Jason Todd Has Always Been The Most Cryptic Wayne/batfamily Member.

Jason Todd has always been the most cryptic Wayne/batfamily member.

Even as a kid, Jason was still a bit of a cryptid. Sure, the others were strange, but not like him.

Dick was a weird circus kid who liked swinging on chandeliers. He seemed really cheerful and adventurous (he never showed guests his anger, despite wanting to kill Tony Zucco). Tim was already an established rich kid, and he was too smart for his own good.

You see, the others were a strange outsiders knew. They thought they understood the oddities. Jason, though?

Guests had no idea what to think of him. He was nervous to be around so many people, to have so many eyes focused on him, but he was bright and cheery all the same. When uncomfortable, the boy could disappear so quickly. He was tiny from years of malnutrition, but he was fast. Nobody really knew his story. Obviously, he was found on the streets, but nobody knew much else about him. Then one day he disappeared and the next news of him was that he was dead.

Months after his death, there were people who would swear they'd seen his ghost while they were walking. One day the sightings stopped and the young ghost was never seen again. Years later, someone who looked like Jason Todd if he'd been given the chance to grow would be seen walking around Gotham.

After crawling from his grave, Jason was a mysterious John Doe at a hospital for a while. Nobody knew where he'd come from or how he'd gotten such terrible injuries. One day, he just disappeared, after being unresponsive for his entire stay. On the streets, there was some weird kid who nobody really knew. He didn't react to their attempts at communication and pretty much just walked around as a zombie, but he fought like a demon if provoked. Then one day some people from out of town started asking about the kid and he just disappeared forever. Nobody saw him again.

As a civilian after he comes back, he's some young guy who's super muscular (seriously, what's his workout routine?) and nobody really knows where he came from. He doesn't seem to have a job, but he has plenty of money. They don't even know his real name, and every time he uses one it changes (aliases to keep anonymity. He doesn't really have much of an identity outside of red hood or Jason Todd, a kid who died years ago).

As the Red Hood, he rarely even takes off his helmet (unless it was broken off, like when Bruce fought him, or he was purposely showing someone who he is). They don't know his age; he just showed up one day in full body armor ready to become a crime boss. He's got a rule against hurting children and is incredibly skilled in combat. He's too smart and calculating. His move with the duffel bag made him infamous, and he was able to evade Batman by himself for months.

Even to other members of the family, Jason is a mystery. Not much is known about the years in between his death and his return as the Red Hood. His confrontation with Bruce isn't discussed much by either of them, and Jason just sort of does his own thing most of the time. He's had several odd team-ups, and they never really get context as to how or why they meet and decide to start working together.

You go through the Sumeru Archon quests thinking Alhaitham is a huge nerd because he brings a book to read in his spare time everywhere he goes...

...then you finish the Sumeru Archon quests and that one NPC outside the library tells you that physical books haven't even been in regular use in Sumeru because everyone has been using their Akasha Terminal instead.

This man is bringing books to read when books aren't even really a thing in Sumeru to begin with.

Nerd. (Affectionately, of course.)

Cytham / Haino HCs and Thoughts: Language edition

A lot of this came about bcs I was thinking about speculations that Cyno is also Haravatat (which is seeming unlikely), but even if he was from another Darshan and is just, like, a language hobbyist, they might work with a little tweaking. ANYWAY

- Languages as another thing they bicker and sass each other about. Alhaitham mocking Cyno for confusing tones when speaking in Liyue language. Cyno calling out Alhaitham for messing up conjugations in Mond language. They’d get so, so gloriously petty with it. Cyno: How unprofessional of the Scribe, to use first-person language in an official report. Alhaitham: You counted three words, and it’s practice in the style of official reports. Shut it. Cyno: Five. Wait… Six. Two of the same mistakes repeated. Alhaitham: I’m not taking this from someone who asked for soup instead of sugar in his tea. Cyno: That was one time–!

- But also languages as a thing they could agree about. Cyno squints over a letter from Lisa written in Mond and complains about the grammatical gender being so different from Sumeru’s. Instead of roasting him, Alhaitham makes a remark on how at least Sumeru’s gendered nouns are easier to identify and the articles don’t change around like theirs. Cyno: Tch. Articles. Don’t even get me started on how they change with the cases. Alhaitham: if you won’t get started, then allow me– (insert 2 hour rant here that they end up laughing about)

- They’re both fond of ancient languages, Cyno a bit moreso. So whenever Cyno borrows a Decarabian-era poetry collection from Lisa after accompanying Collei to Mondstadt or wins some Ishine script stone slates from his Genius Invokation game with Yae, he makes sure to wait for Alhaitham so they could nerd about it analyse it together.

- Cyno adores (and is jealous of) Alhaitham’s handwriting in all languages. Like how does this man write so neatly and robotically in line, yet not lack the flowiness and artistry characteristic to Sumeru and Inazuma scripts??

- Whenever the Traveler comes by to visit, the two keep track of how their accent and phrases slightly changes and then guess where they had been recently, before the Traveler even says it. It’s a game and they’re keeping score of who can guess first, and Alhaitham is just slightly ahead because he’s a Rude Bastard who will just say, “Oh, you’ve been in Liyue this past month?” while the Traveler is still mid-sentence.

- Alhaitham is terrorized by Cyno’s attempts at language-related jokes on top of his other jokes. Cyno: If I were to describe my latest mission in grammatical terms, it would be simple past tense. Alhaitham: …what? Cyno: It was easy, and it happened in the past. Alhaitham: …I’m going to maul you. Cyno: No, that’s simple future tense. Alhaitham: Your life will be simple past tense if you don’t stop soon–

- Also multilingual puns. Cyno: An Inazuman cat is lazing about. You could say he’s doing…nyathing. Alhaitham: (snorts because Cyno said nya) Cyno: (makes mental note thinking that Alhaitham likes cat puns)

- Sometimes Alhaitham replaces words with shorter words in another language in his personal notes, chaotically using one script to write a word from an entirely different language. One time, since he left it open anyway, Cyno takes a peek to make sure he’s not up to some shit like with the Divine Knowledge Capsule. He feels like he had a seizure. Cyno: Why the fuck did you spell 地脉 with Sumeru script. Just say Ley Line, you lunatic. Alhaitham: It’s shorter. Efficient. Cyno: Not by much. Alhaitham: Considering how much I need to write anyway, every little bit helps.

If you have more please please share with me with the tags or replies, I’m brainrotting over these two and I love languages.

NERDS…

Superman (and by extension the rest of the League) find out about the whole Captain Marvel is a homeless ten year old thing. Of course, they’re trying to catch Billy so they can stop and/or house him, likely shunting him off to the younger teams, and all-around taking control of his life. Billy, wanting nothing to do with this, goes to the one man he knows would help him with no hesitation.

“Mr. Luthor”

“…Small child”

“How would you like to make Superman’s life harder?”

“Go on…”

Personally I always like to think of Billy Batson's hometown Fawcett City, is magically cursed. It's stuck sometime between 1947 and 1953. By which I mean everyone is aware it's 2023, and they still get news from the outside and they can leave, but everyone dresses, and talks like it's 70 years ago. If you move to Fawcett City your clothes will slowly transform themselves into 1950s versions of themselves, by the end of the month big ticket things like your car will have transformed, your TV will become a radio, your computer and cell phone just gone. Now everyone is magicked to just not mind and indeed think this is all very normal in fact the whole world is magicked to not think Fawcett is anything other than "a little odd" so people move there or away etc. Though people from Fawcett (like say Billy Batson) sometimes struggle with the oddest of our modern world. Also no one can explain how emails still manage to get in and out of Fawcett even though there are no computers (or texts for that matter) but again everyone is magicked to not question it too much