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Damian was having a mundane morning.
But he sensed something was off during second period. The teacher was droning on about... well Damian had actually stopped paying attention, he only attended these infantile classes because Father and Grayson insisted he needed the ‘socialization.’ (And also, because he had to be enrolled in school to participate in the art club, and art club was... agreeable enough). Regardless, the teacher was droning on at the front of the class, but something was causing the students in the back to quietly gasp and whisper among themselves. It only took a small side glance to see a group of the girls were blushing and tittering about something on their phones. And whatever the cause, it was passing like a slow-moving wave out from its inception point as students were obviously texting each other whatever it was they saw, or not-so-subtly angling their phones towards each other under their desks.
Damian, of course, had no interest in the inane nonsense these juvenile children were blushing about, but none-the-less he expected it would be inflicted upon him. Whatever it was had made it up to Skylar, his seat neighbor and fellow art club member, and Damian expectantly glanced her way expecting her to show him as well (even though he totally didn’t care). Her jaw dropped, a blush rose across her cheeks but instead of passing whatever she saw on to Damian, she shot him a guilty look and shoved her phone into her desk as if to specifically hide it from him!
Skylar was a loyal ally. There’s only one reason she would choose to conceal something from him: she was trying to shield him from something. A foolish if well-intentioned thought. Whatever this was, now Damian had to know.
But unfortunately, his other art club allies in this class were more scattered and not as easily accessible to glimpse their phones. So instead, Damian was forced to sit through the final dregs of Biology until the bell rang before investigating.
He turned on Skylar immediately, quietly hissing. “What are you hiding.”
“Nothing!” She insisted, while at the same hastily shifting her phone from the desk to her pocket. “It just some pictures.”
Damian narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the avoidant answer. “Pictures of what?”
An unfamiliar voice chimed in. “Damian?”
He whirled around to find Lillian August, cheeks flushed and smiling shyly behind him—and behind her were a gaggle of more blushing and giggling teens clearly having sent Lillian forward as their representative. He’d never really had a conversation with Lillian before—he only even remembered her name because Father had researched the August family extensively for a joint corporate project with Wayne Industries. But now here she was bashfully fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. “Richard Grayson is like your older brother, right?”
“He’s not ‘like’ my brother. He is.” Damian snapped back impatiently.
“Yeah, of course. Yeah.” She agreed quickly. “Does he... have like an Instagram? Or is he on TikTok?”
And then it clicked. Damian swiveled back to Skylar. “The picture is of Richard.” He stated as the horrible truth dawned on him.
“He should really be a model!” Lillian chimed.
Skylar nodded and continued. “It looks like it’s from some sort of calendar photo shoot from a couple years ago?”
And with that, Damian dashed out of the classroom—and out of the school.
Tim was having a lovely morning. He was lying on the couch with Bernard, scrolling through his Wayne Industry emails when a text from Damian jumped onto his screen and his blood ran cold.
“Oh god, no.” Tim exhaled in horror, jolting upright.
DemonChild
The calendar photos leaked. Shut it down.
Quickly followed by
SpoilerAlert
Holy shit, the photo shoot has breached containment.
The whole comment section is barking
Zombie
YOU NEED TO CRASH THE INTERNET WE NEED TO STOP THIS
New Group Chat Created: Emergency Response Team
DemonChild, Zombie, SpoilerAlert, Best Sister
Best Sister
We need to find Dick.
Zombie
Timberly, I’m serious, you need to Y2K kill all technology.
SpoilerAlert
Its too late for that
Its escaped into the wild
Steph is right, its been up for 15 minutes. There are already reaction videos.
All we can do now is distract
We need a bigger news story to get media attention off of Dick
“What’s up?” Bernard asked, sitting up as well and running a soothing hand through the short hairs at the base of his skull. Normally that would be enough to force Tim to relax at least a little bit. But this situation was too serious.
“Family emergency. We need Superboy.”
Bruce was having a routine morning.
He’d taken his breakfast with Alfred and Damian before they’d all departed for school and work. His first few meetings of the day began on time as he worked through closing on the financing for Wayne Industries’ latest project, but he sensed something was off as his secretary, a kind young man named Aaron, stiffly slipped into the important negotiations and quietly informed him there was major news he needed to hear.
“What’s wrong, Aaron?” He asked preemptively as the clearly nervous man led him back to his private office. It was likely a dour report on their latest tech developments—they’d been hitting a bit of a wall on their alternative fuel source research.
“Sir, there have been several major... developments in the last 20 minutes.” Aaron explained nervously, his hands shakily clasping his work phone. “But the most important is—it’s...”
Bruce took pity on the young man, seeing this big news was clearly was clearly causing him some serious stress. “How about we start with the least important and build our way up? What’s the least pressing issue?”
“Your son, Damian announced on Tweeter his intention to drop out of school and pursue a career in art.”
Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. They’d had the dropping-out-of-school conversation numerous times, and he had no intention of budging. But it was encouraging to hear Damian so directly voice his interest in pursuing a career in art. Damian often discussed his personal interests as secondary to a life centered on vigilantism, so he was happy to hear his son speak of them as a primary focus. They’d have to discuss this in more detail later. “Ok. What else?”
“Your daughter, Cassandra, announced she is queer and in a relationship with Ms. Stephanie Brown.”
That got Bruce’s eyebrows to his hairline. He’d known about this progression in their relationship for several months now, but they hadn’t said anything about making a public announcement. A random Tuesday morning seemed a strange time, but it was their decision to make. “Alright, what else?”
“Your son, Tim, announced he and his boyfriend Bernard have welcomed Superboy into their relationship and they are a um, polycule? All three of them are currently live streaming a, uh, storytime and Q&A.”
Ok, that one was a surprise to him. And it actually had Bruce’s blood pressure rising. What on earth was going on? How did he not know this? Did CLARK know? Did Clark know BEFORE HIM?! He ran a tired hand over his face. “And there’s something more pressing?!”
Aaron clearly braced himself before nervously declaring, “There’s someone down stairs, claiming to be Jason Todd.”
Bruce’s jaw dropped. He’d attempted to discuss legally ‘resurrecting’ Jason with his son on numerous occasions, but Jason had always dodged the topic, insisting he preferred the anonymity and freedom of his fake identities as opposed to the public attention the sudden resurrection of a Wayne would bring.
“The police have already been called, but a crowd has gathered. He claims he can—um, prove he’s your son. I understand this is horribly insensitive but, we thought we should warn you before you start seeing the articles about his um... claims. It’s blown most of the other news out of the water.”
“Take me to him.” Bruce said instantly, speed walking out of the office. If Jason decided now was the time for his reintroduction to the world, it must be important. And he had no intention of keeping his son waiting.
“Sir?! Are you sure?!” Aaron squeaked in concern as he hurried to follow after Bruce to the elevators. “D-don’t you think we should let the police, um vet him or something first? We don’t have any way to verify who this man is?” Bruce appreciated the man’s concern—from an outsider’s perspective it surely did seem like some insane imposter’s claims.
“No. I’ll know.” He insisted as the elevator illuminated and slid open. Aaron nodded numbly as he followed him in, still nervously looking down at his phone. Bruce took the moment of silence to heave an exhausted sigh—his children were truly going to make him go grey. “I can’t believe Dick is the only one not causing a stir today.”
“Oh! I’d almost forgotten amid all the big announcements." Aaron laughed with relief at the change of topic, waving the casual hand. "Those calendar photos, from the potential Bludhaven Public Servants Calendar a few years ago leaked.”
“WHAT?!”