Tara Laurel

She/Her || 30s || Bi || Fiction > Reality || Critical Role/911/911 LS/Batman/Marvel/DC

[taralaurel]

better, broken || an astarion/tav emotional h/c fic

“And you,” he says, voice low and dangerous now, every word sharpened to a point, “you talked me out of it.” The accusation lands hard. “You stood there,” he continues, stepping closer, eyes blazing, “looking at me like I was about to commit some terrible mistake - as if I hadn’t already lived through centuries of them.” His laugh is bitter, broken. “As if you hadn’t already decided you knew better.” His hands shake as they curl into fists. “You told me I didn’t need it. That I didn’t need power. That I didn’t need to become something more.” He closes the distance between them almost entirely. He's near enough now to lunge for her neck.

After Cazador’s death, Astarion is left with the weight of a choice he didn’t take.

Angry, raw, and convinced he threw away his only chance at being whole, he turns that fury on Tav—the one who stood beside him when it mattered most.

A conversation about power, healing, and what it means to be broken follows—one neither of them will walk away from unchanged.

@febuwhump 2026 || Day One || "I like you better broken"

READ MORE HERE

[la-vie-est-une-fleur29]

[kriz-smthn]

[giveemhales]

🦇 My 20 Favorite Batfam Fics of 2025 🦇

Last year was easily the most eventful (in a good way) years of my life so I read less fic than I have in the past, but I will not let that stop me from annual tradition of celebrating my fav fics of the year! You can also check out my 2023 and 2024 lists. As always, this is a way to express gratitude to fandom creators, so please leave a kudos and kind comment if you enjoy any of these fics! There are thousand of Batfam fics that came out in 2025 (literally 25k fics in the batman fandom) and I of course only read a small fraction of them, so I am definitely leaving many greats off this list. But here are some Batfam fics completed in 2025 that I especially adored. Tried to include a range of characters but Tim is my fav so he will be popping up a lot. Be mindful of the tags (although rest assured all have a hopeful or happy ending) and happy reading!

I Frew Up by @princessmossy (1k, dick-centric, dick goes to bruce when he has a nightmare while bruce is with the justice league, the league takes it in stride)

Truth by @byrambles (2k, tim & bruce, dick doesn’t understand why tim is convinced bruce doesn’t love him) (unofficial sequel to one of my fav one shots that hurts so good)

a new hope to live long and prosper by @iselsis (3k, tim & bruce & dick, tim is transported to a strange universe where batman isn’t evil and abusive, ft misunderstandings and Star Wars)

We Are Who We Choose to Be by @sohotthateveryonedied (4k, dick & bruce, baby talon dick goes after bruce on his first solo mission)

Brood Patch by @sunflowersandink (4k, damian & jason, reverse robins, jason has an accident and damian is kinder than expected)

The Best Cold Case in the Whole World by @xautunno (9k, bruce & tim, bruce learns of a horrific crime scene right next door and all signs to point to the neighbor’s kid being dead) (way less dark than it sounds)

Running Under The Radar by @quotidian-oblivion (10k, damian & tim & jason, reverse robins, damian and jason are stuck with the villain who tortured jason but not all is as it seems)

survival instincts by @civilbores (12k, damian & tim, tim is benched and damian finds there’s a lot more to the boy than he ever realized) *READ THE TAGS, heavy mental health topics but does have a happy/hopeful ending

Round Two by @remarcely (14k, bruce & his kids, bruce wakes up in the past before jason’s resurrection and proceeds to save all of his kids)

don’t wanna be alone (when these bones decay) by @mercuryisrobin (15k, tim & jason, jason realizes he has a stalker and tim joins the batfam early) (whole series is amazing but does have some rip-your-heart-out angst so be prepared. The series as is does not technically have a happy ending but is still a WIP and def worth the read)

Knee scrapes and stab wounds by @mentallyunawareofpapaya (16k, jason & damian + tim pov, batfam is alarmed to find out damian has a brother from the league in Gotham and it’s red hood)

Red Hood’s Shelter for Feral Kids by @dandelionlily (20k, tim & jason, red hood protects crime alley, so does alvin draper, this causes problems when jason attacks robin aka alvin aka tim)

Nine Yards by @muddells (21k, tim & damian, tim cannot standby when he finds his brother held hostage at school, it does not go great)

hand in unloveable hand by kitfornow (22k, tim & damian, damian starts to notice how different tim’s relationship with the family is than everyone else’s and has a hard time dealing with it) (most likely will have more chapters)

Words Like Poison by nightwalker (35k, tim & damian & dick, tim is more chill about damian poisoning his coffee than he probably should be and everyone is doing their best to be a good sibling)

We’re All Dead Here by @wingedflight (46k, tim & jason, reverse robins, red hood kidnaps jason and everyone has a bad time) (can you tell I got really into reverse robins this year)

I’m Still Alive (when everyone who loves me has died) by @shortandsnappyfics (52k, tim-centric, tim joins the batfam late, tim is a badass CEO detective but he’s also 16 and needs help when he discovers shady business at his company)

Identity Theft by @taralaurel (93k, tim-centric, tim cosplays too close to the sun and ends up joining the batfam early)

Wayne Family (And Tim!) Christmas Extravaganza by @pinkparagram (105k, tim & bruce & batbros, soooo fluffy, tim goes to his neighbor for help and ends up spending christmas with the waynes, none of the kids know bruce is batman and bruce is The Dad of all time)

buy back the secrets by @vinelark (113k, tim/kon, Batfam is also there, five times superboy saves tim and one time tim saves superboy) (timkon fic but batfam is heavily featured and this fic is phenomenal so I had to include it)

+5 WIP I’d love to see more of in 2026!

Fractured by @selkienight60 (14k, tim-centric, tim is being pinballed between alternate universes and just wants to go home, ft. mob boss bruce in the first chapter with more AUs in store (hopefully))

the worlds not perfect (but its not that bad) by @shutupkayle2 (29k, tim & jason, tim keeps hiring goons to kidnap so he can be saved by nightwing, but batman and robin keep getting in the way)

Seeking Shelter From the Storm by @auxchord (34k, tim & jason, jason saves tim in a blizzard, tim brings him home) READ THE TAGS, overall very fluffy but does have heavy themes

The Demon’s Head’s Treasures by @millytsworld (39k, damian-centric, dick dies in damian’s arms and damian will do anything to bring him back) (everyone is very protective and possessive, this is basically platonic yandere lol)

Something is Not the Same by @theskeptileptic (44k, tim-centric, tim is kidnapped and brainwashed by Dr. Oz and then dropped off in a gotham he doesn’t recognize; it’s been 6 months for him, it’s been 10 years for the batfam) *READ THE TAGS lots of funny and lighthearted moments but there is also major whump… this author loves to torture tim (and I love them for it)

Have a great 2026 (or as good as you can with the state of the world) and happy reading!

[taralaurel]

Thank you so much for including me in your Top 20! I feel honored! Reblogging for show of these other amazing fics. Some I know, others I will be tearing through soon.

[taralaurel]

Fic Help

I have only written *some* smutty fics, and they've have always involved plot. While a *few* scenes have been a TEENSY bit rough, most is just regular levels of raunchy or deeply emotional.

HOWEVER

I have other smut that is just "p**n no plot" and even OTHER smut, that is dead 🕊️. Some serious filth.

I've been thinking about publishing some of it, and have been asked threatened to publish some of it by people....

SO HERE IS MY PROBLEM:

Since this is not my normal writing (and because some of it really is the deadest of 🕊️s).... should I adopt a second pseudonym/account that is only for the smuttiest smut and the dead 🕊️s????

Your Thoughts:

Play fast & loose & post that shit on main

Make 2nd pseud to keep the subscribed pure readers wandering face first into it

Voting ended onDec 29, 2025

(This would be for mostly Critical Role right now, but would probably also include Batman fics and other fandoms)

[taralaurel]

somewhere between threat and mercy, a pre-shadowgast fic

**MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MIGHTY NEIN 1X06!! DO NOT READ BELOW!!**

“Do you have any idea,” Essek demands, voice breaking at last, “what it is like to murder your own mother?” For a heartbeat, Caleb does not move. Then he nods. “Yes,” he says. “I do.”

read more on ao3

A re-imagining of the confrontation from episode 97 from the original campaign, with this new alternate Essek backstory from the animated series, told from Essek's POV. Mostly Caleb and Essek focused, with some canon Jester and Caduceus dialogue.

[hekuuu]

[taralaurel]

the dream within a dream (aka: the truth doesn't set you free, it just hurts), a caleb widogast fanfic

The irony wasn’t lost on him - sitting in another farmhouse, sunlight catching on familiar wood grain, while preparing to tell them how he had burned his own to the ground. The memory of smoke clung to him even here, where everything smelled of dew and dust and safety he did not deserve. 

How cruel, that the world decided now to place him inside the shape of what he destroyed.

Sitting in this place was like wearing a ghost over his shoulders.

He wondered what had happened here. The foundation was still solid, while the wood and windows were broken and bent - abandoned long enough for nature to pry its way through the seams. Did the owners simply moved on after the fields dried up? Did misfortune take them before they had a child who could one day return to set everything they loved ablaze? Or had they lived out quiet, ordinary lives, untouched by fire or magic or the Empire’s reach?

Whatever story this farmhouse held, it wasn’t his.

And yet, surrounded by its bones and its silence, Caleb felt the weight of his own pressing in from every angle.

Once upon a time - The memory flared hot, smoke and guilt and screaming- I murdered my mother and father.

No, that was not exactly the proper opening, was it?

read more on ao3

the dream within a dream (aka: once upon a time, i murdered my parents) Caleb never meant to tell the Mighty Nein the truth - not this soon, not like this, and probably not at all. But with his amulet shattered and the past closing in, silence is no longer protection. In the clear, unforgiving morning light of a different farmhouse, he unravels the story of Bren Aldric Ermendrud: the dream he lived, the fire he cast, and the truth that broke him open. What the Nein do with that truth will change everything. This is the missing scene of how Caleb tells them his truth - and how they react to it.

[taralaurel]

Caramel auf dem Feuer, a Caleb/Jester Critical Role fanfic

(slash or gen - you decide)

Caleb blinks. “…I - beg your pardon?”

“Caramel!” she repeats, dropping a canvas pouch at his feet like a declaration of war. “It’s a winter treat! And we deserve treats!”

From somewhere behind them, still warm in her tent, Beau groans. “It’s always a treat. Everything is a treat. We’ve had, like - four treats today.”

“Five!” Jester corrects, kneeling dramatically in the snow. “And this will be the sixth. The most important treat of all.”

Caleb rubs his forehead. “Jester, we are in the middle of the woods.”

She produces a small metal pot, a wooden spoon, and several crumpled pouches of sugar with the triumph of a magician revealing her final trick.

“Yes,” she says. “A perfect kitchen!”

Caleb attempts a polite retreat.

“I think perhaps Fjord -”

“Caleb.”

She presses the wooden spoon into his hand.

Her fingers brush his knuckles, warm even through the cold. The contact lingers half a breath too long. Or maybe that’s just him.

“You have fire magic,” she says sweetly. “And caramel needs fire. You two are meant for each other.”

He sighs because he always sighs when she asks him for anything - and because he already knows he will say yes.

“Very well,” he murmurs. “But do not blame me if it turns out…strange.”

“Oh, Caleb.” Jester beams. “Everything you do is strange... And that is the best part.”

He is, regrettably, charmed.

The pot hangs over the fire. Jester dumps in sugar with zero consideration for proportion. The crystals hiss, melting too fast, browning too quickly. Caleb adjusts the flame, trying to coax it lower, but the magic leaps eagerly to his will - too eagerly.

The sugar scorches.

A thin curl of dark smoke rises.

Jester tastes it from the spoon.

“Mmmm! This tastes like fire,” she declares cheerfully. Then, after a beat: “…and also sadness.”

“It is burnt,” Caleb says.

“It has character,” Jester counters.

“Charred caramel is not a delicacy.”

"A delicacy is only a delicacy if enough fancy people say it is," Jester clicks her tongue, "and I am pretty fancy, you know."

Because Jester is nothing if not beautifully, stubbornly, optimistic, she takes another exploratory nibble. Then a lick. 

“We can try again,” she decides.

They try again.

read more on ao3

A winter storm pins the Mighty Nein in a quiet glade, and Jester decides the best cure for boredom is making caramel candy over the campfire. But when the scent of browning sugar sends Caleb spiraling into memories he hasn’t touched since childhood, Jester gently coaxes him toward something unexpected: the possibility that sweetness - not just suffering - might still belong to him. Fluffcember 2025 Prompt Fill | Day Two | Caramel

[taralaurel]

the long work of staying, a shadowgast fic

“We agreed a long time ago. We said we would not -" Caleb swallowed. “We would not bind each other to grief.”

Essek’s hands stilled fully then. He held Caleb’s right hand between his palms, warm now, sheltered.

“We agreed,” Essek said slowly, “when we were both still very proud. And very frightened. And,” he added, almost dryly, “not yet accustomed to each other’s stubbornness.”

Caleb’s mouth tightened. “Essek.”

Essek did not let him deflect.

"I do not view time as a ledger of fairness, Caleb Widogast."

Caleb felt the truth of that like a weight in his chest.

“You still do not need to stay,” Caleb said, and the words came out rougher than he wanted. “You do not need to -” He tried again, softer, as if gentleness could make it less of an offering. “You can move on. Later. When it is… when it is time.”

Essek’s eyebrows rose, faintly incredulous.

“You are dismissing me,” he said, with a calm that was not calm at all.

“I am giving you permission,” Caleb corrected, because that was what it felt like. A mercy. A release. A way to control the shape of loss before it arrived.

Essek’s grip tightened - barely, but enough that Caleb felt it.

“I did not ask for your permission,” Essek said.

read more on ao3

Years after the Mighty Nein have saved the world, Caleb Widogast finds himself afraid of something far quieter: the slow betrayal of his own hands, and the knowledge that his time will end long before Essek’s ever could. Love, like knitting, is work done slowly. As winter deepens and age makes itself known, Caleb Widogast tries to prepare himself to let go. Essek Thelyss stays anyway. Fluffcember 2025 Prompt Fill | Day Twelve | Knitting

[taralaurel]

will you stay, a critical role dorym fic

Dorian closed his eyes.

He shouldn’t listen.

He shouldn’t.

But the words kept spilling out - soft and uneven, a fragile melody of grief long held and finally unraveling. Each syllable like a thread pulled loose from a wound too deep to mend.

If he moved away, would Orym think Will was leaving him again?

Will wouldn’t do that.

And Dorian - gods help him - couldn’t either.

He couldn’t bring Will back.

He couldn’t even pretend.

He was no actor, no illusionist. Just a bard with trembling hands and a heart too full, aching beneath another man's name. He couldn’t play this part.

But he could stay.

This was the very least he could do for his friend, no matter what it cost him.

He could sit beside the man he loved and let him find comfort in a ghost's shadow, even if the face he saw wasn't really Dorian's.

Even if the words weren’t meant for him.

Continued on ao3

Dorian came back for many reasons.

One of them is lying bleeding in the snow, calling out to someone else.

But grief is strange. And love, even stranger.

Dorian stays and listens anyway.

[taralaurel]

the world didn't end (tonight), a critical role orym panic attack fic

"Sometimes, the greatest strength is in allowing someone else to hold you when the weight becomes too much."

Orym gave a dry, wry smile.

"I'm pretty small. Not sure I have that much weight for anyone to carry."

Essek's gaze stayed soft but steady.

"Even a pebble can cause a landslide when placed properly. Weight like that isn't measured in size, but in impact."

Continued on ao3

The mission is far from over. Predathos still stirs, Laudna is still hurting, and Orym has no time to fall apart - not when the world might fall with him. But when the weight of Zephrah and Otahan and everything after finally cracks open in an alley in Zadash, it's not one of his friends who finds him. It's Essek Thelyss, who knows a thing or two about carrying a weight that doesn’t fit inside you. Later, Dorian comes. And Orym learns something he already knew, but needed to hear: He doesn’t have to hold it alone.

[taralaurel]

It. Is. Finished.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

After 2 1/2 years, 90k+ words, 31 chapters....

I've finally finished this fic.

Thank you to everyone who stuck through with it, rooted for it, asked for more (read: threatened), and kept reading.

This is my second most popular fic, behind "I'll Stand By You", with over 77k hits. So...no pressure to nail the ending or anything.

(I am just going to keep writing Critical Role fanfiction. They stay at like 100 hits and I can pretend no one sees them.)

<<Ya'll have no idea how difficult it was to end this and not just keeping giving more alternating pov chapters to catch up with Bruce and Dick and Jason.... maybe I will write companion oneshots>>

[taralaurel]

almost (already), a critical role vax meets kid!orym fic

A fall from the tree to the glade's ground at this height was already enough to splatter his small body. But he wouldn't hit that ground. Not here, hanging over the edge of a mountain with nothing but nothing and more nothing for miles and miles and -

His breath stuttered.

His heart pounded so loud he couldn't hear the wind anymore.

He tried to shift. His foot scraped uselessly against the trunk, bark biting at his skin.

And then - the branch snapped.

Continued on ao3

During Vax’s year in Zephrah, he meets a stubborn halfling boy named Orym, determined to become a hero. The world may not make room for someone so small—but Vax knows what it’s like to be told you're almost something. And what it means to become more.

[taralaurel]

A View from Down Here (aka Six Ways to Support a Found Family), a critical role orym-centric fic

The wind howls at the cliff's edge, tugging at Dorian's silks and making his hair whip like a banner. His boots hum faintly with arcane energy, the magic itching beneath his soles, waiting to be unleashed.

Below him - about twenty feet down, cradled unceremoniously between two jagged rocks - is Orym.

"I'm fine," Orym shouts up, though he very clearly isn't. His voice cracks halfway through the word, likely from pain or pride. Maybe both.

Dorian folds his arms and tilts his head. "Yes, yes. I can see how fine you are. Is that your heroic pose? Pinned between a boulder and your poor life choices?"

"I landed on my feet," Orym pouts. "The rocks landed after me."

"You look like you lost a fight with a mountain."

"Just sparring," Orym huffs, then hisses as he tries to shift. "Okay. Maybe I lost."

"Mhm. Don't move. I'm coming down."

Continued on a03

5 more times the members of Bells Hells carried Orym.

Plus another time he carried all of them.

[taralaurel]

Held and Holding (aka How to Train Your Party to be a Mount), a critical role 5+1 orym-centric fic

The two of them are currently creeping through a scorched corridor lined with rusted chains and shattered crates. Orym motions for Ashton to hang back as he inches forward to inspect a strange metal fixture on the wall.

A hiss.

A red glow.

A click.

Orym's eyes widen.

"Oh, shit -"

The world explodes sideways.

Flames surge from the wall, catching the old patches of grease and grime and leaping through the corridor like a vengeful spirit.

And Orym - Orym goes tumbling backward into a support beam with a solid crack.

"Orym!" Ashton barks, closing the distance and crouching beside the halfling.

"I'm -" Orym sits up, winces, and immediately slumps again, "okay...ish."

"Nope." Ashton curses, eyeing the smaller man up and down. "That arm's jacked, and your ankle's doing a bad impression of a pretzel."

"I'm fine."

"You're stubborn. And small."

Before Orym can retort, he's unceremoniously plucked off the ground and tossed over Ashton's shoulder.

"Hey," Orym grunts, "I can still fight."

"Sure," Ashton huffs, already trudging toward the exit, "and I'm emotionally stable."

"I can at least walk," Orym mutters, gritting his teeth.

"This isn't a rescue." Ashton shrugs the shoulder not currently supporting the halfling's weight. "This is efficiency."

Continued on ao3

5 times members of Bell's Hells carried Orym.

Plus one time he carried them all.

[taralaurel]

embers in the cold, a critical role sick!caleb fic

The spell flickers, fire fizzling out before it can even take shape or warm his fingers.

He hardly has time to think before the world tilts.

He must have missed his footing. He's going off the edge of the cliff. He really hopes his friends don't waste time trying to go down and find him. He'll fall and fall and then it'll all just stop and that's not what he wants, not anymore, not for awhile now, but it's still okay. It's still -

The last thing Caleb hears is Jester's voice, high and alarmed. Then, darkness.

Continued on ao3

Caleb gets sick and doesn't tell anyone. Because, of course. His new friends have something to say about this.