au where Jason stays with Talia and Damian after being resurrected because he’s gone slightly insane and wants to commit murder and Talia is having none of that, nope, gonna convince child to stay at my side until the Pit wears off, Ra’s be damned.
fast forward a few years, Jason has mostly chilled out, though is still down to murder criminals. He spends most of his time annoying the hell out of Ra’s and sometimes running missions behind Ra’s back for Talia. He’s basically Damian’s older brother. Probably goes by either Jay or Jace, but Damian at least is aware that his full name is Jason since he’s heard Talia use it. Jason has thought about letting the bats know he’s alive, but always backed out.
then Talia sends Damian to live with Bruce. Jason is often away on his own by this point, for missions or just because he wants to travel, and isn’t there when this happens.
now, Damian is an absolutely brat, and everyone immediately is like “WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS.” they’re going through the house and Damian is making snotty comments about everything when suddenly he freezes, surprising everyone. He squints at a portrait on the wall.
“...who’s that?” he asks slowly.
Bruce stiffens.
“Ah, that’s... Jason. Jason Todd. The second Robin. He... died, a while ago,” Dick explains with a sad, faraway smile.
“.....riiiiiiight,” Damian says slowly. Suddenly a whole lot of things make sense -- he knows Jay came back from the dead, but he doesn’t know how Jay and Mother knew each other. “If you’ll excuse me. I need to make a phone call.”
He sprints out of the room.
(Talia, for the record, definitely knew this was going to happen when she sent Damian to Bruce.)
Two weeks later Damian tows a reluctant young man with black hair into the Batcave, trailed by an astonished Alfred.
“Damian!” Bruce says, horrified. “You can’t just bring strangers into the Cave! It’s completely irresponsible, do you have any ideas what the consequences could be for us-”
There’s a crash, and they all turn to stare. Dick is staring at Damian and the newcomer, stunned, his chair lying sideways on the ground. “That’s impossible,” he murmurs, voice shaking. “You’re --”
Damian rolls his eyes. “Jace isn’t a stranger, Father. He’s my brother.”
“Brother-?” Bruce turns to look at the man, and promptly drops the files he’s holding.
Jason Todd smiles nervously at him. “Hey, old man. Long time no see.”
EDIT: I have more! Check out Way Too Many HCs I Have for this AU because it’s pure fluff and I’m living for it at the moment
EDIT 2: This au is now called “Remained”! All posts for to it can be found at the “remained au” tag.
DC – Gotham Knights, specifically – is back on their evil Talia al-Ghūl BS, and they’re also back on their “the less white she appears, the more evil she is” BS and I am. So tired.
So, out of raw spite, here are happy headcanons revolving mainly around Talia being a good mom and generally kicking butt!
This is from my Remained AU, named that because it’s the AU where Jason remained with Talia and Damian after coming back to life. You don’t need to know it to understand this, but if you haven’t seen this AU before, you can find the original post here, or the tag for it here.
CW: Swearing and uhhh I think that’s it but PLEASE do lmk if I missed anything
+ One of the first things Talia did when Ra's was removed from the picture following Death and the Maidens (a batman comic in which Ra’s dies. He eventually came back) was buy Damian the biggest, most ridiculous art set in existence, and about 400 glitter pens. He loves it.
+ Jason and Talia will often have tea and chat while they play strategy games, such as chess, Stratego, and Shogi. She always kicks his ass.
+ Nobody is sure when she sleeps. Maybe she just doesn't.
Multiple members of the League of Assassins claim she has the ability to be in two places at the same time. No one is sure how she does it.
+ Talia calls Damian and Jason lots of affectionate nicknames. She only does this when they're alone prior to leaving the League, or with her few most trusted people, but once they're in Gotham she does it all the time. Some of the nicknames are beloved, habibi (Arabic, basically translates to "my love," I'm stealing it from the thousands of fanfics I've seen her use it in), sweetheart, darling, etc.
+ Absolute fashion icon. Owns the most gorgeous dresses, saris, and pantsuits. As CEO of LexCorp and later when she moves to Gotham, she absolutely redefines what is fashionable by virtue of being the best-looking person in the room. (For context, when Lex Luthor was president, he made Talia CEO of LexCorp, for about a year, I think. She spent most of it trying to give evidence to the Daily Planet about Lex’s criminal activity.)
However Jason makes fun of her for The Pink Jumpsuit relentlessly.
+ Talia almost always wears her hair in a braid or bun; the only time she doesn't is for business meetings and parties and whatnot. If she's just around a League base or fighting, it's tied back. This has nothing to do with the fact that it affects her fighting skill and everything to do with the fact that she finds hair in her face very annoying. Talia is far too good to be affected by whether or not her hair is in her face – she just gets tired of it falling in her eyes when she’s trying to read.
+ Doesn’t wear heels much; she’s an athlete and a fighter, and heels literally deform your feet. Will wear heels when meeting with Ra’s because she enjoys the look on his face when she’s taller than him. She’s also been known to do this to Lex Luthor and many others. She once walked into a LexCorp board meeting wearing eight-inch heels and towered over all the white men’s heads. Just because she doesn’t wear heels much doesn’t mean she can’t walk in them flawlessly.
+ (Tbh everything Talia al-Ghūl does is flawless.)
+ In canon, when Bruce and Talia met, she was studying for a medical degree at Cairo University. She now has that medical degree.
“Ms. Al-Ghūl—” “That is Doctor Al-Ghūl to you.”
Jason: When did even you do your residency???
Talia, drinking tea: Mmm.
Jason, exasperated: Mom.
+ She also got a business degree at some point, and no one is totally sure when or how. It does make explaining why Lex Luthor made the CEO of LexCorp much easier, though.
+ While she prefers tea, Talia did not get through medical school or a whole year of dealing with Lex Luthor’s bullshit without copious amounts of coffee.
+ Jason got her a “HBIC” mug as a joke partway during her year with LexCorp. It promptly became her favorite mug and can always be seen on her desk filled with coffee or tea.
+ After moving to Gotham, she spends most of her free time spoiling her kids or working on social reform. She's also working on a law degree.
"Mom, a medical degree, a business degree, and a law degree seems like overkill?" "It is, I just want the law degree because it will help me make Lex Luthor's life a living hell." "In that case, understandable have a nice day."
She and Barbara are both “yes I have far too many degrees just so I can wave them in the face of annoying white men what about it” energy and are also both very determined to enact social reform, so they get along quite well. Possibly too well. However, the only people who need to be afraid of their combined might are those who probably deserve it, so the rest of the Batfam has elected to simply get out of the way.
+ Talia owns a private jet, but don’t worry it’s eco-friendly. No ridiculous carbon emissions for this billionaire. She’s an al-Ghūl. Of course, it’s eco-friendly. (She’s also sensible.) Jason proceeds to use it to bounce back and forth between Australia and Gotham, and Talia is. So. Tired. Jason my darling I love you so, so very much, but that is a terrible idea for your education and your sleep schedule please—
For the record, all of Bruce’s vehicles are also electric.
+ Damian wasn't allowed to have pets with the League because Talia didn't trust Ra's not to kill anything Damian showed affection towards. Once Damian lives in Gotham, however, Talia 100% enables his animal-loving tendencies.
Like… maybe a little too much.
Bruce: I’m going to have to build an animal sanctuary in my backyard at this rate.
Talia: I think that would be wonderful, don’t you? It’s not like you don’t have the space.
Tim: *Wheezing*
+ The last name she uses is “Kareem.” Assuming my sources are correct (and admittedly they may not be; my faith in the internet is shaky, at best, though I checked a handful of different sites and they all seem to say the same thing), it is a name of Arabic origin that means generous, honorable, and noble, and is also one of the 99 names of God given in the Quran. It is also the name Jason and Damian use.
When the knowledge that Jason and Damian were Bruce and Talia’s kids becomes public, they both wanted to be Kareem-Waynes. Talia, who wanted to avoid any potential media conflict, pointed out (correctly) that somehow the media would find a way to make a mess out of that and added that she loves them both dearly and they will always be her sons whether or not they use her name. So in the name of Less Media Attention they were going to go with Wayne-Kareem, since it's normal to put the father's name first.
Two hours after they agreed on this, Bruce found out from one of the other batkids and went "WE'RE GOING WITH KAREEM-WAYNE THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY SCREW SEXISM”
Jason and Damian think it’s fantastic. Talia laughs so hard.
The media does try to make a thing out of it, and Bruce literally says “This is the 21st century. Consider it a statement. Also go fuck yourself.”
On a related note, when he marries Selina he becomes Bruce Kyle-Wayne and she becomes Selina Kyle-Wayne and his kids have never loved him more. We stan a feminist!
+ Talia loves animals as much as Damian, and they both get along with Selina because of it.
+ Selina and Talia can often be seen together at galas whispering to one another and generally making everyone else feel like they aren’t worthy to be in the same room.
+ Selina introduces Talia to Ivy and they immediately get along, since they’re both very passionate about environmental reform. Talia does networking and works on policy improvements, while Selina breaks into places for evidence and files, Barbara helps with political wrangling and gathers intelligence, and Ivy and Harley fuck shit up when all else fails. Ivy’s sense for where pollution is coming from is unparalleled, as well, so she can also help gather data to point Talia in the right direction to publicly destroy corrupt companies. Selina’s mostly here to steal things and protect endangered cats.
YEAH I SAID WOMEN IN HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS NOT DEFINED BY THEIR RELATION TO A MAN
WHAT ABOUT IT
For the record, Bruce is very impressed by what they're doing and also absolutely terrified.
(Oh sidenote HarlIvy canon.) (Didn’t even occur to me to say that because I deadass assumed it was a given.)
+ Talia’s initial feelings towards Harley were pretty hostile, given everything the Joker did to Jason, but she comes to understand what Harley went through. Harley and Jason actually bond quite a bit in this AU.
+ Also, not totally on topic with the general theme of this post, I’m going to Own Up to a mistake I made on the last post: I completely forgot the Wayne family is Jewish and was like “yeah, they celebrate Christmas??? Right???” So. Hannukah! They do celebrate Christmas – Tim and Steph grew up celebrating Christmas – they just also celebrate Literally Everything Else.
+ It’s canon in DC that Talia made Damian ox blood soup when he was a kid, so presumably she made it for Jason too. Jason asked her to teach him how to make it. Damian's a vegetarian now, so they're trying to figure out how to replicate the taste.
Talia, affectionately and teasingly: Damian, habibi, I love you dearly, but you are making cooking for you incredibly hard.
Damian: :)
+ She, Jason, and Alfred have been learning how to make a bunch of dishes Damian already likes with tofu and other alternatives, as well as trying out new vegetarian recipes. He’s a growing boy, he needs protein, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be meat.
+ Talia and Alfred go to the farmer’s market every Saturday. Jason often comes with, and the other kids sometimes tag along.
+ Talia bought a cashmere blanket and to this day it is one of the best purchases she's ever made.
She kind of wishes her kids would stop fighting over it, though.
The problem is usually solved by yoinking both children into a cuddle pile.
“Just buy another one—” She has. She owns like six of them, now. It’s this one specific one they want for some reason.
I feel like talia would try to avoid private jets because that’s really bad for the environment and Ra’s and the league of assassins are about ecoterrorism (or at least they originally were).
No offense taken at all! I love getting questions and comments, and it’s a totally valid point.
When I made first long post, I was so caught up in the excitement of “Jason does this! Jason does that!”, that I totally blanked and didn’t put two and two together to realize that since the Al-Ghūls are all about environmental preservation, they’re not going to be fans of private jets with massive carbon footprints, duh.
Shortly before I made the Talia post, I quickly went over the original post to make sure I wasn’t repeating anything I had already shared. This was when these two pieces clicked; I came to the same realization you did and felt like an idiot. That’s why there’s an off-hand comment in the Talia post about the plane being eco-friendly. What I meant was “electrically powered,” and while I’m fully aware IRL electrically powered planes can only cover really really tiny distances, I was thinking about something like Marvel’s arc reactor. Since it’s a big comic universe, I’m pretty sure if I poked through canon long enough I’d eventually find an energy source that would work and that Talia would be able to get her hands on. And obviously, electric vehicles still have an ecological footprint, but it’s very small compared to gas-powered, particularly if the electricity you use to charge the battery comes from wind/hydro/geothermal/solar/nuclear power sources instead of fossil fuels. Or Talia powered it with magic. And she probably doesn’t use her plane often; it’s for security. She’s a little afraid someone will try to attack her while she’s in the air, and she doesn’t want anyone else getting caught in that.
As I finished writing this out, I abruptly remembered the Zeta Tubes from the Young Justice TV show, and realized it would make much more sense for Bruce to set one up the vicinity of Jason’s apartment, perhaps in a neighboring building, since teleportation is a lot faster than the 20+ hour flight from Sydney to New Jersey, and as far as we’ve been told doesn’t have severe ecological effects.
And it’s not like he would have much time in Gotham anyway if he did fly, because it’s a 20+ hour flight in each direction, which I maybe didn’t realize before just now.
So, yeah, there’s probably now a tiny base near Jason’s place that he keeps sneaking in and out of to teleport to Gotham whenever he wants to say hi. Someone might ask questions at some point, but Jason's sneaky enough that he probably almost never gets seen anyway.
i’m currently working on a proper fic for the Remained AU. It’s a rewrite of Batman and Son, the arc where Bruce first meets Damian. The reason it’s taking so long is that the scene where Jason and Bruce reunite and the scene immediately following are both giving me a whole ton of trouble. It took 4 completely different versions of the reunion scene to get one that wasn’t absolutely godawful, and i’ve yet to manage a version of the following scene that doesn’t make me die inside when i re-read it. The short version of the scene from the original remained au post has been scrapped completely; i couldn’t make it work to save my life.
Hopefully i can make this draft work, but don’t set your expectations high for the writing quality. i might post some more remained AU hcs and lore (because it wouldn’t be one of my AUs if i didn’t fuck with the universe’s lore a little, now would it?) before i get around to that, just depending on how long it takes to Get This Fucking Draft To Cooperate.
i’m -- writing isn’t normally this hard????
still, i really like this AU, and i’ve gotten a lot of support for it! i have to get through this scene to be able to write the next arcs, which i would like to do eventually, so i’m doing my best.
