recs and links

emThe one where Oracle calls Red Hood and Red Robin in to deal with a Crane-shaped incident at the docks, a brand new strain of fear toxin is released, and Jason is horrified to discover that he’s NOT Tim’s worst fear./em Jason gets a little insight into Tim. Aw boys.

A week after the funeral, Bruce Wayne goes missing. He’s only made it a few miles past Gotham’s city limits when Clark finds him. Clark accompanies Bruce on his grief road trip after Jason's death. *sniffle*

emStephanie Brown has had many names and many lives through the years. But as Batgirl... she might actually see this one through./em ♥STEPH♥

citeWhen Dick finally learns what happened to Tim during the assassination tournament, it reopens an old wound. Trying to TALK about it opens a whole Pandora's box of old wounds. To make matters worse, Ra's still wants a new heir from Dick's little brother./cite I enjoyed how this dealt with the various issues the Batfamily has had with sexual assault. (There is a lot of tense switching though.)

Conner is sleepwalking and it's freaking Clark out. Then they work some shit out. Oh heart.

citeNot all stormtroopers start that way. Not all stormtroopers end that way, either. A Finn Skywalker retelling of the Star Wars sequels./cite I enjoyed this AU of the sequels which centers Finn and his relationships.

citeTim freezes, gaze still locked on Jack’s prone, silent form sprawled out on the floor, and pulls the phone back to look at the number. It’s kind of funny, he thinks hazily. Of course he would accidentally kill his dad and then mistakenly call Jason, of all people./cite Oh Tim.

cite"James," Melina said thinly. "I apologize. I will remember this. Names are important to you. Yes?" She paused. "It is how I think of you, over all these years. That is all."/cite This is really lovely.

cite“You don’t know pain, Nightwing,” Morgaine hisses. The portal howling into existence behind her is almost loud enough to drown her out, but not quite. “But you will. I swear, you will.” --- Morgaine le Fey curses Dick Grayson to absorb the pain of everyone he loves./cite I enjoyed this.

oh heart #precious spiderbabies

Aw boys. I enjoyed this.

“How do you know all this stuff?” Bruce asked. “You’re just a kid.” “I’m nine,” Dick said. “That’s half an adult. We learned about rounding today, and half or more, you round up. So technically, I’m an adult.” “That is not how that works,” Bruce said. “Nine-eighteenths rounds to one,” Dick told him. “Did that work on your parents?” Bruce asked. “Because it’s not working with me.”

It’s Damian’s fault that Drake is lying motionless and as pale as a corpse on the hospital bed. He was the sniper's target. OH heart.

Damian, upon finding an abandoned duckling, decides to call it Timothy. Overhearing his name, the duckling's namesake appears. this is too cute!

Damian Wayne is on a mission. He's going to figure out exactly what's so great about building gingerbread houses, no matter what Tim thinks. This is adorable.

Tim Drake dies alone in a warehouse by the Gotham docks, passed off to the public as a civilian casualty and passed around the vigilante community as a cautionary tale. Three years later, a wraith comes home to roost. Reverse Robins AU with some lovely Tim/Kon thrown in.

When Bruce Wayne barely survives a brutal confrontation with the villain known as Bane, he comes away with a broken spine and the terrible certainty that his days as Batman are over. An unexpected discovery among his mother’s old things might offer him a second chance—but at what price? The story of a man willing to risk his soul for the sake of his mission, the dangerous creature he decides to call Robin, and the unlikely partnership that will come to shape the legend of Gotham’s Dark Knight. Long and engrossing AU start to the Dynamic Duo. I enjoyed this a lot.

Damian's not prepared for the snow. Oh buddy.

Cassie survives losing all 3 of her boys, and then she gets them all back. grab some tissues, because there was literal gross sobbing, y'all.

Jason kind of hates the people who say they have a gaydar, but the thing is, he doesn’t need a gaydar to tell with Bruce. He can just tell. Anyone with eyes can tell. The suits, the shoes, that one time Bruce couldn’t stop staring at some random nerdy reporter’s ass, the list goes on. Also, Bruce’s frequent liaisons with Batman are kind of a dead give away. HILARIOUS!

the second Tim finds out what the Court has done, he takes the evidence straight to Batman Short but sweet Talon!Dick AU.

Peter and Johnny have a competition to see who can take the best picture. This is adorable.

Dick liked to think he had a pretty good handle on the whole ‘big brother’ thing by now, even if Tim still saw sleep as optional and Damian still got a little stabby when a hug lasted too long. But then Damian’s other big brother comes to town, mysterious and red-helmeted and oddly familiar, and seems to want nothing to do with the Bats sans Damian. Damian is strangely close-lipped about his other brother's past, but Dick is determined to find out more about the Red Hood - he could always use more little brothers, anyway! Aw Dick. I enjoyed this.

Afterward--after they'd made arrangements for Copperhead, and been returned to their normal selves, after Zatanna had thanked them both and expressed a bit of smiling regret that Nightwing had gotten caught in the crossfire ("Oh, no problem! No harm done, and I'm always hoppy to help!")--afterward, when Bruce returned home, he was somehow not one whit surprised that a new picture already held pride of place on the kitchen refrigerator. Himself, dressed up in Clark's infernal costume, with a lagomorphic Nightwing perching on his shoulder. They were waving out at the audience, who had clearly ignored the no photography rule for the performance, and doubtless posted online extravagantly. oh heart! A wonderful coda for season 2, episode 54, S'tel ees a cigam wohs!

@heyitsspiderman: people act like they know this city but when i’m in the air i find more boroughs all the time. so far ive counted ten. dont listen to big brother in your ceiling (google) telling you otherwise (google maps) The Spider gang links up via social media while waiting for Peni to figure out how they can safely travel to each other's dimensions.

Ronan Lynch is a little boy when he sees him for the first time. There and then gone again, a shock of black and white in the trees. Ronan sees him in his dreams, of course, in the forest in which he so often ends up. Nicely done Sandman/TRC crossover.

Bruce quits being Batman in the wake of Jason's death, tells the world who he is, then retires to Montana and slowly finds healing. And when Jason comes back to life six months later, and Talia tells him 'you remain unavenged,' he can't find any evidence to support that, so he goes home. this is a really lovely AU.

For the first time ever, things are finally looking up for the Wayne family. Bruce is back in the present, Jason has mostly reconciled with them all, and Damian no longer spends his free time trying to murder his brother in cold blood. So of course Dick has to go and ruin it all by putting together a family vacation from hell. This is hilarious.

“Um,” asks the little voice at the other end of the phone, “are you Selina?” Selina pulls the phone away from her face to check the screen again, making sure that she’s not going crazy. No, the phone calling her is definitely Batman’s. “What,” she says, “the hell?” Robin calls Selina for help when Batman is hurt somehow. This is adorable.

"I’m Tim," he says, though introducing himself to a puppy makes him flush in embarrassment. "Are you hungry?" The dog blinks at him, all scared eyes. "Where’s your family?" Tim asks. "Did they leave you?" 12-year-old Tim finds a friend. I'm not crying you're crying.