Collection post – cryptid Batfam
Lots of people obviously loves the Cryptid Batfam angle, and this original post got people writing down some truly great headcanons.
Unfortunately most of it is spread out over several branches from the OG post.
So I'm going to go through the reblog list and copy-paste all the longer additions into one big Collection Post where you can read it all at once. (Wish me luck...)
Everything is added in chronological order, except for what's posted above this collection post – I'm not going to repeat those contributions.
Could be interesting if Gotham had the opposite effect on supers from other cities - a sort of supernatural extension of B’s no outside metas rule.
In the early days of Clark starting to work with Batman he notices he feels a little drained when he spends too much time in Gotham, like his powers aren’t coming as easily. Maybe he chalks it up to how much smog there is; how little sunlight gets through the clouds. Maybe this slowly goes away after he’s been working with Bruce for a while and they start to trust each other. At first Clark figures he’s building some sort of tolerance, but maybe somewhere down the line he realizes there’s more to it.
You can’t be a meta in Gotham without the city’s approval.
Everyone knows that Cass is great at lurking, at appearing out of nowhere, but now she can quite literally appear out of nowhere. You're in a brightly lit room, nowhere to hide, you turn away for one second and BOOM Black Bat is there.
Her siblings act like this is normal though, so no one feels ready to question it out loud.
@hellcite tagged: (Not going to add a lot of these, cus tags are a pain to copy and delink. Make actual posts people!)
#Dc #Ooh this is interesting
#I'm thinking of how Gotham has mutated over time naturally #From decades of curses and odd chemicals and magic #In subtle but odd ways
#The people have their own viral immunities. Their own chemical resistances #The water is just a bit too acidic but people have adapted so their bodies can handle it
#Newcomers always come down with nasty cases of the 'Gotham flu' while they try and cope with the hostile environment #And now apply that to the bats #Who have been dealing with the most concentrated version of Gotham weirdness for decades #And it changes them in ways besides scars and habits
#Bruce's odd vitality and longevity despite all his injuries #That always seems to falter a little when he stops drinking Gotham water #Nails just a little on the sharp side #An edge of something toxic in their veins that keeps gothamites from intercity blood drives
#Natural selection in its own way. Gotham is cursed so her knights grew scales to cope #So when outsiders visit they literally aren't evolved to deal with it all #They don't have the immunity to Joker gas and scarecrow toxin that is the difference between a bad day and a deadly one #None of the inherited exemptions and blessings to counter gothams odd curses that are what keep the bats lucky #They don't have Gotham in their marrow #And it shows
#'No metas in gotham' is as much a warning as a command #The city doesn't like newcomers and metahumans aren't exempt
Gotham affects all its citizens. And it's only really noticeable when they leave the city.
They are a bit to good at hiding, at fading into the background.
They seem to have a sixth sense about danger. The see the car crash coming, hear the gunshot a split second before its fired.
The shadows reach out towards them.
They can survive a fall that should have broken bones without a scratch. Cuts and wounds heal scarily fast.
Sicknesses that should have them in bed for a few days are shrugged off, potions that should kill them only get them slightly ill.
These senses only really appear outside of Gotham. Within the city, it helps them survive, outside the city, they become just a bit meta.
#yesz!!!! #this!!! #cryptid batfam #also just #cryptid gothamites
#everyone in Gotham is a lil bit creepy #whether its the toxins in the water that only got cleaned up about 10 years ago #or the fact that those with the meta gene seem to survive longer
#if your family has been in Gotham for a couple generations you end up a lil bit cryptid #and like #near death situations probably bump it up a little #so the batfam is just that extra bit more cryptid than the rest of the gothamites
#rhese's headcanons #batfam cryptid batfam #batfam #dc comics #batman
That last one about Babs is especially cool because she has gotten technopathic powers twice in the comics. So... Gotham giving them to her would be perfect.
#dc comics #I love this hc
#what if they also don’t age until they start to notice it #and that explains why Damian was 10 when Tim was 17 and now Damian is 15 while Tim is still 17 #and why Alfred is ancient but still not dead
Alfred is swimmingly immortal
Bruce is still somehow alive
Damian is 10, going on 60 in knowledge and phrasing
#batfam #something in the Gotham river water
@tank--shield-anda-cloud added:
I always had this HC that Gotham is somewhat alive, like a very magical place, and have chose the bats to be they champion. Either for they morals or for the Wayne's being a founder family.
#oh this is one of my preferred headcanons!
#the lazarus pit under gotham makes everyone SOME sort of meta even if just a little but they can handle it bc they’re from there
#visiting metas can’t be around it for very long though bc it just fucks them up somehow
#bruce understands that but he’s not gonna say uh yeah theres a pit under the city so he’s just like metas do NOT fucking come here
#everyone’s just like. wow batman’s kind of racist? but he just doesn’t want 800 more manbats. theres only so many orphans he can train ok
#and yes he does have creepy reflective eyes but so does the cashier at the dollar store so its not suspicious #one day flash is like hey what the fucks wrong with your son and bruce is like its new york dont worry about it
#lmao srry for writing this much in your notes op #batman
#theres something really fun about taking these characters which are superhuman humans and applying the supernatural to them
#it kind of defeats their purpose as humans in a sea of superpowered folks but its still fun
@unordinarywarlord added:
*coughs* I have an addition.
Cass literally disappears into the shadows
Damian just knows where you’re hiding(unless it’s Cass) Like it’s not luck or anything, he just knows
Sometimes it’s like Barbara can read minds
No one knows how Steph gets from Point A to Point B faster than she should be able to (Like not speedster fast, but fast enough to get questions)
Damian's eyes have gone from Lazarus neon green to an uncomfortable dark green that still has Lazarus in them. His bones heal a little to quickly and once he got out of his leg brace to fast. His scrapes never seem to last and he should not be able to grow back the adult teeth he's lost in fights. Talia and Ra's haven't mentioned that it, they think it's similar to what the rest of the Al Ghul's have gone through. It's not.
Duke has always been a little bit off in a way that's too bright, but it's gotten worse since excepting both Gotham and his Powers. His blood is more orange leaning yellow, could even be called gold. He's not getting hit anymore because he sees every move. He's gone from mildly uncanny to fully within the valley, his classmates are disturbed but his family has barely noticed the change and neither has he.
Tim hasn't slept in two weeks, he should be dead, he's laid down in bed five times in those fourteen days. Thinking he's gone to sleep when he does but he just disassociates, body still running like it's mid day. He doesn't need caffeine anymore, he's actually taken to caffeine free drinks since. No one has taken note of this yet of his new schedule.
Gotham is an old city engulfed in dark magic. And she does what she can to help the dark knights that defend her.
I like the idea of Cass choosing to get Magic tbh, but mostly Binding/Healing stuff from the Amazons and/or Zatanna.
Give her something else to do.
#also she can do the #heal a vililan and then beat them up again #sort of thing #gotham city #cassandra my baby #stephanie brown #I do love the idea of Steph having regen abiliites #I had an idea for a Marvel crossover where she is actually a rapid healing mutant
This honestly tracks very well for Gotham. Like half the villians from there can directly blame the city itself for the tragic accident that gave them powers.
Any citizen who tries to move away probably discovers this and realizes they have some small mutation of their own, nothing you’d call a superpower but something that sets them apart from outsiders enough to be a problem
It’s why nobody ever leaves the damn place
I mean, Gotham is literally built on about fifteen different curses and magical sites, so…
Cass can blend into shadows even more seamlessly than before until one day Steph goes to pat the shadow she just watched Cass step into, knows she can’t have stepped out of, and she isn’t there
Duke now has to share shadow powers but tbh she’s the best to share it with
He doesn’t lose his meta abilities or anything, he just begins to slowly project this unconscious aura of Just Some Guy
If he’s not actively grabbing attention as the Signal, people just stop noticing there’s anything different about what he’s doing or how he’s dressed, even if he is in the suit
He’s completely unrecognisable unless he’s actively trying to be noticed
Rogues forget he’s in the room between punches and keep trying to go back to their tasks
Gravity gently loses its hold on Steph until her feet just don’t touch the ground anymore, she’s always just a centimetre above it
Damian’s smile stretches unnaturally wide like his whole head is going to fold in half but no one ever fucking notices because the little bugger will not fucking smile
On some occasions, Cass had been known to read people when they're sleeping, tell what their feeling, even if they're stock still. And has once been able to tell Jason what he was dreaming about after he forgot it when he got up.
@onereyofstarlight tagged:
#something something about being turned into part of a city itself #becomimg more myth than human and how that manifests and evolves across time
@theweatherinmyhead added:
I love the idea that they’re becoming part of the city in some way
This reminds me of a post I saw that was saying that Jason was connected to Gotham's soil, and making Gotham itself a cryptid, but it decides to just waver the advantage.
Like if someone comes into Gotham, the city will leave them be. But the second they start to interfere with the balance good and evil, the soil hisses and tries its damndest put them at a disadvantage. After a while, the city will relax at their presence, and will stop actively sabotaging their efforts.
Then there was a lot of people doing great tags and I'm just going to dump them here:
#Oh damn can I make a fic of this ??? #is there a fic of it already?? #i NEED it
#gonna slide this into my ‘everyone in Gotham is actually a meta’ folder #batfam #sentient gotham
#nah man just imagen the villians seeing bat SMILING WITH HIS CREEPY LIGHT EYES #they as well move their thing to arkham at this cuz theres NO FUCKING WAY they fighting them mf's anymore #gothamn so bad it starting to get into their blood #nah cuz jason with fangs is hat tho #batfic
#i love all sentient gotham hcs#and i love your idea op #especially how metas dont get in unless theyre approved by gotham #supes slowly being approved is 10/10 #also this implies gotham approves of ivy which is also 10/10 #dc comics
#no but Jason also has Lazarus magic running through his veins #there's a reason Gotham kicked him out of his grave the first time and there's no way she'll let him rest #while he's got even more fucked up magic juice in his soul #that or Death has greater designs for him (per kthonicecho's Sandman crossover au)
#I’m firmly on board the Gotham as an edritch entity #a city not so much inhabited by as projected through the dreams of something beyond reckoning #like with how many people come back #and the way reality works different there #and the way she loves Bruce to death like literally #let her kill him again and again #he’s her wet little meow meow #and Tim is her blorbo #but Jason’s the one she won’t let die
#tbh this has some canon approval #such as gotham being cursed land which is what caused beings like Solomon Grundy to become immortal
#I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS#Gothamites have to be a different species at this point #their genetic makeup has to be so so fucked up #and they're all like strangely resistant to everything under the sun #dc #Gotham city #gothamites #batfam
#Love the concept of the city as a living thing influencing its residents
#love love the fact that a part of new jersey is so fucked up the vigilantes in it start getting supernatural eldritch-like quirks
#Cass never changes because Cass is just Like That #Constantly pretending to be a gargoyle
#gotham chooses its protectors#and you have to get approval from its Knight
#i love the headcannon that Gotham is filled with magic #no one notices because it's normal to them
Duke is pretty straightforward. He has literal superpowers. Same with Misfit, Gotham Girl, and Colin.
No one can actually tell where Cass’s upbringing ends and Gotham’s effects begin. She seems to almost pool in and out of the shadows, but is that her training, or something else?
Steph has this tendency to instinctively start solving puzzles put in front of her, which is understandable for a detective, but sometimes, the cloak of her costume seems empty to someone watching her, which they write off as a trick of the light.
Harper generates low-level electricity, but no one ever fully notices that because her equipment is already electric.
Barbara is a minor technopath, but writes it off because she is just that good at her job that it’s easy to miss the little things that it does.
Helena is unkillable. People have tried.
Kate’s got heightened senses across the board.
#damian has little claws #barbra has an uncanny ability to find hidden information just by looking at a thing #cass floats… nobody mentions it #steph is able to dodge anything literally anything #batfamily
Damian is able to convice any animal in gotham to join him
Steph has an unnatural pain tolerance
Cass blends more and more into the shadows until people swear she can shadow jump
And Duke, well, he always had powers. But they seem to be getting stronger..
@loki-says-bite-cruel-hands tagged:
#and when duke is born #all of gotham's light goes to him
#her very own meta #loved by the city
#OF the city #since birth #the only sun it could ever need
#dc #batfam #I love the ‘batfam fakes people out by pretending to be Spooky’ aus
#the best incredibly specific genre I have read one (1) fic about is that they started faking it and became legitimately spooky #through the power of belief
#Gotham is cursed and in dc magic is real
#would love to have Fic Energy for this because WHAT would that even look like??
#Batman would obviously Know he’s picked/picking up quirks from the job and have a Crisis about it
#the rest of the fam just goes ‘hell yeah’ and dives in face first and Bruce is standing in the background like ‘please…?ﾟﾥﾺ? your humanity’
#jokes on you bitch humanity is a social construct! who needs it when you can have JUSTICE
#he keeps trying to warn these children who Won’t Stop Becoming Subjects Of Cults
#LIVING GOTHAM LIVING GOTHAM AND IT'S FAVORITE FAMILY
#It keeps trying to drown Joker but he won't fucking die and it's so pissed
#For every time he cheats Death the city grows another gloomy gargoyle
Cass moves stranger and stranger each night, her bones seemingly on swivels and creaky joints and bent just slightly where they should be rigid.
When Steph breaths there’s a rasp and when she laughs it’s a little too sharp, too poppy, and echoes far longer than it should.
Damian is covered in scars he isn’t certain of the origin of anymore, and has stopped going into a meditative state while being stitched up. No one noticed but Alfred that he also stopped complaining about growing pains.
Duke has always been a meta, but even he has gotten a little weirder as Gotham welcomed him, his teeth shining slightly brighter, his shadows darker and more menacing.
Then another rush of tags and short additions:
#the world building going on inside my head right now...
#they’re slowly and unknowingly becoming city deities
#jason also just. crawled out of his grave one day after being dead gor several years
I love the idea that they’re just slowly becoming some fucked up form of supernatural
Not super powered, but just otherworldly.
#gotta be all the jokerfied microplastics #rb
#batman inc #headcanon #superpowers over time is a genius concept #I will be taking that #no one can tell me I’m wrong#superpowers
#the city is alive and its superheroes are codependant parasites that live within its organism #the immune system targets unfamiliar antibodies until they are convinced that they are not here to cause harm
#duke even rocks up to the manor with powers preinstalled
#to be fair Gotham has suffered a LOT at the hands of a few bad metas #and the place is undeniably Something Other #so why wouldn't it be defensive? #and why wouldn't it better arm it's greatest defenders?#...makes you wonder at the bat kids' bad luck as the heroes of other cities
#SENTIENT GOTHAM MY BELOVEDDDD
#lmao you can't be a meta in Gotham without the city's approval
#gotham as genius loci #batman #dc comics #headcanon accepted
#yeah ill pick up this headcanon
Wait so Gotham is slowly making them more than human in a way so does that mean that all the citizens of Gotham, at least those that have lived there all their lives so a by a few generations are all more than human too? So basically Gotham is just a city filled with sort of cryptids?
#batman #batfamily #that’s actually the best like
#so and so whose great grandparents relocated to the US and landed in Gotham were normal #but with each passing generation the kids are noticeably a little less normal
#‘my great great grandma Cocoa and her husband Bernardo came to this county in 1927 #and had seven children #who had many many children of their own.’
#‘okay so your great great grandma and grandpa came from where exactly and from whom did you all inherit that weird twisting owl head turn?’
#‘From neither thats just Gotham.’ #‘???’
But like Locus Persona is a thing in DC canonically in the character of Angela in "Constantine: City of Demons". Gotham isn't as big as LA to be sure but the sheer amount of blood/Sweat/tears that go into that place means she probably would be super powerful.
And she definitely has a deep love for the Bat Fam. She definitely sneaks little bits and pieces of good luck their way and they might notice eventually. But what if some villain messes with her directly and she becomes even more powerful/active? Suddenly the Bat Fam goes from a little superhuman to legit powered individuals.
Bruce can now actually see in the dark and meld with/walk through shadows. Allowing him to disappear and teleport.
Jason goes from extra scary dude to literally being able to command people to do what her wants.
Dick gets the ability to basically fly. Gotham gravity is just easier on him.
Tim has wild hunches that turn out to be true every single time. Like randomly dialing the number of the witness he needs to talk to.
Damien gets echo location allowing him to "see" behind him and around corners.
Barbara can speak to computers and have them do what she wants. ("Look I know the speed isn't great here but could you please download that faster?")
Cass gets even faster when she wants to the point she is bordering on speed force speeds.
Stephanie gets invisibility again.
Harper can see electro-magnetic fields at will. Allowing her to diagnose electrical problems super fast.
Alfred and Gotham get together for a cup of tea and we don't get to see what they talk about but he apologizes to Duke in the morning ("So sorry Master Thomas but it seems she saw your current abilities and did not want to interfere. She does send her heartfelt thanks though.")
Cass doesn't speak much, but sometimes all she has to do is look at you and you understand what she has to say
Babs seems to know everything. Maybe she is just googling really fast, but she never reaches for a phone
Steph glows. Something in her smile, maybe her hair is just extra shiny. But she is glowing
Oohhh, clever ideas... I like the notion of a sentient Gotham. Add in the slightly dark alterations to its chosen and it gets more interesting. Especially if it's essentially neutral. Like, it applies the no meta bit of Batman's, not because Gotham is on the side of good, but purely because Bruce is 'claimed'. So it's not just the Bats. Joker's laugh gets picked up by the shadows to echo as he comes or goes, making it seem like he’s in more than one place at a time. Catwoman's nails get stronger and sharper. Harley will always, always find a weapon when she needs one, that sort of thing.
Arguably multiple curses.
In canon, Gotham has almost been smited off the map MULTIPLE times by god it’s so fucking cursed.
The Spectre visited Arkham Asylum once and went goddamn nuclear on it.
#you think Gotham is BLESSED???? #I mean #people have TRIED to bless it #but #that takes care of like 1-2 curses #max #Gotham #still has like a dozen left and is constantly getting more
And what if the Bats have this same side effect when outside Gotham for too long?
The eye glow, the extra jump, the fangs- they all slowly fade away the longer the Bat family stays outside of Gotham?
Like a battery being drained over time.
#OH SHITTT #love when the setting is a character. for this reason specifically
#Cass developing literal invisibility and chalking it up to skill
#Stephanie nearly reading minds to tell what their plans/actions truly mean
#Damian literally becoming an extension of his tools at times and thinking it’s just skill
#Duke being stronger and stronger the more good he does
#dc #batfam #gotham #UGHHHH #YESS
@buurenaars-workshop added:
Gotham blesses her children and damns the rest. Though it is arguable whether the blessings are, in and of themselves, a curse.
Gotham is cursed extremely deeply to its very founding. A snarled web of curses so deep and twisted into each other not a single thread can be picked out and separated without causing further tangling of them. New curses get woven and knotted in as fast as old ones start to fade.
Gotham knows since it was old enough to be more than just a shadow out of place that it is not like the others. Those that were built upon dreams or wishes and became more. It was built on spite and nightmares and clawed itself into being.
It snarls, tangles, and mats the curses into the very marrow of its being, forcing them to follow its rules. Blood is spilled, screams are silenced, and curses felt into shape. It may not be able to offer a warm safety to those looking for it or soften the blows of fate on its people, but it can deepen the shadows and silence so those that need them are not found.
Gotham feels when others try to help. When they claw and throw themselves at the tangled web of curses trying to unravel a briar of thorns. Nothing but scarred hands and crushed dreams become of the attempts. Drawn like a salmon back to the stream they were born in they leave the darkness of the ocean that is Gotham for the sunlight rivers they were born in.
It feels the tug of something when blood is spilt in one of its many allies. A small curl of fear transforming into heartbreak despair like so many before it. Small hands and hitching sobs as life fades. A glimmering thread that refuses to snap under despair. It cloaks the darkness tightly around the tiny thread to offer it what it can.
Gotham feels it when the fear transfers as prey is saved and predator becomes the hunted. It creeps and flows just behind watching as the shadows gain a new set of eyes. Ones that no longer are content to stay hidden it is depths in fear but turn it around. This is not a being of light trying to stamp out the darkness but one of shadow manipulating it.
Gotham can offer very little in the beginning as the dark one begins to make a name for itself. Just small things it can offer. Twisting shadows to hide a much larger shape than they should in them. Rust to stay silent as doors are opened. Things it has offered before and was not enough for those that had tried. Yet this time it is enough.
The legend begins to grow as Gotham gains its first. That tiny glimmering thread for so long ago grows stronger as time passes. The dark one gains another that join it is the shadows. Joy, fear, hope, and pain weave together as the shadows deepen their protection even fiercer. The flash of bright colours that follow the dark one never glinting out of the shadows that hide them.
As legend fuels the curses it can shape around the glimmering threads. Gotham grows stronger in how it can twist the curses for its dark one and their growing brood. Distances between buildings creep closer to allow a jump. Crumbling structures hold just long enough as rotten floors remember being strong. Lights flicker and sputter out at just the right time. Files that are forgotten and lost finding their way to those that are searching.
Then it happens a glimmering thread snaps. The shadows howl and thrash as Gotham rages at the loss. Curses it held at bay released like rabid hounds tear out of the city searching for a way to repair the broken thread. Gotham is not gentle when it finds a way reattach the snapped thread. Made of curses it fixes the only way it can, by twisting a curse.
Slowly others join the Dark one and its brood. Chosen from other cities that don't understand curses. They know not the way of turning curses onto those that set them . It seethes and clutches tight is chosen keeping them safe from the dangers that encroach on it.
It tries so hard to keep them in the city but does not stop them from leaving. It is only that they always return that keeps Gotham from collaring and chained them to keep them from wandering.
Legend only grows as the chosen clash against stronger and stronger foes. Gotham rips and tears deeper into its being for ancient curses strong enough to twist the very mortal nature of its chosen. Nothing will stop it from keeping its chosen strong enough for the glimmering thread to remain unbroken.
#this headcanon just knocked me down #I just had to run with it #I have always loved the magic of cities offering gifts to their chosen #Gotham is curses and it tangles them so the thorns become armor for its chosen #Gotham #batman
More short additions and tags:
#ooo #i do love this #paladins of the city itself #maybe they’re even slightly de powered out in the rest of the world
#interesting #especially the second bit
Also it could be why outside villains don’t usually go there, they know Gotham is messed up and rather not risk it lol
#this is interesting #same goes for other metas #like barry notices each time hes in gotham hes a little slower #not by much but enough to be noticed by him #batfam #batfam are supers
#it’s all the fuckinf chemicals people keep putting into the water
This has been on my mind since I first saw it and I've never wanted someone else to write a fic more
#yes I could write it but like every other writer I just want the story to magically appear before me
#the city loves you. it loves you so much it sinks into your bones and changes you
Bruce sometimes turn into a giant bat when gliding. No one really comments on it because the silhouette matches when he’s gliding. I mostly want to curse the image of a giant fluffy bat cuddling the rest of the bat fam into someone’s head
#yeah its probably all the chemicals in the air
#Hell yeah #i love me some eldritch batfam
Literally Gotham is a cursed hole of supernatural force so this is like an actual realistic take lol.
#and if it’s a curse it could be taking away their human traits#giving them their symbolic traits in name or costume#they’ll finally reach past the gimmick and become furries lol#batfam#cursed gotham
Cass doesn't actually change at all because she's just Like That already.
#private headcanon i do agree
#i like to think that gotham just like loves specific champions and they are unkillable
#like i think the joker has died before but he gets reformed into the same joker over and over by the city
#and i think bruce is just like #the city's way of getting an unending blood sacrifice #in the form of bruce throwing himself into it over and over
#like bruce is a rogue build but he's also a warlock build because gotham just loves him so much
#as long as gotham exists bruce will be able to bleed for her#that's their pact
#i think gotham brought jason back to life because she loved him too
Mixed tags and short additions again:
#hadn't run into this yet but i approve
#i love this concept? #the supernatural quietly warping those who come into contact with it? #yeah #batman
I know there is a fic like this, but I can’t find it again! Ugh!
#batfam #batman #not these specific powers #but the batfam slowly gains powers
#something ancient runs deep in old Gotham #Gotham watches over her children of the night
#cryptid tim holds a special place in my heart #i love the idea of gotham just kinda churning out cryptids
#this is one of my favorite headcanons!!! #they are not meta and they are p much normal outside of gotham after a while #but gotham itself is blessing/cursing them with strength and various other things #duke being The Most Normal because he is actually a meta and thus immune to Gotham's thrall #i think bruce jay and tim are the most unhinged and most affected bec they were born in gotham
Gotham is a pocket dimension, I will die on this hill
Over time the doorway gets bigger, more and more people can get in, but to begin with, only the weird and the magically inclined can enter, and their descendants are the ones who shape the city (ask me how Gotham and Klarion the Witchboy are connected, sometime). But even now, if you're solid and sensible and real enough, it's entirely possible to leave Metropolis on the New Jersey road and find yourself in Bludhaven without even having seen Gotham. You can pass right by the most densely populated city in the USA without even noticing, because leaving reality, stepping through the bleed into a new dimension, takes a special kind of person.
Which is a long winded way of saying I adore this idea, but I would like to suggest; this only happens in their home dimension. When the Robins are with the Titans, they're just people with a lot of training. The things they can do are impressive as all hell, but not superhuman. There are Olympic athletes who are bendier than Dick, thieves who can blend into the shadows better than Tim or Bruce, soldiers and martial artists who can shrug off more damage than Jason. Other non-powered heroes like the Arrows who can do all the things they do. Outside of Gotham.
"They're different in Gotham," is a common talking point on any team with a Bat on it, especially the Titans. And people who've never been think they know what that means. Everyone's different on hom turf. If you're one of the heroes who's primarily solo and only a team member on the side, missions with the Titans or the Outsiders or the JLA are basically field trips. Of course your attitude is going to be different.
Sometimes someone older, someone who's known the Bats longer, will say, "No, you don't get it, they're different," but they never want to elaborate, and most people don't notice.
And then a mission will take them into Gotham (superheroes, being naturally extremely strange, never have any problems passing through the dimensional gateway, although it sometimes takes Barry a couple of tries) and usually they don't notice the difference at first. Yeah the Bats are different, but only in the ways to be expected. They know this city, care about it. Of course they're different here, it's in their blood.
Some heroes never notice the difference. Some chalk it up to imagination. And some, the ones who know the Bats best and the ones who know magic and dimensions and weird best, well...
Bruce is very very good at fading into the background anywhere in the world, or finding a shadow to lurk in, good at timing things just right so you're always looking away when he leaves a room. But once you know what he's doing, it's easy enough to spot. Supes and the Flashes watch him leave. The Lanterns make a game out of maintaining eye contact to see how long it takes for him to cave and just walk out in plain sight. But in Gotham, it's like he can teleport. No matter how high up your meeting, he drops from above. Even when there's nothing above you but clouds. No matter how closely you watch, he disappears, like instead of waiting for you to turn away, he vanishes between eyeblinks.
Dick is an incredible gymnast and one of the best aerialists in the world, but every Titan has seen him fuck up and faceplant at least once. Every flying Titan has had to carry him across gaps too wide for every him to jump. They've all helped him ice at least one strain from jumping too far and too fast with only human shoulders to take the weight. They've all wondered how he still doesn't seem to fully know his limits, after twenty years of practise. And then they follow a lead to Gotham, and it all makes sense, because in Gotham, Dick and gravity have an understanding. In Gotham, Dick opperates on cartoon physics, child logic. In Gotham, as long as he shoots his grapnel before he hits the ground, there's no drop too far, no gap too wide. Every child in the city believes Nightwing can fly, and in places like Gotham, belief has power.
Jason once said that being Robin gives him magic, and maybe that's true, because people who've patched up his wounds in the real world, who've seen him bleeding and delirious and in pain out there, have also seen him shrug off injuries that should have laid him out when he's on home turf. Everyone in the Burnley and Robbinsville districts Uptown knows Red Hood can't be killed, and maybe they're right. Maybe the way Roy just shakes his head and refuses to make eye contact when anyone asks him about it means something.
All Tim's friends will tell you his brain works a little faster than other people's, that he's crazy smart and spent his formative years learning to keep up with speedsters and that's maybe fucked him up a little bit. Former YJ members will roll their eyes and tell you how he loves to bitch about how much sleep he needs on missions (he must be so stressed with Batman breathing down his neck, it's no wonder he doesn't get enough rest at home) and how there's only 24 hours in a day. Kid Flash!Bart hears him complaining about how time moves so slowly and thinks foldly that hanging out with Impulse really did a number on Baby!Tim's brain. And Kon never talks about why he doesn't like visiting Gotham, about the way 24 hours with Tim there can feel like it's lasting a week (he shouldn't need to eat that often in just one day, tells himself they're just naps but knows he's slept at least twice and yet somehow it's still Tuesday), doesn't talk about the mission they did together that took three hours, only once he was far enough out of Gotham that he could see NYC, suddenly his phone was blowing up with messages from Ma and Pa wanting to know what the hell he was playing at, skipping two days of school.
Jon likes to tease Damian about the way he expects the world to obey him. The way he'll say things like 'that bad guy should trip and fall' and be amazed when it doesn't happen. But he's met Batman, and his dad has told him a little about Talia, so it's not exactly surprising. His mom is basically royalty, and his dad regularly bosses around entire rooms full of people who could squash him like a bug if they wanted. Obviously that's going to rub off on their son. But then again, maybe it's the way that in Gotham, things always seem to work out in Damian's favour. Nothing huge, nothing life changing. Nothing that isn't deniable. But the vital information is always on the first computer he checks. There's always a convinient pile of boxes at bottom of every drop. His distractions always work, and when he tells the bad guys to listen to him, it's like they can't help but pay attention.
Barbara remembers everything she's ever seen, and she trained herself to pay attention. When she gets back from Belle Reeve, she notices that the Clocktower's computers respond to her in a way Waller's hadn't. Notices that she can always intuit hardware problems that ought to take her months to fix, crack encryption that ought to be impenetrable. And she notices all the other things too. Notices the way Bruce comes and goes, and the fact that he can see in darkness that ought to blind a mere human. Notices that Dick moves like flowing ink not flesh and blood. Notices every time Jason walks off an injury that should have laid him out, every coversation with Tim that lasts a day or no time at all, every time Damian solves a problem with tools that hadn't been there a minute ago.
And because she remembers - because no matter what Gotham does to her that will always be her real superpower - Barbara is the one who takes the train to Uptown, to the street now called Crime Alley, and it's Barbara who knocks on the door of Jason Blood. Barbara who asks the question, and listens carefully to the answer, and goes home with a bag full of borrowed books on dimensional travel and magical radiation and how even the most magical beings are bound by the rules of the dimension they find themselves in.
(The books raise more questions than they answer, but it does at least make sense of the way her dad used to loose all sense of direction any time he went on holiday and take three tries to find the Gotham turn on his way home. And why that doesn't happen nearly as often now as it used to).
And so, when Cass begins talking about working with Batman Inc, about seeing Hong Kong, learning a new city, it's Barbara who sits her down and explains that it will be different there. That she'll always be good, but reading people doesn't work the way she's grown used to, not out there. That she needs to be prepared for the fact that she'll be fighting deaf and blind compared to what's become her normal on home soil (and no matter where she was born, Gotham is Cass's home soil, she and the city were always meant to find one another).
Cass still goes, because learning to fight at a disadvantage is a useful skill to have, but Barbara's right.
There are pieces of her, pieces of all her family, that never make it past the city limits. Pieces of themselves they have to leave at home, waiting for to come back to the place they belong.
Because the Bats are different in Gotham.
#meta#batman meta #gotham city
#op i hope you don't mind me adding to your post #i read your post and this idea wouldn't leave me alone
#I also love the idea that this works in reverse and metas loose their powers in gotham
#which also makes sense with my gotham is a pocket dimension theory #they're bound by the rules of the dimension they're in #and that dimension is - at least since the 80s - noir with magical realism elements
#characters like flash and superman are out of their genre #so their powers don't work as well #also they hate gotham and she knows it and takes it personally
#(not enough people talk about the fact that as of Nu52 cities in DC are canonically sentient#or at least have souls #because they rolled in the authority characters and that means Jack Hawksmoore #and his power is communing the soul/consciousness of cities)
@imgaybut-killianjones added:
no that is such a cool thought though, they're all just a little too slow to age to be normal and all just a little too good at something to be human
@sepia-stained-sunset tagged:
#Imagine Gotham slowly giving the Bats things they unconsciously wished for
#Gotham letting Dick's jumps and leaps feel more and more like flight
#The Gotham streets themselves protecting the stray cats and dogs that often get caught in fights and crossfire
#Gotham covering vulnerable kids in alleyways with shadows so none of the henchmen lurking around can see them
#Just Gotham protecting her people and giving the Bats thanks for stepping up
#90% sure i have reblogged this before but its IRRELEVANT
#sentiant cities fuck hard #especially when they give their strange gifts #even more fun if they just dont feel right when they leave
#i need a fic like this please please PLEASE
#bruce wayne #sentiant gotham city #the city loves her heroes #she loves them so mich she wont let them go #batman
And with that we're all up to date!
Ugh, this got bigger than I thought when I started. Sorry for not tagging and crediting everyone, but there were just so many small posts...
Now: everyone reblog and keep writing about eldritch Gotham and bat cryptids. Have fun!
kaledo-art
ellievsbear
jacobvanloon
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
