No more need for ‘damian looks just like his father’ society has progressed passed the point for ‘damian looks just like bruce’
Damian who looks unmistakably like Talia nation rise
Modern Batman’s comics would be 10x more entertaining if there was a running joke about how Bruce’s only biological son is ironically the only one who does not resemble him, while all of his adopted sons look like they could be his literal clones.
Imagine a woman coming to Bruce & Tim in some Gala and shaking Tim’s hands while saying something like “Oh! You must be Bruce Wayne’s real son that everyone is talking about, Damian was it? It’s an honor to finally meet you!” then an annoyed voice below her says “no bitch that’s me” and the woman looks down to see a small brown Arab boy with his hands on his hips and looking at her with pure disgust and anger for daring to mistake Tim for him.
“I’m unavailable right now. If you can’t reach me, don’t reach me.”
Bruce tries not to let his panic show when his call goes unanswered before being directed to voicemail for the fourth time in a row. He doesn’t succeed, but he doesn’t really care right now. Not when his son could be hurt or worse!
He ignores the look Talia is giving him and tries Jason’s number again. It rings until it goes to voicemail. Again.
“Beloved,” Talia starts and Bruce almost cracks.
Images of Jason’s lifeless body fill his mind, as news reports from Jason’s last known location replays continue to fill the cave. He can’t help it. He already lost his son once, he won’t survive it if it happens again.
“I will call him.” Talia orders firmly, directing Bruce to a seat.
“If I can’t reach him, I doubt even you can.” Jason knows how he worries. If he was alright, he would let Bruce know.
Talia may have bonded with Bruce’s son while he was in her care but Jason is his son. It’s not the same.
Talia gives him a look, almost like the one she gets when she thinks he’s being stupid but not quite. He’s too worried about Jason to be bothered. She doesn’t say anything more as she pulls out her cellphone and dials.
The phone barely rings before Talia is speaking into the receiver.
“Habibi.” She greets , voice very fond and affectionate in a way he’s only ever heard her sound when she’s talking with Damian.
“I saw the news. Are you well?”
Bruce stares dumbfoundead as she lets out a small laugh. He can’t hear anything from the other end of the call, but the thought of Jason making Talia laugh, causes jealousy to burn hot and fierce within him. Jason used to make him laugh.
“Of course, my love.”
Bruce makes grabby hands for the phone, but Talia sidesteps him without missing a beat.
“Call your father, you know how he is.”
She smiles again, Bruce can’t get over how much softer her eyes are when she does that.
“Stay safe. Love you.” then she turns to Bruce after hanging up. “He is fine, just a bit busy.”
“What was that?” Bruce explodes. “Since when are you and Jason chummy?”
Talia lifts a brow at him, like he’s a bratty child throwing a tantrum. Like he’s making a mountain out of a molehill and she didn’t just have a whole conversation with his son, when said son sent his calls to voicemail.
“Since he is my son?”
“He’smyson.”
“I’m aware, Beloved.”
“He sent my calls to voicemail but he answered yours on the first ring.” Bruce did not whine. He is Batman. Batman does not whine.
“My calls are important.”
He ignores the insult, snatching her phone to get the phone number Talia had just used. Maybe she has a special contact that Bruce doesn’t have.
It turns out to be the exact same eleven digits he has. He dials it again on his phone. Listening to the phone ring and sighing when it is sent to voicemail.
Talia pats him on the arm. “He is busy right now. He will call you as soon as he’s able.”
In fact, she couldn’t believe she even endedup like this and was stillalive. Clearly, having Tikki’s luck was extremely helpful.
She straightened her back to an almost painful angle as she heard her ‘leader’s’ icy voice echo through the room.
“Marinette,” Talia Al Ghul greeted her, and silently, Marinette took her appointed place next to the woman.
Ra’s Al Ghul seated himself next to Talia, leaning back in his chair.
Slowly, all the other members of the League of the Assassins filtered into the room as Talia and Ra’s watched on impassively.
Without giving a single thought away, Marinette wondered what today’s meeting was about.
Generally, Talia told her everything (as her right-hand woman, so to say) and needless to say, Marinette took advantage of it to prepare herself.
However, for this particular meeting, Talia hadn’t breathed a single word to Marinette. In fact, Marinette wasn’t even aware it was to happen today until a low-ranking member informed her of it.
Blank mask faltering for a milli-second, Marinette panicked and wondered if she had blown her cover somehow and this meeting was to discuss her fate.
“Welcome, honoured members of the League of the Assassins,” Talia said smoothly, oblivious to Marinette’s panic. “Apologies for calling this unexpected and unplanned meeting; something urgent has to be communicated.”
Marinette breathed a sigh of relief; she hadn’t blown her cover - this was a completely unplanned meeting.
Thank the kwamis.
“Recently,” Ra’s leaned forward now, adding his own contribution. “A few assassins found the body of a certain individual you may recognize the name of…Jason Todd.”
There was no physical reaction of any of the trained assassins, but Marinette, with her slightlyenhanced hearing, could hear several heartbeats picking up; in excitement or fear, she couldn’t tell.
“Ra’s and I plan to resurrect him with the use of the Lazarus Pits, a magical creation I am sure you have heard of.” Talia continued.
Thistime there was a reaction. Several of the assassins straightened even further with a jerk, while others looked at Talia, aghast.
“You cannot be serious!” One assassin cried out.
He was quickly shut up with a frosty glare from Marinette. She needed to know more about this.
From all she had learnt about the vigilantes of Gotham, she knew that Jason Todd had been one of the Robins, killed by the infamous, insane Joker. Batman had, apparently, taken his death hard, being crueller and crueller with the criminals until the thirdRobin came along; Timothy Drake.
Not that the league knew she had that knowledge.
The saying that knowledge was power rang especially true in the situations that Marinette often found herself in, particularly with Talia.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when Talia shot the assassin who interrupted a particularly evil glare. “As I was saying, we plan to resurrect him in the Lazarus Pits, as per the wish of my father, and keep him under our care.”
Ah, Marinette thought, so that was the point of all this.
Keeping someone under the league’s care essentially meant converting them into one of their own.
In any other situation, Marinette would have said the same had happened to her, except for the fact that it hadn’t.
She was in the League of Assassins of her own free volition and her own agenda.
All of a sudden, all the assassins were agreeing, nodding in time.
Marinette resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
All was forgotten when the league got a new assassin…not like the Lazarus Pits could cause permanent mental damage to those who took even a single dip in it.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Marinette coughed as she shielded her eyes from the bright, toxic green colours of the Lazarus Pits.
As Talia’s right-hand woman, it was a given that she would accompany Talia and Ra’s as they resurrected Jason.
The Lazarus Pits glowed starkly against the pitch darkness of the underground cave they were in.
Talia, somehow, seemed unperturbed by it. “Move to the banks of the Pits!” she ordered, loudly, and the assassins carrying Jason’s corpse immediately hurried there.
Marinette took some more time, sensitive to the dust and heavilywishing she could wear her miraculous right now. At least it provided some extra protection against all this toxicity.
As she arrived at the banks of the Pits, Marinette saw that they had already begun to take out Jason’s body from the bag they had brought him in.
When she saw the state he was in, Marinette felt the urge to puke. What kind of sickowould do this to anyone?
Talia hadn’t even spared the body a glance, instead, analysing the waters of the Pits.
If she leaned any further, she was going to fall right in, Marinette thought with a healthy amount of malice.
Once they had the body out, one of the assassins turned to Talia.
Already excited at the prospect of getting another assassin, Talia gleefully said, “Dip it in.”
Talia didn’t even see Jason Todd as a real person.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Fast-forwarding to a few months later, you would find Marinette and Jason sparring in a room in the League of Assassins.
Marinette gave Jason a triumphant grin as she bested him once again. “Nice try, Todd. Fix your stance. Remember, you can’t give your opponent-”
“-A single advantage,” interrupted Jason with an exasperated grin. “I know, it’s not the first time you’ve told me.”
The day Jason was brought back to life went off without a hitch, as Talia often liked to brag to Marinette.
Almost immediately after he was well in terms of physical health, Jason was handed over to Marinette, she being one of the best assassins at the League of the Assassins.
At first, it was awkward with Jason not willing to trust Marinette (why would he?) and Marinette just generally being very awkward around him.
Eventually though, Marinette came to the realization that she needed to tell Jasons something about herself if she was going to get him to trust her.
So she told him she wasn’t like everyone around here.
Something in her tone must have convinced him, though, because the next day, he was seemed to be more willing to trust her.
That was how they ended up at the present moment.
“Come on, Todd.” Marinette shot him an indulgent grin. “Let’s take a water break.”
Jason sat up, giving her a handsome grin that did notmake Marinette’s heart beat faster at all. “Whatever you say.”
As they sat side-by-side on the chilly floor, Marinette felt her skin heat up as Jason’s muscled arms brushed against her own.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, catching their breaths.
“Why do you stay here if you’re not like them?”
Marinette froze. She knew Jason had been wanting to ask this for some time, but she didn’t know whether she should tell him the real reason.
Opting to deflect, she gave him a smirk. “Thinking, are we?”
Rolling her eyes at her poor attempt, Jason didn’t seem to want to budge. “Come on Marinette. Answer the question.”
Marinette waited for a few seconds, hoping that he would take it back and just leave it alone.
When he didn’t she sighed, slouching against the wall. “I have my reasons.”
Jason persisted, though. “What areyour reasons? If they even exist, you know.”
Marinette’s head shot up, hurt and anger dominant in her eyes. “What is thatsupposed to mean?”
Jason didn’t even seem to care that he pissed her off. “Do you know the number of people you’ve killed for Talia? Why would you do that?”
If Marinette knew what would happen next, maybe she would have answered, but at that point, she was just too angry to form a proper, justifiable answer.
Standing up, Marinette leaned down until she was nose-to-nose with Jason.
“Like I said before,” she breathed. “I have my reasons.”
Turning her back on him, she didn’t notice the crestfallen expression on his face as he looked at his watch and then the vent above.
The next day he was gone.
The league never found his body.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Exactly five months and six days later, Marinette was planning her escape from the League of the Assassins.
She had spent yearsplanning her escape and knew her whole plan by heart.
It was simple really; there were only three steps.
The first was to steal the powerful miraculous the league had in their clutches. Marinette could check that off the list, having used several precautions to make sure the league never found out that the 'miraculous’ they now had wasn’t real.
After that, she had to figure out a way to make it seemlike she was dead so that none of the assassins were on the lookout for her. After 'dying’ she was going to escape in the chaos.
The final step was probably the hardest. It was moving to Gotham because Marinette had heard that there were a lotof lost miraculous there.
Like she said before, it was simple.
Gathering all of her importantbelongings, Marinette dumped them all in a corner of the room. Placing the charred body she had stolen from the morgue (don’t even ask), Marinette pulled out a matchbox.
Her eyes glowed as she lit the match on fire, and dropped it casually on the bed.
It lit up immediately, flames sparking and spreading all over the room. Dumping the body on the side of the room, Marinette gathered her belongings and climbed up to the vent in her room.
She wrinkled her nose at the smell.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Five months and twenty-six days later, Marinette had a steady job at Wayne Enterprises, which was being the entire family’s professional designer.
It suited her well, and Marinette could say she definitely enjoyed it.
That was, until she ran into an old acquaintance of hers. Specifically, someone she thought was dead.
To be exact, Jason Todd.
◇─◇──◇─◇
It was a regular day for Marinette.
Until, Mr. Wayne told her she was going to meet the entire Wayne family, suddenly deciding to get a new wardrobe from her.
Completely flabbergasted, Marinette couldn’t find it in herself to refuse, especially with the price Mr. Wayne offered.
She had just finished with Mr. Grayson’s measurements and told him to call the next person in.
That was when he walked in.
He looked a bit older (obviously) but he was just as handsome as ever, and some of the light that was absent in his eyes before, was shining now.
Marinette, who was drinking a sip of water as he walked in, choked on her drink, coughing madly.
Immediately, he launched himself towards her, rubbing her back.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, and all Marinette could register was that he even soundedthe same.
“Holy shit,” Marinette swore. “Jason? Is that you?”
His head snapped back and suddenly Marinette was staring into his familiar blue eyes.
“Marinette?” he gasped, taking a few steps back.
◇─◇──◇─◇
“How are you alive?” Marinette sputtered, unable to believe that this was theJason Todd. How did she not know this?
Completely ignoring her question, Jason asked her one of his own. “What are you doing here?”
“Answer me, first.” Marinette shot him a dangerous glare; something she had perfected in her years at the League of Assassins.
“It’s a long story,” Jason said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Marinette scoffed. “You conned me into thinking you were dead for eleven months. I have time.”
As an individual character, I honestly enjoy what a mess Talia al Ghul is. She’s inconsistent about whether she’ll fight at Bruce’s side or stand by while her dad tries to kill him. She’ll take Bruce’s resurrected dead son in off the street, nurse him back to health, send him all around the world to get the best training possible, then finally see Jason again after a long time apart when he’s an adult and sleep with him. She’ll disobey Ra’s’ orders and rules to save Damian and Jason but whether she’ll do the same for herself or Bruce depends on the day.
What does age mean when you’re only a few decades old yet your father has multiple centuries of life? Possibly millennia? Does she consider Bruce and Jason to both be her own age? What does a generation mean to her?
She loves her son. She wants to get Damian out of the violent cult she was raised in. She can’t imagine a life truly without violence and wants Bruce to train their son as a warrior. She’ll clone her son and have the clone kill him. She’s seen her father die and come back through the Lazarus Pits countless times. She’s died and come back that way. She found her beloved’s dead son and healed him that way.
What is death to Talia al Ghul? What is murdering her son with another son but yet another training method? Another test?
Of course she saves her son from possession and carries him off the battlefield. Of course she kills him. Everyone who matters comes back for Talia. If they don’t come back, where they ever even real?
Made a little comic book cover. it’s a comic to focus on Jason’s time at the league of assassin where Talia is a mother to him with Damian as his little brother. Kind of like lost days but with a little more focus on the lazarus pit recovery. Since Jason got his head bashed in to then be blown up, he lost a lot of his memories.
I might switch out the Batman title later for redhood instead but I didn’t find anything preexisting that worked. For now it’s Batman. I also created the FC (fan comics) logo kinda like DC’s. Lemme know what you guys think!
Grant Morrison deciding to write their fav as a sexual predator in a book that would go on to become many people’s first introduction to that character in the comics
Yj Jason does not have the white streak in his hair
So far there has been no evidence of Pit-like behavior either.
My theory is he died (obvy) woke up in his grave (dug himself out) and was found comatose by Talia.
Talia, who was in Gotham to tell Bruce she was pregnant. Who wanted to leave the shadows because she didn’t want to raise a child amoung a cult of assassins. Talia, who resented Ra’s for partnering with The Light.
Then she finds Jason. Maybe she met him a few times when he was Robin. Maybe the kid cracked a few jokes that made her smile. Jason, the boy that died and took a peice of her beloved with him.
And Talia wonders how Bruce hasn’t noticed he’s alive. And then she thinks ‘Bruce will never be a father before Batman’
And now she’s scared for her child.
So she takes Jason back to Infinity Island. Demands Ra’s departs from the league, or lose Talia and his grandchild.
And Jason is still not Okay. But without the pressures from the league or the light, Jason had time to heal without the Pits. Talia cares for him and bares her child.
Damian isn’t raised within a cult of assassins. And Jason has a chance to grow with Damian - both are going to be incredibly skilled and trained ofc but shown much more compassion and love during their childhood and healing process.
Jason’s memories begin to return after fighting Dick as Nightwing. Jason does have anger, Jason is resentful but also wants to be better.
In the year after recognizing 'Grayson,’ Jason prioritizes his mental health. He trains, he’s a big brother to Damien, he meditates, all to cope with his trauma in a healthier way.
Jason isnt sure if he’s ready to return to Gotham, or Bruce. But for the first time in both his lives, Jason feels safe and given the proper resources to come into his own.
I love that Talia is calling Ra’s ‘Baba’ in Shadow War Zone, it’s so cute! And it also shows more respect for their realcultural background instead of the exotic orientalist non-sense that comic books can fall into.
On the other hand, she calls her grandmother 'Teta’. Which is also good! But in Spanish it means 'Boob’, so I snicker every time I read it ♀️
english was a rather strange language to learn, damian thought. grammatical rules were guidelines at most, there weren’t any declensions, and the language was constantly growing, constantly shifting, constantly changing. it left damian feeling small, malleable—as if the world could change him.
monachopsis: the subtle yet persistent feeling of being out of place.
it wasn’t as though pennyworth’s cooking was bad. far from it, damian remembers in the gold-tinged memories of perching proudly beside his mother at a grand dining table, watching her twine her words around the neck of anyone foolish enough to speak up as he dined on europe’s finest delicacies. but those were—those were special occasions. damian grew up on rice and halwa and eggplant, but he can barely remember the last time he’s had them. lasagna makes him nauseous, black beans make him pick at his food, cheese makes him want to spit out his food (then near-beg for forgiveness afterwards). but everybody else in the house? they love it, they love the stuff. and alfred’s pleasure in cooking, all clementine pith and flannel warmth, was undeniable. so damian eats his pasta and he eats his scrambled eggs and he endures the teasing for the amount of spicy sauce he pours on top. he does not think to ask for different food.
aulasy: the sadness that there’s no way to convey a powerful memory to people who weren’t there at the time
more and more, damian has realized his family thinks of his mother as an enemy. and if not an enemy, then an adversary, a contingency to plan for, burnt wax and blood and fruit gone rotten. damian’s tried to explain it to them—the slow walks he used to take with her in the gardens of nanda parbat, her acetone-tipped nails tracing the stems of flowers through the air, her warm hands on damian’s as she gently let him pet one of the al ghul family’s many rescue animals. she was steeped in death, damian knew that, but she also longed for life. she reveled in the great sweep of trees, and she poured her fierce desire protect others, animals or plants or even people, into damian’s very soul. we used to walk in the garden, damian struggled to say, but when father frowned and offered to take him through wayne manor’s grounds, damian shook his head and batted him off. after all, it wasn’t the gardens he was missing.
exulansis: the tendancy to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it
rumors of brown’s skill with people were greatly exaggerated. at least, that’s the conclusion damian had come to after spending enough time in her presence to make an adequate judgement. out of all of them, she was supposed to be the one most grounded in reality, a foot in both vigilante and civilian worlds, a lighthouse in gotham’s storm. and yet, every time damian attempted to talk to her, she fundamentally misunderstood everything he was trying to say. oh, brown cared, she cared the way ugly callouses thumb the familiar grip of a weapon, she was always willing to listen. but she never quite grasped that grandfather was the one behind most of the plots of the leauge, grandfather was the one who stripped every member down to their bones, grandfather shipped him off to america with nothing but a name and the skills drilled into him. the world was under his thumb, and he couldn’t ever feel free with him still alive, something which brown refused to understand.
liberosis: the desire to care less
there came nights when, without fail, damian would stumble over to a bus station with his monthly ticket gripped tight and take the fourty-five minute ride over to bludhaven. there came nights when, despite his bleary eyes and bruised sides, richard would open his door and pull damian in without a word, holding him tight and pressing a kiss to the top of damian’s head, (exactly the way mother used to do when he would pretend to be asleep and she would pretend to believe him). with every visit, richard had to bend over less and less to do so. she loved me, damian would whisper into richard’s shoulder, wrapped up in blankets with a mug of hot chocolate in his hands. she loved you, richard would reply. but she left me, damian would say, and she did it because it was best for me, but she left me. those were the times when damian felt quite naked, furious splotches on his cheeks and his walls dangerously close to crumbling. because mother had trained him into something deadly and instilled lessons so deep they wouldn’t ever go away and sent him to his father when he wanted her most, but she also wiped away his tears and bandaged his knuckles, brought him sweets from every corner of the world, picked him up and hugged him like he was the light of her life.
(richard, damian would think, understands. richard, damian can imagine, remembers a time when father would laugh with ease and play with his child and throw around the world love like it was infinite. richard has also contemplated, with clench-jawed heartbreak, leaving father behind forever.)
richard would always tug damian a little closer after he had spilled out his soul, leaving nothing but star-speckled milk at the bottom of a cup, and tell him we want to care less, don’t we? it’s easier that way, isn’t it? well, maybe. but it’s so much more painful, so much better to care.
I remember reading this fic in AO3. I’m not sure if it was a Daminette or if it was Bio Dad Bruce or Marinette getting adopted by the Wayne Family. I just remember that the BatFam knows about Mari being the Guardian and then they end up talking about the Lazarus Pit and the effects it left on Jason and Damian. Mari offered to heal them but she’ll have to make positions and the healing needs to be private for each person. Mari first heals Jason and she uses the mouse miraculous to use multiple miraculous and one of them was the Cat. She uses it to cataclysm Jason on the chest and his last thought went smth along the line of ‘Why?’. After that, I think she revives Jason? I don’t remember much about how she brought them back. I do know that she uses her blood for the potion because it needed the blood of someone who is intimate with death or maybe the word was someone who understood death very well. Ofc BatFam doesn’t know this until she heals Jason and starts healing Damian. With Damian, it went a little differently. She kills him and pulls/takes the Chaos Shard from his chest and makes a clone of hers jump into space so that the chaos shard can explode in a safe area, which ends up killing clone her. BatFam finds out what she had to do after that and were devestated.
And that’s pretty much all that I remember of that Fic. Put a link in the comments below if you know what fic it is. Or at least the title and author of it. Thank You very much.
I actually just red this recently but I wasn’t able to finish it cause of wifi problems and I couldn’t find it again. This is a tumblr fic btw. Marinette is actually an Al Ghul and she ran away around 5 and some years ago because smth bad was gonna happen to her. Talia didn’t know why and thought it might’ve been because she was a girl and thought her father as a hypocrite. After her father died she started searching for her with the League (cause they weren’t hypocrites) and found her in Paris, she was gonna give Mari a chance to be a heiress or not and if she didn’t want to then she was fine to stay in Paris. She entered Paris with the League and noticed the Miraculi magic, she and the others didn’t mind because all they were here for was her daughter not knowing they were gonna come across a war. They came across the Miraculous Team fighting Hawkmoth, throwing his staff at Ladybug, that was turned into a sword.
That’s pretty much where I ended before I accidentally lost it. Pls help me, the fic was interesting as far as I red and I want to finish it.
The first thing that comes out of Damian’s mouth when he speaks to Tim is “Marry Me.”
They had never spoken before, but Damian had stalked from afar, hunted his prey and observed everything there was to observe about one Timothy Jackson Drake.
He concluded his observation with two thoughts. One, Timothy was perfect and two, Damian needed him in ways that made his chest hurt when he thought of Tim going off and marrying people who weren’t Damian Wayne.
Remember some chapters are longer than others (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
Okay…. So I’m looking for a story. I don’t know if it’s brucinette or not but marinette got reincarnated into talia’s body? And she’ll be living her normal life but Bruce would be suspicious and and would keep tabs on her and she’ll get angry and would just go off on him for being racist among other things. Does anyone know about this and its name/author?
I finally watched SPY x FAMILY and it’s such a cute show and not a corny as I thought it will be.
It made me imagine an AU where Bruce and Talia got married without him telling her that he’s Batman and without her telling him that she’s the League of Assassins 2nd in command and maybe later on they had Damian who becomes Robin, Batman’s partner, but hiding it from his mother all while also being a member of the League and hiding THAT from his father.
It might be unrealistic, but it’s still fun to think about it.
