My Astro Prof Just Told Us That The Stars Are Dying And Wtf??? How Am I Supposed To Worry About The Impermenence

To be Batman is a job that should have been impossible. A job that should have required more than what any one man is able to give. Somehow Bruce had managed to do that and keep the company running well enough to use it to fund practically every programme helping keep Gotham safe.

Dick thinks Bruce was about three people. The vigilante, the businessman and the father.

When Bruce dies Dick and Tim are forced to divvy up his responsibilities. Who else is going to do it? Cass is in Hong Kong and Jason hates Bruce far too fully to contemplate becoming any aspect of him. Steph and Barbara are staying in the business but they never really belonged to Bruce. Not like Dick and Tim did.

Damian is a whole separate issue.

So that leaves Dick and Tim to slice Bruce into pieces small enough for the two of them to swallow. Dick takes on the mantle of Batman. Obviously. It’s the heaviest burden to bear and Dick’s the oldest. He’s been doing this the longest. Tim takes on the mantle of the businessman. He’s always been the smartest. Dick knows that he’ll be the best fit for tricking a boardroom full of sharks into pretending they're something benevolent.

After they finish tearing off fistfuls of their father's legacy, Tim looks at Dick with something exhausted in his eyes. Something that makes him look like he's given up. “I can’t be your Robin, can I?” he asks.

Dick knows that Tim must already know the answer. Dick also knows that his little brother deserves the closure of hearing it out loud.

“No” Dick confirms, refusing to look at Tim. The air of the room, already saturated with grief, grows heavier with a new type of loss. “You’re my little brother." Dick says haltingly. "I couldn’t be him, not for you.” He hopes that Tim can understand what he means, even though he knows the words aren’t quite right.

Tim nods and Dick feels the bittersweet lifting of some of the burden from his shoulders. Neither of them talk about how to split the final third of Bruce's responsibilities, the ones he'd taken on as a father. That's a legacy the two of them let slip into a grave unspoken.

In fairness, that particular role of Bruce’s wasn’t essential to fill. It’s not like he’d even been that good at it.

~

Dick doesn’t think any more on it for a while, not until the first time he sees Damian wearing the Robin costume and looking so much more nervous than Dick had expected.

“Are you okay?” he asks, fighting the urge to shift under the weight of the suit. It doesn’t fit quite right yet but he’s sure it will suit him better with time.

Damian's eyes narrow. “Yes.” he responds far too quickly.

Dick hesitates for a moment, trying to remember what he wanted to hear when he filled the same role as the boy stood in front of him. He tries to remember what Bruce had said, wearing the same suit Dick does now, and looked at a nine year old kid ready to twist his childhood into a crusade.

“You don’t have to be flawless." Dick starts, thinking of how imperfection is a luxury Damian has been unable to afford in the past. "You can make mistakes and you can do things wrong and I promise that it won’t change anything.” He leans down so that he’s on Damian's level, praying that he used to be similar enough to the boy in front of him for these to be the right things to say. “I’ll be right here to fix things if anything happens.”

Damian huffs. “As if I would ever display such amateur behaviour.” But Dick thinks he might look slightly less tense than he did a moment ago.

Dick isn’t meant to have to act as a father. That wasn’t the deal. He’s meant to become Batman, to handle this part of Bruce so that the world can keep on spinning. He wasn’t meant to have to become Bruce. He wasn’t meant to have to give more than what he has.

But Dick has always been good at taking on a little more than he should be able to handle. So he touches Damian’s shoulder and uses all his best words and hopes that maybe this will be enough.

Selina & Talia

1 2 3 wrote a bunch more for this and it’s on ao3 now lol

Talia is making dinner with Selina when the Sirens burst in.

Selina had said that something like this would happen one day but this is the first time Talia has met them during her and Selina’s relationship.

“Guess what we-” Harley Quinn crows before stopping abruptly at the sight of Talia in the kitchen and Damian at the table. “Who’re you?”

Pamela Isley rolls her eyes before stepping forwards and holding out a hand. “Selina’s been telling us all about her new paramour, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” she says. Talia raises an eyebrow but shakes the hand. She supposes that if Selina likes these people so much she can stomach being polite.

Harley, who had been looking Talia up and down from behind Pamela, steps forward and thrusts her hand out for Talia to shake as well. “Harley Quinn, pleasure to meet ya. And I’ve got to say you are a real improvement on the last guy Cat dated. Like really. Wowza.” Pamela elbows Harley in the ribs but she just responds by kissing her on the cheek. Talia raises an eyebrow at Selina who nods that yes, they’re always like this. Harley turns towards the kitchen table where Damian has turned away from his laptop and is looking at the group of them with undisguised judgement. “And is this your little one?”

“Yes.” Talia answers. She shoots a look at Damian since she can sense that he’s about three seconds from starting a fight. “He is.”

Harley leans down so that her face is level with Damian’s. “Isn’t he a cutie?”

“Continue to disrespect me and I shall remove your head from your shoulders, Quinn”

“And he’s got spunk!” she praises, her lack of fear just making Damian scowl harder. “Who’s the Daddy?” she asks, turning back to Talia.

“My ex.” Talia and Selina answer in unison.

Pamela looks up at the two of them sharply from where she had been inspecting the food and there’s a hint of confusion on Harley’s face for the first time in the whole conversation.

Talia knows it’s undignified, but she can’t help herself from a moment of sharp laughter. She might have been embarrassed over it if not for the way Selina giggles into her shoulder afterwards.

hii!! are u going to continue the tim/bernard thing u wrote? because i love it n i think u did so well with it n i would be really happy about a new part🤍

i'm not planning to, that was just meant to be a lil oneshot type thing but i'm glad you liked it!! <3

Morgana and Merlin are in a cave together and they’re not fighting.

Neither of them are quite sure why. They’re definitely supposed to be fighting, but maybe that’s a reason in and of its self. Both of them have always been terrible at doing what they’re supposed to.

“We used to be friends.” Merlin says.

“You used to have a crush on me.” she snorts.

“Well you had a crush on me too.”

“I did not!” Morgana snaps. She manages to inject just enough offence into her voice that Merlin smiles at her a little like he used to before she learned how to hate.

“Well you would have if you’d known me.”

And, well, Morgana can’t say that he’s wrong exactly.

They keep not fighting. Morgana wonders if flirting is another word for truce.

“Hobie did more for Miles after knowing him for ten minutes than Gwen did” my brother in christ one of these characters was presented as having very little fondness, one might even say some derision, for spider society while for the other it was their entire support system they are not the same

I tried to make the ‘oh no they can be birds how terrible’ thing make more sense and here it is:

At first it’s wonderful.

Everything’s just as it was before. Tai still flirts with Raven, Qrow still spends too much time on his scythe, Summer still rolls her eyes at them constantly, even if she’s smiling. The only thing that changes is that Raven and Qrow spend their nights spying on their enemies instead of sleeping with their team. Sometimes they change forms during the day and sky-dance for a while, cackling at their freedom with croaking voices.

Sometimes Ozpin will give Raven and Qrow these looks, like he’s already mourning them.

They don’t pay the looks any heed, their second mistake. Their first was taking his poisoned gift in the first place.

Things start to change when the pain begins. It’s a twinge at first, something both of them barely notice, but it gets worse with every transformation. After a few months it makes Qrow throw up for the first time. It’s flecked with blood and specks of something black that leaves an awful taste in the back of his throat.

“Gross.” Raven says in her human form next to him before walking away. She doesn’t tease him about it so Qrow is fairly nice to her when she throws up the next time they need to transform.

Ozpin doesn’t stop giving them those looks. All sad and regretful and grieving.

Tai and Summer start to notice that something’s going on pretty soon after that. They already knew about the extra missions, of course, but Qrow and Raven figured that their new power could be a Branwen Tribe secret. It should have been an easy secret to keep, but then Raven starts to distance herself and Qrow starts to snap and both of them hurt all the time and nothing’s ever easy any more.

“We’re worried about you guys.” Tai says, voice full of concern. Summer nods in agreement, far too earnest, and both Raven and Qrow feel it tear at them a little.

Neither of them have an answer and so they’re forced to find ways to cope. Raven starts talking to their family a little too much, visiting home a little too often. Qrow starts to drink.

It only works for a while.

“Humans are not quite whole,” Ozpin says when Qrow goes to him, begging for answers. “Maybe all it took was a brush with magic for your soul to remember its missing piece.”

The conversation makes Qrow feel worse so he drinks enough that he’s forgotten it by morning. He never fully remembers it, even if his soul always does.

oh my god I just realised that hooty is long furby

me, watching the first few episodes of the owl house s2 and realising that the Very Long fic I have planned out is going to have to change Drastically: cool cool cool cool no doubt no doubt no doubt

Nezuko wakes up shaking.

Is it really waking up if you were already conscious, just out of control? As she looks at her brother's bloody form it certainly feels like the first time she’s opened her eyes since arriving in the forest. But who can really be sure?

His throat has been torn out. His clothes have been ripped to shreds. Underneath the ragged strips of cloth there’s barely anything left of him. Just some bone, some gristle. The inedible parts. His face is almost entirely whole though. As tears fill her eyes Nezuko wonders if this is because something deep down stopped her from being able to destroy her brothers face, but she knows that the only reason that part of him was left untouched is that there isn’t that much flesh there.

His eyes are glassy and unseeing.

Dead.

“No,” she whispers, the magnitude of this atrocity finally settling on her shoulders. “No, no, no, no-“

Her refrain only stops once she jams her hand in her mouth. Her jaw keeps moving as if trying to continue the refusal to accept reality and soon her hand is bleeding from the places where her teeth sink into it. The taste of her own blood sends a disjointed euphoria shooting through Nezuko’s brain and she jerks her hand back in horror. Desperate to somehow scrub away what she just did she shovels snow into her mouth to wash away the taste. She keeps chewing on it, pain zapping through her teeth from the cold, until she can spit it out without a trace of pink in the puddle of drool and bile she creates.

She scrubs the blood from her face so desperately that the snow makes small cuts in her skin. Better to be covered in her own blood rather than her brother’s though.

The thought makes her look back towards Tanjiro’s body. Her tears finally begin to fall.

“I did that,” she admits, the salt of her tears stinging as it floods her cuts and scrapes. She kneels down next to Tanjiro’s body. He looks peaceful and Nezuko hates it. Hates the way it reminds her how kind he was. How he would have forgiven her for doing this without question. “I did this. And I won’t ever let it happen again. Not to anyone.”

The forest grows silent for a moment in acknowledgement of her vow. Or maybe in shock that a demon would commit to such a thing.

After she’s said her prayers over his body she carefully takes out Tanjiro’s earrings. Nezuko doesn’t have her ears pierced yet so she just forces the metal through her ear lobes and is surprised by the lack of pain.

All that’s left is to bury him.

~

Almost as soon as she’s finished heaving snow back on top of the grave dawn begins to break. Before the first rays of light can inch above the horizon a primal fear takes hold of Nezuko and she sprints for the nearest cover. A cave that she digs herself into, deep enough that the sunlight will never touch her with its poison. It’s before she even realises it’s what she’s doing that she falls unconscious and begins to dream of brothers and blood and hell.

Nezuko sleeps for a very long time.

Tell me I’m wrong