Standalone: Writing Letters
Title: Writing Letters
Characters: Jason Todd
Word Count: 3000
Summary: It's January in Gotham and Jason doesn't know what he wants. Problem is, neither does anyone else.
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( Jason leaned back in the cheap aluminum and pleather chairs and flipped idly through a battered 'Suicide Girls' magazine. )
I love Jason giving his tattoo money to the shelter. Aaawwwwww, honey!
I love Jason trying to write letters and failing because he doesn't have any words.
I love Jason's encounter with Damian. You write Damian perfectly; he would be aggressive and confrontational in exactly that manner. I forgot that of course Jason would have seen Dami as an itty bitty tiny child-person (tinier child-person); I love that, I really love that, it puts such an interesting twist on their impressions of each other. ...I especially love this part:
“I've been forbidden to confront you,” The boy'd scoffed, arrogant and noble, “I was told you embraced the most vicious talents of the League. Obviously, I have been misinformed.”
“Yeah, well, life's tough,” Jason replied “Big brother just wanted to cover the fact I fucked your mom.”
True; it had been completely childish.
Also true; his face was totally worth it. - I died laughing. Ohmyfuckinggod, Jason. XDD I love Damo's reaction, too. I love that he tried to bite Jay's fingers off. He so would. Great job again on characterization.
The whole bit with the phone and Alfred broke my heart.
I loved grateful shelter lady, and I loved Jason's reaction to her. I love her feeling up his abs. XD
This was truly fantastic, well done. This is... probably my favorite Jason story. Thank you so much.
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Money - Jay's just full of impulse decision. He might regret not saving some of the money later, when he's hungry and tight on food, but the act of giving, of making things a little better, he'll never regret. I think he lives for doing things he won't regret.
Letters - Jason is not verbally expressive, like Tim. He's not physical expressive, like Dick. He's emotionally expressive and that makes it hard to understand himself and impossible for others who don't have the time and constant interaction to learn him. Jason just wants to communicate so badly and he can't trust anyone enough to do that.
Damian - Jason totally did see Damian as a little person! I think Jay, beyond everyone else, sees Damian as family. A different family, not quite Bat, but still somehow his to protect. Damian isn't Tim. He isn't a replacement or a new baby. He's the other son who wasn't good enough and, as bitter as Jason is he wasn't accepted, he can't say he's jealous Dick finally did right by one of them. Tim's a little bitch and Bruce is an asshole, but at least someone's taking care of someone in that family.
Jason's Bitchy Humor - It's still Jason. Sure, he's deep and introspective right now, but he lives to make other squawk indignantly and flail. Damian will always be adorably hilarious in his book, even when he's being an irritatingly stuck-up little bastard. Besides, he knew Damian would get all ruffled at the 'Yo-momma' joke. The only icing was the fact it's true.
ALFRED - Oh my god, Alfred is the epitome of 'everything will be alright'. He's the one who WOULD hug Jason as soon as he opened the door. He's the one who puts up the christmas decorations. He's the one that's still cooking in the kitchen. He's the one who'd living a life of 'it will be better' even when everything's complete shit. Alfred is everything Jason wants and he's scared to death that if he reaches out for him, the Alfred he's sure exists will disappear, just like his angels turned back into headlights.
Shelter lady - Even when we're lost and we feel like we don't exist, everything we do effects someone else. Sometimes, they let us know. It helps remind us we're still real.
I'm so happy you love this. It started out with no direction at all and I just decided to keep writing instead of setting it aside. It's completely purposeless and, in the end, I guess that's the point. That's who Jason is: The Boy Without a Purpose.
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I think he lives for doing things he won't regret. - Guh. This. I just want to hug him.
Tim's a little bitch and Bruce is an asshole, but at least someone's taking care of someone in that family. - Heehee, yes! Jay and Damo... yeah, I've always seen a lot of common ground between the two of them.
ALFRED PENNYWORTH, is he or is he not a motherfucking rockstar? I love this man hard. Always have, always will.
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See, I'm going to make a big confession here.
>.>
<.<
I don't read comics. I read summaries of what happens, I listen closely to the people who DO read comics, and every blue moon, I'll peruse a scan or two. That means, to be able to write these characters, I have have to create them. It's the reason I write character intensive fics instead of plot intensive because, really, I don't know the DC world's ins and outs. When I want to create a world, I go AU and skip around, happily flaunting everything I don't know.
Jason is one of those characters that DC has just spun around and dropped on his head. He doesn't make sense at all and it's the writers' fault. By ignoring 90% of what actually happens, it's actually much easier to piece together the major events and reactions in his life and make a person out of it.
Tim - I love Tim, I do. I really really do. But he is currently going through his 'Shitty Human Being' stage in canon and I admit I love it because Tim NEEDS to be human and be unlikable sometimes - All young men go through that stage, whether it's at 13 or 23, but JESUS CHRIST, TIM. You are such a little ASSHOLE right now.
(Also, I'm trying to break my habit of pairing everyone with Tim. He's just so MALLEABLE. I twist his weak little psyche into pretzels!)
Regret - I think (if DC is paying attention, this is a BIG DEAL, PEOPLE) if Jason can learn how to live again, to do thing that he can take pride in and not have to run away from, he'll be the happiest of all the Bat's. I think he's the one that has a chance to recover and be human. Jason, once he learns how to be a human being, could even leave the mask behind. He could get a wife and kids and run a community center or be a fireman. Something that still actively makes a difference but doesn't have to hide. Something people can be proud of.
Dude Alfred is God. He's like Morgan Freeman.
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I'm a relative newcomer to reading the actual comics myself; thus, why I haven't gotten to know Jason as well as the others- I simply haven't had time to get to him yet! A few months ago I was convinced that it would be quite some time before I felt comfortable writing in the comics universe (I'm more familiar with a few of the animated shows), but then Scary!Timmy abducted my brain and I didn't have any choice in the matter. But I think the only reason I'm able to do it is because my AU character necessitates an AU Gotham... I try to mirror the comics where I can and it is appropriate, but if I mess something up out of ignorance I can just go WALP, IT'S AN AU, THINGS ARE DIFFERENT HERE. :DD ...So yeah, going AU to avoid having to know things = TOTALLY VALID.
By ignoring 90% of what actually happens, it's actually much easier to piece together the major events and reactions in his life and make a person out of it. - Distilled essence of Jason! :DD
...I guess he's being a giant asshole to Damian... which, I admit, I frequently want to smack him for. And then chew him out loudly. On the one hand, I totally see where he's coming from... Damian's an annoying little shit (whom I adore, let's just make that clear) and he tried to kill him which does not tend to ingratiate him to others, and all of the spats and infighting between the two of them are just as much his fault as Tim's. On the other hand... Damian was grown in a test-tube and raised by assassins and he's TEN, so, duh, he's going to kind of suck at being a human being, whereas Tim is practically an adult and he's had some pretty good role models in his life, so he really should be more mature about this and not stoop to Damo's level... on the other OTHER hand I can't blame him for resenting having to be the grown-up in the room and rise above and all that... but then, I know it sucks but SUCK IT UP, TIM... aaaaaand I just go back and forth like that. XD; Basically I just want to smack them both upside the head and make them sit in the corner until they LEARN TO PLAY NICE. (It's hella funny to watch them fight, though. XDDD)
...I guess he was being kind of a jerk when he left Gotham to look for Bruce, but since he found evidence that Bruce was alive and his friends came back to life and he had some time to adjust to not being Robin anymore he's been kind of fantastic. The whole Damian thing aside.
Re: Jason and his hypothetical future development... duuuude, you know, I never really thought about it like that but you're totally right! Everyone else is trapped under the shadow of the cowl, and, yeah, they're totally fucked up (not the want them to not be fucked up, because what would we do without our heroes?)... but Jason is out, he's not part of that system anymore, and if he could just work through his myriad Issues... yeah, he could totally have a chance at a normal life!
...They're three facets of the same being. The Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Morgan Freeman, and God the Alfred Pennyworth.
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XD
Also, I put up that poll thing which is less of a poll and more of a 'Hey, question!' so poke it with a stick if you'd like. XD
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Cool, I'll drop a note if I have any relevent thoughts. ^_^
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