[OPEN/CLOSED] We've gotta hooold on~ To what we've got~

[robintohood]

Who: Jason Todd robintohood and you! And special closed prompts with Jason Todd (reneger), Sleeper (solo_sleeper), Bucky Barnes (deadthenred), and Tim Drake (overlyprecocious).
What: Various antics Jason’s gotten into. Some are more legal than others and might be related to pod people.
When: Second half of April
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: PG13-level violence in the closed prompts. Will add more warnings if needed.

Descendant:

[It’s early evening and the Descendant Bar and Lounge is open as usual. However, compared to most nights, this night and this entire month has been kind of quiet. There aren’t as many customers and the ones who do show up sometimes leave early. Jason knows it’s because of the alien worms but business still needs to continue somehow.

He’s still doing what he can whenever he’s working as the bar’s owner. He’s attending to customers (especially the VIP ones), serving drinks and food, checking on the reading room, and sometimes has to step in as part of security to throw out a rowdy customer. Sometimes, he’s literally throwing them out. It’s good exercise.

Coincidentally, songs like “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Livin’ On A Prayer,” and brave attempts at “Bohemian Rhapsody” can sometimes be heard from the second floor’s stage]

This shit better not be prophetic.

[Regardless of what Jason’s doing, come talk to him. He could probably use the break]

Warehouse raid (Closed to the other Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, and Sleeper):

[Ever since his other self told him he successfully robbed the D’Amicos, Jason sought out more of their bases with his gang. After all, it’s not often he gets a chance to further weaken a mob that was still recovering. After many nights and a lot of hard work, Jason soon enough found the perfect base to rob. He’s even going to have backup for tonight.

It’s nearly midnight and Jason’s at the edge of Central City, perched on the rooftop of an old brick building and fully dressed in his Red Hood gear. He has a plan and he trusts the rest of the party enough to not screw up the raid.

But as Jason stares at the warehouse a block away from him, he can’t help but frown under his helmet]

Another Productive Night (Closed to Young Justice!Tim Drake):

[It's another Central City evening and Jason's deep in his gang's territory as the Red Hood once again.

There are three motorcycles parked outside of an auto repair shop and the building’s lights are still on. Suddenly, there’s a loud commotion as Jason drags out a man and then slams him against the wall. He then pins his victim by having his forearm pressed hard against the man’s neck]

You were warned, Benny.

[As Benny struggles to breathe, two more men come out of the building. Both are in motorcycle helmets with the visors down to cover their faces and wearing gloves. One man has hands as large as a gorilla’s. Neither of these two men seem disturbed as they watch Jason begin to pistol whip Benny across the face]

Wildcard:

((OOC: Got something else in mind? Hit me up! I always welcome new CRs as well. My contact information is on this journal's profile and I'm in the game's Discord server. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns as well. I also have a feedback post.))

Comments

[overlyprecocious]

[If something goes snap in his brain while he takes in the situation, hears Jason's words, the reminder that this situation is so much more broken than he can fix just by stopping the fight, he doesn't acknowledge it. He's been in unfixable situations before. Just because there's more broken pieces than you can hold together in your hands doesn't mean you give up. You work at what you can. You triage.

Robin has emergency first aid in his belt, like all of them should. There's some heavily-compacted pressure bandages in one pocket, and he hands one roll off to the Jason who's still standing, once he's close enough. He kneels next to the other Jason, the one still on the floor. Neither of them look good, but him still being down is not great.]

Take your mask off.

[He saw the hit he took to the head - he wants to have a look at that Jason's pupils.]

[mostdangerousbird]

[ After again checking on family locations (because he tries to keep an active tracker on everyone, although they make it annoyingly difficult, Tim realizes that he’s breathtakingly close.

(He had diverted his patrol when he realized the older Jason was in the other’s territory. On this particular anniversary, Jason even breathing differently calls for attention, just to make sure he’s okay.)

So Rook arrives almost on the heels of Robin. Absorbs the tableau. Neither of them look great, but the most concerning is the knife in Jason’s shoulder. ]

Robin. Pull the knife out and make sure there’s no fibers in the wound. I’ll take it from there.

[ He turns to the older Hood, making an effort to keep his tone to working and not snippy. ]

What’s wrong with you? Physically. I’m not asking why.

[ So now we’re literally beating ourselves up on bad dates, are we? ]

[reneger]

( doesn't answer. there's no need. jason already told hood how he feels, and he doesn't feel like rehashing it in front of the hoad of robins that's arrived to tell them to knock it off. rook has already seen him at his messiest, this shouldn't be surpising. robin's still just a brat, and he doesn't need anymore than he's already gotten.

bandages are pressed into his hand and he raises his uninjured arm up to press them against his bleeding shoulder. hisses at the pressure, but it's not as if he wasn't expecting it to sting. jason's still taking slow steps away from the aftermath of their stupid fight. )

Got stabbed. Got shot. 'm fine. ( if he can get far enough away to take a breath, he can call someone else for back up. someone without the background knowledge of why he's--like this.

but he does (helpfully) start naming off junior's injuries while he keeps walking, )

Knife's through his subclavian artery. Probably. Left eardrum might need attention. Likely concuss-- ( nose wrinkling as his own equilibrium starts getting thrown off; he stumbles to the side, catches himself by taking his hand off of his shoulder and resting it against the bar. )

[robintohood]

[Jason rips off his mask so that Robin can check his pupils. So far they don't seem dilated but he feels like his head's spinning. His bleeding shoulder wound isn't help either]

Sure. Fucking helpful now.

[Jason winces right after that. He's sure a nasty bruise is forming on his throat but again, he doesn't care. He's still so angry]

[overlyprecocious]

They're both probable concussions. [Unlike the last time he was in close proximity to an angry Red Hood, he's handling it pretty well. His tone is even, and he doesn't show any body language showing discomfort. He just flicks on a small light to check Hood's pupil responses once the mask is off and he can actually see his eyes.

(If that's because there's more Robin in his head right now than Tim Drake, well - whatever works, works.)]

Shoulder wound's probably going to bleed heavily when the knife comes out. Let me know when you're ready for that, [he says, admittedly talking more to Rook than to Hood right now.]

[mostdangerousbird]

[ His mask hitches upwards lopsidedly, along with his eyebrow at the gall to follow shot and stabbed with I’m fine.

Nice try at leaving, but Tim’s hovering and almost presenting himself to be something else to lean on. Except that would imply that he wasn’t actively reaching for Jason’s arm to steady him.

(And heal him without permission, which will go over great, but if they can’t keep him there, he can’t leave like this.

Really, it’s not even the tenth time he’s surreptitiously healed someone. It’s legal if you can’t prove it. ]

Give me a second. They’re going to have to take turns. If he can mouth off, he’s fine.

[reneger]

( he'd shove away, but he's not stable enough for that right now. jason's three seconds away from falling over onto his face, steadied only by the bar he's putting his weight on and tim holding onto him. or at least he was struggling to keep himself up. his hand raises to swat him away, only to find that his shoulder hurts significantly less, it's stitching itself back up together, and jason's--not happy about it. he does shove tim away, as soon as he realizes exactly what's happening. )

I didn't ask you to do that, asshole.

( bleeding out wouldn't have been any fun, but he had plans to fix that. )

[robintohood]

[Jason's eyes respond to younger Tim's light normally. It takes Jason a minute to realize what older Tim is doing as he's still disorientated but he can certainly still mouth off]

Yeah, let him bleed out since that's what he wants so damn much.

[reneger]

Robin, move out of my way.

( not rook, but robin proper. he's still a good distance away from where red hood's been shoved down, jason's not moving yet, but he's already in better physical shape.

if he really wanted to, it wouldn't take him long at all to get over there and slam his boot down right onto that knife in red hood's shoulder. )

[overlyprecocious]

[Well.

If he was handling this well a moment ago, he's - something, now. Something in the semi-calm he's been keeping himself in by handling this as Robin (two injured combatants, both dangerous and with extensive training, one other Bat on location with a healing ability and similar goal of keeping them from killing each other, he can work with that) starts to crack open when Jason demands he get out of the way. The distance in his brain that was keeping him from feeling too much about this situation isn't quite so distant anymore.]

Will you just - stop it? Trying to murder each other isn't helping anyone!

[why do you have to keep fighting, why are you always. fucking. fighting - He blinks, and he didn't say that last part out loud, but what he did say or the way he sounded like he was about two seconds away from losing his shit probably isn't going to help defuse the situation, either.]

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Looking suddenly a little more ground - like the tail end of an extremely long patrol - Tim catches himself before the shove’s momentum makes him stumble more than a step. ]

I didn’t ask the two of you to kick the crap out of each other, but here we are.

[ He’ll step around Robin with a tight smile and tries to joke. ]

If it makes you feel better, I don’t think they’re trying to kill each other. If they are, I’m taking them to target practice. Terrible aim. Unacceptable.

[ Tim puts one hand on the knife hilt and the other younger Jason’s shoulder to brace it as he pulls. He can already feel that tingly, draining something when he’s doing anything with the new metapower. (Even after a year it’s still new.)

(And mistrusted.) ]

[robintohood]

[Jason grits his teeth as he feels older Tim pull the knife out of him. Tim's power is certainly working though as the bleeding slows down]

You don't have to do this.

[Jason's temper just barely cools off for him to remember that Tim's healing ability requires energy, which means this might tire him out soon if he intends to heal both Jasons]

We can take care of ourselves.

[reneger]

( rook takes steps forward to help junior, and jason doesn't move yet. doesn't react to robin yelling either. he's staying still, almost eerily so. because he knows once he gets himself going, he's going back to losing his shit and he's trying to avoid that with two tim drakes between them. he's angry all over again, exhaustion patched together through rook's own hands despite the fact he had to have known that was a bad idea. )

I don't want to do this in front of either of you. ( voice calm, steady, even in the way that speaks volumes because jason is never calm and steady. this is him trying. this is him keeping himself together for another moment longer. )

Back off, now.

[overlyprecocious]

[So, the thing is.

The thing is. The thing is. Robin is in a bar, with two older brothers who want to try to kill each other, round two, and another sort-of-older-brother who is also himself, who is looking like he might just collapse soon, so he can't expect a lot of help from that quarter. And he is not sure he can stop that fight on his own.

And Tim is. Tim is not in a bar. Tim is not - He's not, he can hear Jason's words, he can feel the inevitability of the fight settle deep in his chest. And he has no doubt it's going to be bloodier than the fights he's used to, except those fights drew blood, too. They just didn't always show on the skin.]

Why are you - why are you always fighting?! I've tried to help you, I've tried to keep the peace, sometimes I think that's all you keep me around for anymore, but it's never - [He's standing now, and he doesn't remember standing up, and he's in the bar and there are two Jasons and he's not and there aren't, nothing outside the words he's screaming and the way the air burns in his lungs is real. He can't breathe.] It's never enough, why is it never enough? Why am I - if you never wanted me, why did you even have me?

[Robin is in a bar. He is not in a bar. He is - he is waiting for the verbal slap, he is waiting to be made to feel sorry for making a scene.]

[mostdangerousbird]

“Shut the fuck up. Both of you,” Rook snaps wearily at the lunkheads. This - it’s a lot. Healing two people is a lot and the knife had stuck deep. “Your family. There’s no feasible scenario where I don’t do this, unless you force me to. And I suggest you don’t.”

The slightest tip of his head at Robin. Maybe 2 degrees. Because- that is disintegrating quickly and there is obviously a big trigger that the Jasons are running a tank over.

He stands up from the crouched position. Sways hard. Drops a burner on the prone Red Hood’s stomach. “Get Guardian. I can’t drive. Robin, breathe. It’s enough. You’re enough. They are idiots, and it takes too much energy to accommodate them.”

That’s an ambiguous them. There’s not a particular argument that stands out as traumatizing in his own history, but he has a short list of thems. He almost puts a hand on Robin’s shoulder, but has to sit on a table and extend his bo to lean on.

[robintohood]

[Young Tim's reaction to being overwhelmed and triggered by the Jasons fighting pulls younger Jason a little further away from his rage at older Jason. It's not totally gone though and he still wants to pummel the man's face in as soon as the Tims are gone.

But that's not the priority for now. So Jason sends a short text to Guardian and then resumes glaring at older Jason]

What the fuck is your problem anyway?

cw: child abuse, drug abuse, drug overdose, child death (?? is that it)

[reneger]

( his eyes shift from red hood to robin, teeth gritted together and he--lets himself go. he tried calm, for a minute. he tried warning them. but someone yells and jason feeds off of that, he matches it, and he's done. )

You wanna bitch about shitty parenting, Robin? ( his voice is quiet, for a minute. and then it just gets louder and louder as he keeps going on. ) You wanted to know about me, right? You asked, what I did when I came back. How shit happened. You asked. I'll tell you. ( breath in, teeth grinding hard. ) My parents didn't give two shits about me. But I'm betting you knew that already. None of my shit gets to be private, everyone knows everything. My fucked up dad went to prison, which was better than the alternative. My mom OD'd in our fucking bathtub. I had to pull her body out and call the cops to come get her. And you know what? None of that's even the worst fucking part 'cause I'd finally, finally gotten somewhere where someone gave a shit about me, where I felt like I'd belonged, but I was stupid and thought I could find my actual mom since--guess what? Everyone'd fucking lied to me. I was a stupid kid, an' I pulled stupid shit.

I was a stupid kid who's mom sold him off an' watched him get beat by Joker, eight years ago. Eight years ago exactly. I was a stupid kid who believed the only father figure who'd ever been mildly decent to him'd come an' save him. I believed it right up 'til there was nothing left of me.

( arm out in a wide gesture as he takes a step forward. there's no intention of lashing out at them, he's just--moving. he can't sit still, he's shifting his weight, moving his hands, finding something, anything, to move. )

An' I'd come back to another stupid kid wearing the R. A kid who didn't deserve any of that. Who deserved not to experience any of that. Can you imagine, stepping out of a Lazarus Pit after that? After dying while your body was so fucked you could barely even breathe? When every step, every twitch felt like death itself?

( sucking in another breath, harsher as he gets louder. )

An' yet Joker's still alive. Joker pulled the same shit here with T--Rook. The one thing I didn't want to happen happened. Again.

And you know what B does? He gets pissed off at me for taking care of someone who deserved to be fucked over, beats the shit out of me, an' it hurts even worse 'cause it's him. ( his voice cracks, audible through the yelling. ) And no one, none of the family I thought'd be there to keep him from breaking my fucking limbs showed up! Harper had to! Harper came from fuck knows where to get B off of me!

I died today, I died, an' Joker's still around to fuck up Robins, 'cause B doesn't really give a shit, does he? He only cares 'bout people when they're convenient for him.

[overlyprecocious]

[He's - he's trying to be present, he really is. They're in a bar, and the situation is still rapidly falling apart. A voice in his head insists that he needs to get his shit together and handle this, but it's so hard to hear over the static filling his head. Jason is - he's talking, he's pissed off, it's definitely directed at Tim this time, and most of what filters through is the tone. His body flinches backwards when Jason steps forward, vaguely tracking the potential threats in the room, but that's about it.]

[mostdangerousbird]

[ He’s bone-tired and doesn’t want to get up, but has to try. Hope for some second wind to kick in and get him through this. He slides off the table and drops onto his feet, and he’s visibly too loose as he moves to stand in front of Robin. ]

I was ordered away. I messed up. I miscalculated. Yell at me.

[ Fight me, if that’s where this is headed. But Tim’s not even in a stance. He’s just. There. ]

I know wh-

[ What it’s like. To choke on blood while Joker laughs. To want someone dead for what they did. To plan it, if not follow through.

But it’s not an excuse for venting Quietly, he adds. ]

Look at him.

[ Robin’s body language doesn’t read like Tim’s. Don’t have to be Cass to see that there’s something overloading Robin.exe. ]

[robintohood]

[Meanwhile, Jason has figuratively stopped dead in his tracks from older Jason's rant. So much of the man's story is similar to his but there are some key differences. Some of the differences he already knows from previous conversations but now more information has come to light.

His own deathday is December 21st. April 27th had no significance for him until today. Once Jason calms down later maybe he'll have a better understanding for why older Jason attacked. But for now there's so much he's still trying to digest.

Then there was mention of an "actual mom." Does that mean it's the same for him? Catherine was his mother as far as he knew. But then again, Jason knows very little of his extended family. Was there more to it than he originally thought? But then, this woman didn't care. Is it the same for him? Does it matter? Is he just never meant to have a family?

And then there's the way older Jason talks about Bruce at the end. He already knew about the details but it's the way older Jason's talking this time that pulls the younger one somewhere else. For a moment, Jason's back in that decrepit apartment building with Bruce and a captured Joker.

"I'm not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I'm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because... Because he took me away from you."

The way his voice shook betrayed to Bruce just how hurt he still feels about the whole ordeal. He'll never forget how fast he escalated the situation either. By the end he was screaming and demanding life or death to his adoptive father. Hearing older Jason talk about him in the same way and knowing the same damn story repeats in another universe... it hurts. It hurts so damn much.

There's only silence from Jason]

[reneger]

( he's out of steam. it was everything. every reason for him being here. every thought that'd been swimming through his head since--well. since yesterday, because he hasn't slept in a while. maybe it'd be better if we just stayed dead, he'd thrown at himself. maybe we are just gutter trash. and then--this. everything else. the fight with b, the last one. how tim's round with joker'd pissed him off, made him angry, made him sad, because it had been the one thing jason hadn't wanted. the reason he was so pissed when he'd seen tim's pictures: bruce had replaced him, he'd thrown in another kid into his mess.

rook's close to falling and it doesn't escape his attention. his eyes look back to robin, and it throws him off further. he's not used to a tim drake like this. he's used to the one he's bitched and yelled at more times than he can count. the one he'd held a knife to, threatening him with bruce and selina watching. the one he'd followed through gotham after bruce's "death", vying for his attention, for tim to work with him. the one he'd beaten up in titan's tower and left the words "JASON WAS HERE" scrawled in blood on the wall. who he'd told to be his robin like it'd make any fucking sense, who he'd stabbed and hurt and rarely ever had jason seen tim break.

tim's not like him. tim's smarter, he knows how to use his head, he knows how to not break when everything feels like shit. but this isn't the same tim. jason shoves his palms against his eyes, wiping at tears that haven't quite fallen but were threatening to. )

It was never about you. ( he's not moving any closer, but he is dropping his head down. shoving fingers through his hair. the nervous movements don't stop even if he's redirecting them. ) It was always him. Always me.

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Tim nods at this, and the room starts to swim with the motion. The nod stops - or does it? - but the room keeps swinging and twisting. Like a slow-motion tumbling pass.

(Oh. He's not going to make it 'til Guardian gets here to take him home, is he?)

It always was about Jason. Without Jason, Tim's just a rich kid living with his dad someplace. Statistically, he's probably been seen or been the victim a violent crime by now, but he's not Rook or Robin or anything without the gaping hole that Jason left in Bruce's life.

(He's going to pass out, isn't he?)

And there's still so much to rush to say so that everything doesn't backslide.
]

Don't take it out on him... Guardian, take him to 'wing.

You're family... no, ohane... means... fam-

[ He won't remember boffing the quote or how his knees buckled when he fainted, dropping him like a busted marionette. At least, his body will heal whatever damage happens when he hits the floor. ]

[lowercase_el]

[Kon hears the words about where to take little Tim. Tim was right to think he'd hear it from a distance.]

[He's been trying not to hover as much, trying not to listen in as much, even despite his anxiety over Tim's safety after what the Joker did, but that all goes out the window when he gets the text. His superhearing is still so good he can ping his voice anywhere in the same city, as long as he isn't somewhere soundproof.]

[Like he was that day.]

[Tim never hits the floor. There is a whoosh of wind caused by superspeed and he's caught just before he hits. Kon gives him a once over with X-ray vision as he lifts him from where he almost fell on his face, then hefts him into a bridal carry as soon as he doesn't see any obvious injuries.]

[Maybe he overdid it with his healing powers. He knows they take a lot out of him.]

[...And look at these two morons. It's not hard to guess what happened here.]

[Plus he heard some of Jason 2's yelling when flying in.]

What'd you two morons do?

[His voice is low and quiet and there's a spark of red (just a spark) in his eyes. He doesn't yell. Little Tim looks freaked and the last thing he needs is a yelling, furious super. He has his own Superboy, he knows how powerful he is, and doesn't know that Kon has the same moral limits.]

[He is not appreciative of the fact they did a two-for-one special on upsetting/fucking up both Tims, apparently.]

You know what, never mind.

[He looks at their world's Jason. To anyone else, maybe, he'd show a bit more compassion. But he can't here. Not when this isn't the first time Tim got hurt like this. Not after what he heard Todd did in Titans Tower when he'd been laid low by Luthor's brainwashing.]

It's probably what you've always done.

[Kon knows he can't compare his own death to Todd's. Prime was a psycho but Joker's worse, hands down. Jason Todd - both Jasons - died scared, tortured, powerless, and alone. Kon died after saving the world, in his girlfriend's arms. Big difference.]

[But he doesn't hold himself as the point of comparison.]

[Tim was tortured by the Joker. Tim was powerless. Tim's pain was broadcast for the whole world, exposed. Tim was alone on that boat, trapped with a psycho, being broken piece by piece, with every bone shattered.]

[And Tim wasn't breathing when he and Kid Flash found him that day, sinking under the water.]

[And that was on top of every other bit of pain he'd felt, loss after loss after loss. Both parents. A girlfriend. Both best friends. Then even Bruce.]

[Yet he still didn't take it out on people or get them hurt because of any pain he'd dealt with. The worst he'd done since all that was try to trick Kon into filling out an application to a country where he'd be safe as a meta. Just in case things went bad. Even the sneakiest, most boundary-crossing move he'd done recently was to keep someone he cared about safe.]

[He has sympathy for the Todds, he does, and if he knew what anniversary it was today, he might have been kinder. But...maybe not. It's all too easy to look at Tim Drake and see what Jason could be.]

[And both Todd and that little gremlin Damian have gotten away with hurting Tim before. And even Dick had taken being Robin away from Tim and given it to Damian.]

[Just for once, he deserves to have someone be unilaterally, even mercilessly, in his corner. Always.]

[The spark in his eyes fades. He turns to the younger Tim, blocks his view of the Jasons with his own body, his back to them. He doesn't have to worry about one of them getting pissy and pulling a sucker punch. They're not a threat and they're not stupid enough to take a pot shot at super.]

Buddy, how about I get you both out of here, okay?

[overlyprecocious]

[He's barely tracking what's happening, but he's just aware enough of the collapse that his muscles twitch forward, getting ready to catch the older Tim, and then he jerks back when Conner is suddenly there, catching the falling body instead. His shoulders hunch forward, unconsciously making himself a smaller target now that there's a new person, who he vaguely thinks he recognizes, and it's not long before the new person is talking to him.

Whatever's actually said is lost in the static, and he doesn't want to let go of the static - couldn't, really, even if he wanted to. About the best he can manage is a slight tilt of his head as the little piece of him that's actually aware tries to figure out what's expected of him.]