dc_nation, posts by tag: robin jason todd - LiveJournal

Eddie had just been finishing his homework when Jason showed up at his door inviting him out to have some fun. He'd been a little reluctant at first but Jason was convincing and Eddie was eager to spend time with his new brother. So he suited up and went out into Gotham with Jason. Swinging on the lines and jumping rooftops was a lot of fun and Eddie was getting a lot better at it the more he did it. Then there was a small mishap. A strong gust of wind and a thrown away newspaper led to Eddie crashing into Jason and both tumbling right into the river. Neither was hurt but they were both soaked.

And now they're back in the Batcave. Dripping on the floor, Eddie wraps his arms around himself and manages a small smile.

"That w-was a lot of fun until we went swimming."

Conner was a person like anyone else despite his powers. He ate, he slept, he dreamed. And lately his dreams were strange, connected maybe. Sometimes he saw his friends, those lost at Clearwater, lost. Sometimes he was watching a movie, or reading a comic, but all the words on the page or subtitles on the screen were replaced with just one word. "ALIVE!" These dreams happened every night, and they seemed so vivid, so real, Conner had a hard time thinking they were anything but. Which is why he put out the call to the other Titans ten minutes ago.

Leading the Titans ... it was a weird feeling for someone who had never really needed to be responsible about anything before. Still, he was trying his best to be ready for it. He was actually willingly reading!! Books no less! He had already gone through Sun Tzu's Art of War. If he was in charge, he didn't want any of his friends to get hurt because he didn't know what to do. He was reading The Book of Five Rings as he waited for the other Titans to arrive. He had called Cissie too. She was an honorary Titan in his mind, and Cassie was- is- her best friend too. She deserves to be here like anyone else. Right now though ... he just hoped everyone didn't think he was crazy.

"One Hundred Eighteen...One Hundred Nineteen...One Hundred Twenty."

Eidolon landed from his last burpee and dragged his arm across his forehead. Breathing heavily and sweating, Eddie's not smiling for once. He'd been training down in the Batcave, running through the exercises he'd been given and doing a little extra before he got to the burpees he owed. Eddie really didn't mind the exercise. He liked the effects it was having on him. The fact that he wasn't such a scrawny and skinny guy anymore amazed him. He actually had muscle tone these days. Not a lot but it was there. What bothered Eddie was that he was still stuttering. He hated it. Especially after the speech Batman had given him when he set up the 'burpees every stutter' thing.

"Got to...stop. Stop stuttering," he told himself. "Be better, stop being afraid," he went on. He stood there, trying to catch his breath and debating just doing more exercises.

Jason had been spending time getting used to being alive once again. Which was more than just being so happy that he wasn't dead and in the ground. He had found out about his grave. That had been unsettling and he wasn't going to go near it.

No, he did not need that kind of closure. What he needed was to start understanding what had happened since he had expired. (He'd say die at some point. He really would, just not yet.)

So he had retreated to the Batcave frequently. He had smirked when he found out he could still get into the computer. It was way different now though. New OS, new layout and all. It had made him stop and just sit there to take it all in.

Then he had gone back to looking at things. Reading and studying everything just after his death. So much had happened since he expired. It was disturbing how much had happened. Poor Babs she deserved better and she had to go through so much around the same time he died. Still Jason didn't stop reading even as his hands started to shake a little from just how much had gone on. He had gotten up into the middle of 2005 when he had to sit back and rub his eyes.

It is possible for eyeballs to ache after a time. And right about then he is aware he has been here for hours. Maybe he needs a break.

He knows he isn't ready to go flying out there. Not yet. Bruce knows that; of that Jason is certain.

Conner sat in the kitchen, eating some pizza. Titan's tower had never felt so lonely. It'd always felt like, well, a home to Conner. It felt like home as much as, or maybe more than the Kent farm. Now it just felt empty. He missed his friends. He missed his family. Because that's what the Titans were, they were a family. Now, it felt like that was gone. That depressed him as much as anything else. "No."

It didn't have to be that way. It wouldn't be. Somehow, he'd make it right. The world needs the Titans. Almost as much as the Titan's themselves need the team. He was going to make a new team, and hopefully it'd be at least a fraction of what it used to be. He began to think of who to have on the team. Bart for sure ... Definitely Tim, and mayb-

*Ding Dong*

Conner turns as the doorbell rings, and he walks over, still thinking it over. He opens the door, and a grenade flies at his face. It goes off in a cloud of green dust, and Conner stumbles back, his skin on fire and feeling weaker by the second. Oh god, he'd inhaled some. "Kryptonite." He rasped as he collapsed, coughing as his lungs seared and his head felt like it'd explode any moment.

Dick Grayson had had some bad days, but so far, this one got to be top of the list. He had been beaten, broken, even killed, but death by explosion was now going on the list of things he was too old to do. Technically, it, and everything else, was on his list of things he was too dead to do, but he wasn't in the mood to quibble over little details. He sat contemplating his final fate in a vast expanse with a rather spiffy cosmic motif. Finally, after internalizing for a little while, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"How did this all happen?" He asked no one in particular. "Babs... Jason... Roy... Everything just went all screwy somewhere along the line... "  There was a light in the distance, with something oddly like a call coming from it. Dick ignored it as he continued thinking and on-and-off voicing those thoughts to the universe.

Ah! The joys of modern convenience,

Alfred Pennyworth is unpacking the assorted delivered foodstuffs that have been shipped in this afternoon. He shakes his head as he once again hides the coffee Master Bruce insists on using instead of sleep.

Instead of his bill, however, he sees a missive folded inelegantly and stuffed into the invoice envelope.

Alfred,

Thanks for being nice to me. There've been three bright, unmarred spots in my lives and you're one of the three. Unfortunately, no one else in the big house qualifies, so I'm gonna have to give you this message to give to old Brucie. Tell him it ends tonight.

- J

PS: My replacement's not half bad.

As if on queue, the public radio station which had been playing "A Prairie Home Companion" switches to an urgent news flash.

...According to Gotham city police, Arkham Asylum is under some kind of persistent electronic quarantine. So far, there has been no ransom or reported escape attempts...

"Master Bruce," he says into an intercom. "You may wish to come upstairs and check the news..."

The days get more blurry and hazy the longer he's Red Hood.  Jason is his name in dreams and the most hideous days are went he's sleepwalking.  On those days he knows he's going to day, and this time he would waltz happily to a dirt nap.  His soul his his, but its on stand-by - trapped in this sick fuck.

Bastard's gotta sleep sometime.

Roy Harper spent most of his day in front of a drum set. It wasn't practice, per se, as he wasn't concerned about what came out wrong. He's gotten better over the years, far beyond the novice he started out as, but he isn't as self-conscious of the mistakes when it's just him and the drums.

A lot of personal belongings in his life were being culled. There were things that he could simply touch and know that they weren't his. There was a disconnection of attachment. When he sat down at the drums, though, he didn't feel any of that. He hadn't meant to remain there for several hours, but maybe a righteous rock session was exactly what he needed to get all the bad juju out of his system.

It made him realize he needed to get out. It was a passing thought, at first, after he put the sticks down, and then it climbed almost like a panic. The feeling was familiar, and that wasn't the most terrifying part. He couldn't fight it. He'd had panic attacks in his life, but this wasn't quite the same. As soon as he was breathing fresh air, the feeling dissipated into nothingness.

Are you going to let yourself climb back into that hole, Harper? Is that really the man you wanna be? No, it wasn't, but it's been months and he hasn't been able to get back to that person he used to think he was. He didn't like the thought that that guy might not come back, or that he was just as much a charade as Killswitch. How much of each of their personalities was made up of the other?

Not enough that you don't know when you're being a moron. That was the cincher. He needed to be some place alone but not alone. Food and beer was a plus so he could eat and think at the same time. His thoughts got dangerously dark when he was hungry. It was time to go to Warrior's.

In less than thirty minutes, he's at the bar with a Yuengling, and waiting for his cheese fries to come up.

Invitations had been sent out, all heroes welcome, chili had been percolating in the crockpot all morning, vegetables cut, beer bought, and now all Ollie was lacking was the guests, before he could start grilling up a storm. He'd remembered this year to buy the kosher hot dogs this year instead of the regular ones. Beef ones tasted funny but if Sue came, Ollie was sure she'd appreciate it. Veggie kabobs, New Belgium brewery brand beer 'cause they had ethics Ollie approved of, and the backyard had been gone over for stray arrowheads. The amount of kids folks had seemed to be multiplying. It was crazy!