Two common Maribat tropes are:
Our favourite sassy butler is Marinette's godgrandfather.
Hawkbitch wins and the Batfam step in to help Mari stop him.
Thus, I propose this:
(TW for implied physical & domestic abuse)
Adribat AU where Gabriel succeeds in reviving Emilie & erases all memory of the Miraculous events from Parisians. Emilie is the only one who remembers his misdeeds and despite his memory loss, Adrien retains Chat Noir's instincts & defiance, much to Gabriel's displeasure. He forces them to play house with him and violently lashes out whenever they disobey.
One thing Gabriel couldn't erase was the friendship between the Graham de Vanilys and the Pennyworths. Thus, when Gabriel's abuse goes too far, she contacts Alfred & together, they smuggle Adrien to Gotham.
Alfred and Bruce are no longer young & the cowl is ready for Cassandra. Seeing Adrien's potential, Alfred personally trains him to take over his responsibilities so he can watch over the Batkids.
Between an enraged father, evil butterflies & the homo-magi community's unease, Adrien will find working for the Batfamily to be the least bizarre aspect of his life.
I so see this happening
I just know Jason is so fed up with the rest of the Batfam not knowing how much of a shitbag Dick was when he was a teenager. I know this man looks like a complete nutcase when he tries to convince Tim or Damian that Dick had his asshole phase, too. Don’t believe his fucking golden boy, depressed, running on fumes, burnt out, “I’d give everything and then some for the good of the world” act. He’s a lying liar that lies. It’s ALL lies.
Mr. Professional Older Brother was a goddamn menace to society, and Jason Todd is gonna PROVE IT, DAMNIT.
“I know what you are,” says Jason.
“Lol,” says Dick. “Lmao.”
This will be going in age and highlighting what I feel is sort of the core source of tension between Bruce and his various ‘kids’, it’s not exhaustive, but it covers the biggest glowing red spot I feel, now, from oldest to youngest!
Dick: Dick is the favorite, but this basically just means he gets picked for the toughest battles, is held tot he most insanely high standard and is otherwise the one Bruce leans on the most and that is a crushing weight.
Cassandra: Cass is the one he projects onto, this means they get along, but also means he’s constantly undermining her physical and mental health & making her life worse because its what he does to himself and won’t let her be her own person.
Jason: Jason, be he alive, dead or ressurected is probably the one Bruce is most comfortable loving, but understands the absolute least, no matter his state he does not know what Jason needs, was, or will do at any given moment.
Stephanie: Steph isn’t his kid but he made her Robin; I’d say he is very fond of her, but that he ultimately resents her more than any of the others, because she reminds him of Jason, because she won’t yield and that this motivates his abuse of her.
Timothy: Tim is the one he identifies with most, not projects onto, not the favorite, but the one who he looks at and goes, “Oh its me”, likely cos of their similar class, which causes him to try and make Tim more like him at Tim’s expense.
Duke: Duke is tricky cos I don’t know of any major fallout between them, but based on what I’ve read I would say he puts perhaps the most pressure on Duke, he ‘sees great things in him’ and so piles on the expectations till the breaking point.
Damian: This was hard for the source of it is simple, I honestly feel Damien is the one he is the least invested or connected with. He’ll acknowledge Damien as his son, but he won’t put any real effort into the relationship unless its impacting him.
I firmly believe that Jason Todd was the scrawniest Robin by a very wide margin (he was both short and a beanpole) he earned the nickname Little Wing by literally being a spec of a child.
Sure, all the robins were small (they’re kids) but Jason was notably scrawny.
This is why basically no one saw it coming that he was Red Hood. My man died, fucked off for four years, experienced puberty and came back 14 inches taller and built like a fridge.
Red Robin: -and that’s that losers.
Chat: [walks in] hey batfam! what’s poppin’?
Spoiler: hey chat! red robin was just bragging about his body count.
Chat: [pauses] like partners or…?
Spoiler: murder
Chat: [oddly brightens up and addresses red robin] oh! so what’s your number?
Red Robin: [shrugs] a few hundreds
Chat: like in one go?
Red Robin: …uh yeah- why are you being so casual about this???
Chat: well with the miraculous cure and all that, almost everyone in the court has ended a life somehow.
Red Hood: well, don’t hold back on my account. spill.
Chat: i know viperion had to remove certain variables to succeed in time loops. maybe a few hundreds for him too?
Signal: it’s always the quiet ones, huh?
Chat: oh yeah! the dragon miraculous is our aoe damage dealer. i don’t think most of the victims recovered after being hit by a bolt of lightning. huh, i always wondered why she always used that one.
Signal: …well, there’s no way my dude carapace could have done damage- he’s like your tank or something, right?
Chat: …
Signal: …. right?
Chat: his shield can shrink….
Signal: ….
Chat: … people inside don’t shrink with it
Signal: jesus
Nightwing: oh, do you! do you!
Chat: [suddenly sheepish] well…
Nightwing: ?? well???
Chat: there was this deleted timeline where i became akumatized and drowned all of paris.
Nightwing: holy shit- that’s like what? millions?
Red Robin: 2 million. damn, are you okay?
Chat: mhmm! ladybug made us all go to therapy.
Robin: … what about her?
Chat: oh! oh. oh….
Red Hood: ???? don’t tell me that tiny thing did more damage than you did! isn’t she like creation and shit??
Chat: no! actually when you think about it, ladybug would be on the same estimate as viperion.
Red Hood: oh, thank fuck!
Chat: multimouse has me beat though.
Red Hood: who??? and how???
Red Robin: [pulls out computer from who knows where] marinette dupain-cheng. temporary hero. was outed in battle-
Spoiler: -oooh pretty-
Red Robin: -powers: dividing into smaller copies, retains original strength. what did she do?????
Chat: it’s not in there but each copy can merge with another miraculous. i think the story goes is that she wore all the miraculous in the mother box and destroyed 3 galaxies including ours.
Everyone: …….
Ladybug: [walks in] hello, everyone! [realizes the tension] errm, what’s wrong?
Robin: [without skipping a beat] is it wise to keep marinette dupain-cheng alive?
Ladybug: [is marinette but they don’t know that] ?????????!!!!!!!!
thought of this after reading that tim freaked out after bruce “died” and blew up a lot of people
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Past Tense, Pt. 1"
The first time Damian calls Tim his brother is when Tim is beating his ass at Mario Party and after Tim steals yet another star Damian throws his controller down and yells, "I am your BABY BROTHER!"
Dick: Hey guys what’s up?
Damian: Silence! this is a debate I intend to win.
Dick: huh?
Jason *eating popcorn* : You’re gonna wanna see this
Tim: BY FAR IT IS ONLY LOGICAL TO ASSUME-
Steph: LOGIC HAS NO PART YOU’RE JUST BIASED
Jason: They’re fighting over who was the loosest cannon Robin which caused the most chaos
Dick:
Dick *reaches for popcorn*
Jason *slaps his hand* : Nuh-uh Goldie only the one with the title of MOST CHAOTIC ROBIN gets to eat popcorn
Tim: YOU ARE A LITERAL ASSASSIN WHOS TRIED TO MURDER SEVERAL PEOPLE
Damian: REMIND ME OF YOUR BODYCOUNT?!
Dick: what now-
Drake: THAT WAS BARELY ANY AS ROBIN
Steph: Dudes I was literally Robin to piss off my dad and became friends with poison ivy and Harley
Jason: You’re all just competing for second place
Dick: .. wait what about me?
Everyone *stops and stares*
Damian: Nightwing, this is serious
Tim: Yeah dude I remember your reputation as Robin and you haven’t changed
Batman: .. are you all done with the bust?
Steph: BATSY! Just who we want to see! So.. tell us, who was the most chaotic robin ever
Batman *without hesitation* : Nightwing
Penguin *tied up after the bust* : Yeah it was blue
Damian:
Tim:
Steph:
Jason:
Dick *steals popcorn* : Y’all better start putting respect on my damn name
some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.
keeping this as a reminder whenever i feel like my writing isn’t good enough
Dick being zen and jason being jason: