Hi I’ve been kinda lurking on your blog for a while now and I’ve been wondering if you would be willing to expand on your truth serum idea (preferably with Bruce angst involved). No worries if you don’t wanna!!
Love your writing btw I love to see more Bruce angst (it’s so dry out there 😭) . I’m always happy to see more people actually focusing on Bruce as a character instead of the batkids. Keep up the good work Occa! - 🌟
The truth spell idea in question.
I'll be stealing snippets from the continuation from @mylifeisfruk4ever but not all of it, I want to go in a slightly less reprehensible batkids pathway (but I loved reading yours babe no slander no offence I swear).
Zatanna goes to the manor, and nearly makes it all the way through packing Bruce's bag when she's interrupted. Damian, clad in pyjamas, it's the middle of the night, climbing onto Bruce's bed when Zatanna reenters from Bruce's en suite.
"Witch."
"Wayne."
"Al Ghul-Wayne," he corrects, and she inclines her head. "Where is Mother?"
"Away. He won't be back for a while."
"You're keeping him. You removed us, and you intend on continuing."
"I do. He's not coming back until he understands that you are wrong. That he does not need to fit into a box to be a 'good' omega, and your measure of one is subjective, incorrect, and unfair. If he comes back at all depends on if your family can reign in the rampant omegaphobia occurring here. Because Bruce is not a factory fuckup, as your brother so eloquently put, and I will not have him believing it." She bares her teeth, knowing her fangs are visible, even in the low light from the window.
"You misunderstand." She bristles, but he holds up a hand. "We assumed the same, but after my sister threw Todd through a table, he corrected us. He never told Bruce he was a factory fuckup. That is... entirely Mother's own description. Todd, at most, insinuated he was a null."
Zatanna sags, and sighs, "goddammit, Bruce."
Damian remains quiet, toying with the quilt laid neatly over Bruce's made bed. "You will let him return?"
"We're keeping him for a month. But. After that, if he wants to, I'll let him return. Though I can't imagine he would, unless you and your siblings clean up your act."
"He is our mother," Damian refutes.
"Then act like it. Act like you care, like you love him. Like you don't resent him for not fitting into some arbitrary role you have assigned him based on his secondary gender, when I know Bruce has raised all of you with the firm belief that you do not act on the basis of gender, but character."
"We do not resent him for his gender. We resent his actions."
"And I resent yours."
"He does not scent us."
"You asked him not to."
"He does not nest with us."
"You have not told him he is welcome to."
Damian looks down at his lap, and she sees his chin wobble, and feels nothing save for a distant tinkling of pity. She knows he is just a pup. His elder siblings shoulder more blame. But she was not lying to Bruce. She is not a maternal omega, so does not make to comfort her friend's pup.
"Can I see him?"
"No. I said a month."
Damian pauses, then glares. "I am a pup. Being apart from my omega parent so long is grounds for investigation."
"Maybe I should call the Omegan Protective Services, see what they think."
"You know I spoke of Pup Protective Services."
"I do. And I know you're smart enough to find a way to force Bruce to contact you. But from what Bruce had said, you are also kind. And doing that, is not."
"He is my mother. He would not want to be away for so long. He has not been, since being lost in time."
Zatanna drums her fingers on her arm, knowing the kid is right. Bruce is loathe to leave his family for extended periods. "You don't tell your siblings. Phone calls only. Audio, no visual. Your siblings try to join, I shut it down, and you wait out the rest of the month."
"I have no control over the actions of my pack."
"We both know that isn't true."
They stare each other down, until he cedes. "Fine. I stand an eighty-nine percent chance of successfully deterring any efforts to contact Mother, once they find out."
Zatanna smirks. "Good lad."
"Drake is also a minor, as is Thomas."
"Tim is seventeen, and Duke is sixteen. They are old enough to cope. And don't think I don't know Tim is emancipated, Damian."
"He did that so he could find Mother."
"Still true."
Damian scowls. "Fine." He hops off the bed, and goes over to the bag floating in the air, pulling it down to the floor, and roots through it. "Allow me," he says, already moving, taking things out, putting new items in she hadn't considered Bruce might want, but make sense, so Zatanna just lets him, and subtly removes the trackers he tries to slip in without her notice. He fails.
Minutes later, when she tries to leave, his voice stops her. "I will examine my behaviour, and make the necessary adjustments to it, for Mother's benefit."
"And your siblings?"
"I will endeavour to see they also exercise measures."
"Good. Maybe you won't lose him for good, then."
She tries again to leave, and is stopped again by his voice. "Will you tell him I am sorry?"
"No."
He nods. "Very well. Thank you for..." He trails off, but she understands.
"He is my friend."
"Then he is lucky. Goodbye, witch."
"Goodbye, Al Ghul-Wayne."
