely nothing to gain from it and everything to lose from it.
i guess you could say this movie aged nicely.
thank you and good night
I think part of why it changed so dramatically is the German dub’s fault. Sid is voiced in all movies by one of the most prolific German comedians, one of those guys that basically everyone knows. And this guy is famous in part for his funny voices and how quickly he can change between them. From what I remember the execs enjoyed his performance so much that they had a lot of Sid rewritten to milk this as much as possible. Which means that it lost a lot of its seriousness in favour of antics
I’m intrigued here. Because I always interpreted the cave art scene as Manny being the baby and the big male being the one that was killed.
The little directional nose and skinny legs get me. What a horrifying little charmer. I like him well.
Waow taht is a creachur
that is one of the most animals
well that certainly is a Thing
Well, It’s That
If I saw one of these in a sci-fi or fantasy movie I would just accept them as a made up part of the fantasy without question. The possibility of them being a real thing would never even enter my head
good news! it’s real and it’s a black and rufous elephant shrew and it’s god’s gift to your dashboard
Danny gets adopted by Bruce Wayne au but consider: Danny was brought up in a loving-if absolutely insane- household where pda and mushy gushy stuff wasn’t only said, but expected.
The bats almost never voice thier love for one another, instead showing it in a variety of different ways.
What I’m saying is that Danny keeps nearly killing them by saying “I love you.” I’m not even joking. Danny has nearly offed the bats more times in his week staying in wayne manor than any Gotham villian would dare try
Like it doesn’t even have to be an emotionally charged scene. It can literally be Danny heading out for school and telling Dick, “Love you! Bye!” And Dickie will get thrown off and take a tumble down the stairs. And this is all of them.
For just a touch of ouch to spice things up:
Danny, being so used to such open love, is confused and a little bit hurt how the Bats never say it back. They’re always so caught off guard, fumbling like they don’t know what to do. Except for Damian, who is seemingly just enraged. Do they not feel the same? Was he too quick to start loving them? Is he making everything awkward and uncomfortable?
Jason groaned, holding a military grade field dressing to his wound as he tried his best to walk faster. Gunshots rang behind him and instinct allowed him to dodge, but one bullet still managed to graze him by the shoulder. It only made pain flare up worse, but Jason just sucked in a breath through his teeth and toiled onward to get to safety.
No matter how much they look for it, or how many times Jason goes back to the same empty burned out lot, there is no sign of the mysterious Hotel Phantom.
Bruce, of course, goes near ballistic. Jason promptly tells him to fuck right off.
And yes, is he concerned about the sense of calm he felt there? Of course. But is he also not going to admit that in the slightest if it means accepting help from Bruce, even if he might be enslaved to a secret fae realm? Not a chance in hell, Dickwad.
And as the cases pile up, and missions continue, and the annual Alien incursion passes, Jason let’s it fade. He checked with his occult sources and they gave him… not an ‘all clear’ exactly, but close enough that Jason has labeled it a ‘whatever’ in his mind.
At least… until he’s in the middle of a car chase with a grenade flying towards his face.
Jason jerks his handlebars to the side, feeling as his front wheel twists under him, losing traction as he goes horizontal and the sound of tires screeching, fire booming, glass shattering and it all goes quiet.
Jason flicks his eyes open. Gentle golden light illuminates the crown moulding and intricate ceiling designs above him.
There’s soft piano music drifting in the background, the sound of light chatter and clinking silverware.
It’s the sort of ambiance that makes you forget al your problems.
Slowly, Jason leverages himself to his feet, able to recognize the pinpricks of glass in his skin but none of the pain that should come with.
Even his leg, that he knows he landed on at an awkward angle, and the 2 broken ribs that are still weeks from healing, they are nothing but a numb pressure on his body.
Instead, Jason lets himself wander forward, taking in the clean air and gentle atmosphere.
“Here for another night, Jason?” A voice jingles behind him.
Jason slowly turns around, finding the same woman, Jazz, who he’d met the first time.
“Uhhh… Yes?” Jason feels a million questions bubble up, but he doesn’t really care to answer any of them.
Except maybe.. “Hey do you know where my bike went?” He asks as he trails along behind her to the desk.
“All vehicles are stored in the hotel garage, it will be returned upon departure, not to worry.”
Jason smiles in response, glad with just the knowledge.
“Just tonight then?” She says calmly.
“Yes please,” He says, taking another glance around to take it all in.
“Wonderful. Here’s your key, then. Just find a seat and you’ll be served when you’re ready,” She says, sliding a key across the desk with barely sound, then gesturing lightly to the side room.
Jason nods, taking the key as he starts to walk. When he sits down in one of the plush dining chairs across the room, another person just like last time approaches, pulling glass from his skin and setting his leg.
They even apply a gentle salve to the burns on his neck and arms that Jason hadn’t noticed. It glows a soft green that seems to defy the golden light.
Jason doesn’t quite have enough concern to stop them, but he does ask, “What is that?”
The person simply smiles, putting the cap back on and standing, “Nothing to worry about, it’s a house mixture to help healing of all hotel residents.”
Something about the way he phrased it tugged at Jason’s mind, but all too quickly someone else was setting food down in front of him.
“I didn’t order anythi-“ Jason pauses, looking up at the face of the server, “You look familiar, have we met?”
He looks like an older version of Danny. It’s enough that Jason feels the need to ask more questions, though he can’t reach a sense of alarm.
The man chuckles, all broad shoulders and baritone, “You’ve seen my face. I’m Dan, nice to meet you Jason.”
Jason almost asks how they all seem to know his name, but the larger curiosity wins out, “Why do you work here- or How?” He blurts, surprised by his lack of verbal control.
“Danny saved me. We’re closer than you’d think,” he says calmly, voice self assured and confident.
Again, it scratches Jason’s brain, just barely there beneath the fog of calm.
“Can you leave? Do you?”
Dan gives him a look, like he’s said something odd, “Why would I want to? Just to be hurt again?”
The words bristle at Jason, but when he goes to say something, Dan cuts him off, “You should relax, you’ve had a long day.” It sounds the same as Alfred pushing him to eat and sleep after patrol. With the sense of calm, Jason takes it to heart, eating slowly as Dan walks away with a smile.
Once he’s finished, Jason heads to the elevator, fingers brushing the key in his pocket. Hadn’t it been a card last time?
Before he knows it, Jason is stepping into his room, and it looks the same it did last time. The bed just as comfortable, the sheets just as soft.
Jason falls into sleep faster than he has in years, the same as last time, his dreams blissfully silent of laughter.
He wakes up with the sounds of a workshop in his ears, fading as he smells food in the air. Jason stands in the dim light of the room, taking a deep breath that fills his lungs like he’s just run through a meadow.
It’s disconcerting.
And Jason still can’t find it in him to care as he finds his feet leading him downstairs.
Again, he finds Danny at the counter, serving people with a smile that seems to make Jason’s shoulders sag, his fingers loosen, every part of him opening up like he wasn’t covered in injuries.
Although, to be fair, he was pretty sure he’d woken up completely healed.
It makes Jason want to grab him by the collar and demand answers. Makes him want to force everyone to stop just doing nothing, tricking him into whatever wormhole soul eating dimension this is.
Instead, Jason orders an everything bagel with honey & cream cheese, and another caramel latte.
Jason sits at one of the tables set around the open room, his mind pushing to try and connect the dots of the situation around him.
It reminds him of starting out as Robin, when Bruce would drill him on clues for a case, pushing him to figure it out, do better, be stronger, be-
Jason feels the ceramic mug snap under his hand as the pit flares to life with a roar like a caged animal. He surges to his feet, heart pumping and jaw clenched as the stupid latte spills across the table.
What the hell was this? Why was he okay just staying here? He should be pressing them for answers, even just the other patrons. But instead he was lounging around like a civil-
“Is everything alright Jason?”
Jason whips around to see Danny standing behind him.
Their eyes meet, though he swears Danny’s eyes had been more blue than green last time.
It gives Jason pause, letting his mind settle, the anger disappearing beneath the ripples as they stare.
“Everything’s fine,” he says ruefully, rubbing the back of his neck with embarrassment as he realizes everyone had looked up at his outburst, “I just got lost in my thoughts, I think.”
“Of course,” Danny says assuredly, putting a hand on his shoulder as he moves past, “You don’t have to worry about that here.”
Jason tries to pull on any of the suspicion that had filled him before, finding it eerily out of reach.
“Right… Sorry, that just feels weird to me, I guess,” Jason says, shaking his head slightly like that will dislodge the thick blanket over his mind, “You sure you’re not drugging me?”
Danny smiles again with a light chuckle that shows his fangs, as though Jason’s words are silly.
Jason thinks it is a very real concern. Now if onlyhe could feel concerned about it!
“Like I said before, you’re calm because you’re safe, you belong here, Jason,” Danny answers, tucking the rag away with a warm smile, “How would you like to stay for another night ? I’m hosting an astronomy viewing tonight and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
Jason glances around the dining room, feeling the way his core seems to be empty of the ruling emotions he’s so used to fighting every day.
This place is like being able to breath for the first time in years without a hand gripping his chest with every breath, “Sure, that sounds like fun.”
“Great,” He smiles again, turning around to return to the counter with a greeting to the next person in line.
Despite his desire to interrogate, Jason finishes his bagel, forcing himself to look around the hotel instead, even if it lacks the paranoid attention to details that he usually carries.
Even so, Jason’s half-hearted investigation feels more akin to an exploration than anything else. He does finally talk to another one of the patrons, a dark-skinned man who’s eyes glint with the sound of gears and shuffling sand.
When asked how he got here, he just says, “I’m a friend of Danny.”
“But then why am I here? I didn’t even know Danny before coming here?” Jason asks, letting his frustratingly nonexistent anxiety be filled with curiosity instead.
Tucker pauses for a second, the gentle ambiance of the hotel wrapping around them both.
“You’re only liminal. You belong here. But aren’t meant to be here. Not really. Not yet.” Tucker says voice calm and confident. As though they were discussing their favorite art pieces.
The words make Jason’s brow furrow, confusion -abandonment- a whisper behind the shield of comfort.
“What do you mean I’m not meant to be here, then why did Danny ask me to stay?”
The sound of desert winds filters through the air.
“You’d need a key for that wouldn’t you?” He says, a playful smirk on his face that sparks mirth.
Jason slips his hand to his pocket, a dull surprise brushing through him as his fingers dig through nothing but sand within.
“You have a place to return to, don’t you? A place that needs you?” Tucker asks, voice just on the edge of imploring.
Again, the words stir something in Jason. This time they are not muffled behind the hotel’s sense of safety. Because it’s not dangerous. Not to him.
It’s a sense of duty.
His duty to the Alley. To his people. To Gotham.
He has to go back.
Immediately.
Jason turns around, letting himself move faster than he had his entire stay. It’s not stress, or pain, or fear, but the knowledge that someone needs him, and he wants to be there for them. And it’s enough to push through the sluggish feeling that comes with the calm, leaving him with a perfect level mind and a desire to do more, and do better.
“Are you heading out, Jason?”
He turns his head, pausing in his movements as he spots Jazz stepping through the comfortable lobby chairs.
“Yeah, I just decided I have some things that need me back home,” he says calmly, honestly; the words easy and full.
Something in Jazz’s expression pulls tight, but the comforting exterior never falters, “I thought Danny had mentioned you’d be staying the night, for the astronomy viewing?”
Jason chuckles, shrugging with ease and a smile, “I’d need a room key for that. I’m all good. I have to get back, they need me,” Jason nods assuredly.
Jazz seems to pause for a moment, her head tilting slightly as she looks at him. Then she steps to the side with a gesture of her arm to go on, despite the fact she had never been in his way, “I hope you enjoyed your stay at Hotel Phantom.”
Jason hardly turns back, his feet out the door as glances back, “I di-“ Cold city air hits his face and he turns, “-d….” The streets of Star city lay in front of him, broken glass crunching beneath the grit of his boots.
Jason looks behind him, spotting the boarded up windows and damaged entrance, then in front of him, pristine on the roadside like he’d never left it, is his motorcycle. That he’d completely forgotten about till just now.
“Motherfucker!” Jason shouts, stomping over to it.
He finds his leather jacket -mended-, his Kevlar armor -patched-, his helmet -smoothed and clear of any dents indicating a crash like the one he knew he’d taken, “Motherfucker!” Jason exclaims again. He’d forgot about his uniform too, how? Something so important, a part of his every day life? How? How did they make him forget something so integral and he just let them!?
Jason feels familiar anxiety rise up beneath his skin, tinged with anger. It’s almost a relief that he can feel it pulsing with his heartbeat.
Jason finds his phone quickly, seeing the missed calls and messages from Roy immediately as he puts in his helmet, followed by one’s from Dick.
He presses call as he revs the motor, listening as it rings and then his comm fills with Roy’s worried shout and scolding.
He barely notices that his bike runs smoother under him, just slightly quicker without needing more power, just slightly faster to respond to Jason’s moves, responding in synchronization.
Instead, Jason turns his headlights to Gotham without a second thought. And goes.
—-
Nearly six months later, Jason will be cleaning out a specific pair of tac pants he’d left in a rarely chosen safe-house.
And as he pulls them from the pile of clothes, a small stream of sand will trickle from the pockets, collecting on the floor in a serene, gentle pile.
And as Jason scoops it into his hands, he will remember that sense of purpose. And where it came from.
And the fact that maybe Gotham isn’t the only one who needs him.
