Dblade26 Member

Damian had never met Jason Todd before now, but the feeling in the room was suddenly painfully familiar. The expression on Grayson's face was one he usually expected to see on Drake instead and in the slightly disturbing silence that followed the current youngest of the family couldn't help glancing over to him and Stephanie as he wondered whether things were about to turn violent. The air of mistrust, disapproval and awkwardness certainly felt different when he wasn't its' misguided target. Luckily the two oldest former Robins seemed to be taking a civil path out of things and just talking rather than shouting and attempting to throw each other bodily through windows, though Damian didn't see why exactly that was. Still, it didn't solve the problem that Tim was right there and in another few seconds the interactions he'd been dreading would be forced upon him. He could already feel his knuckles itching slightly as he wondered whether his direct predecessor as the Boy Wonder would just glare at him like he hoped he would burst into flames or openly accuse him of killing someone lately. Even more fortunately the doorbell rang before anyone could start talking to Damian, and he only stopped to say "I'll get the door!" before ducking out of the room and running the length of the Manor's entry room to open it. If he was fast enough he could probably keep running right out the door, find the League of Assassins gear he'd buried nearby and be disguised and on his way to Gotham City proper before anyone stopped him. Maybe he could make sense of all the unnecessary emotional content of both the evening and the whole wedding the proper healthy way in brutal combat against worthless human scum and maybe if he broke enough people's bones tonight on the street he could avoid doing the same thing at the wedding tomorrow and maybe- Maybe the person standing in the doorway would be someone he wouldn't be able to get past if he tried. A dozen strategies for slipping past the newest arrival had run through his head in the time it had taken for him to run to the door and all of them were useless against Cassandra Cain. The surprise of seeing her had shaken most of the plans out of Damian's head anyways. On some level he'd known that the other former protege of the League of Assassins was Batman's adopted daughter but he'd had no real context for any of that before now. Suddenly seeing her on his doorstep was still a shock, even with a radically changed appearance. He didn't even have time or space leftover to process the idea that he had just been caught in the act of trying to run away and feel ashamed about it. He was too busy suddenly trying to conceal the fact that he had any emotions at all, much less surprise or shame. "...Cassandra Cain. Well...come in." He wasn't sure if the night had gotten somehow better or infinitely more painful. Only that his chance to escape it was probably gone forever and he likely couldn't even take care of it with proper violence now.

> > Tempted to have Damian bolt to answer the doorbell as yet another excuse to duck out on all the family gathering awkwardness and avoid arguing with Tim, then despair inwardly when it turns out it's not someone he can just run past to sneak out of the Manor for the night. > > What, he doesn't automatically love his new sibling for giving Dick and Babs grief? > > You could always just have him linger on the outside of the room with Cassandra, just staring at everyone disapprovingly and not saying anything, because that's what they do. He might like him for that if the dynamic didn't seem painfully similar to what he seems to have going with Tim and Stephanie. Plus, y'know, feelings in general are something he doesn't usually like to admit he has. I'm sure they'll wind up getting along great and everyone else will be freaked out that now there's two of them though XD They might just wind up doing that while Damian tries _really_ hard not to bring up the fact that most of his experiences with her involved an evil brainwashed version that he potentially actually got along with.

Tempted to have Damian bolt to answer the doorbell as yet another excuse to duck out on all the family gathering awkwardness and avoid arguing with Tim, then despair inwardly when it turns out it's not someone he can just run past to sneak out of the Manor for the night.

YES A TINY ALIEN INSIDE HIS CHEST! IT'S THE ONLY LOGICAL EXPLANATION!

Funny, I kinda pictured Sloth more as the type to try eating tricksy hobbitses than being one. Also that cabbie seemed to be WAY too nice to be living in Gotham City. XD Also also not sure if should make a post yet or wait till there's more to react to and 'till people other than Jason have reacted to Damian.

**"HOOOOOOOOOOOY! WHOEVER THE STRONGEST PERSON IN TOWN IS! I'M MUSHURO TOGO AND I'M HERE TO KICK YOUR BUTT!"** The young ninja in what appeared to be a strange mix of actual functional stealth garb painted striking whites and blacks and panda pajamas had been wandering around town yelling out similar things at the top of his lungs for quite some time, only now he was doing it atop the very scaffold where Gol D. Roger was executed, grinning like a loon and doing a little happy dance. One might wonder just why such a bizarre sight was occuring. It all started when Mushuro Togo's crew had come to Roguetown. Unfortunately for the self proclaimed future world's strongest ninja-pirate his captain's stuffy no-nonsense financial advisor had practically forbidden him to "help" with any of the shopping. Therefore, he had been forced to make his own fun. In a place like Roguetown that was crawling with Marines and Pirates both, that meant finding some way to pick a fight with whoever the strongest person around was. Anything less than that absolutely would not do. Unfortunately for Mushuro, he had no idea what the best way of finding said strongest person actually happened to be. Hence for the duration of his journey through Roguetown, he had basically just obviously stated his trouble-making intentions _extremely loudly_ under the logic that the strongest person around would feel insulted enough to actually attempt to put him down. Well, that or the local marines would try to arrest him and he could at least fight his way up to their strongest local member after taking out all the weaker ones, so either way he would win! To even better facilitate that, he figured he would make his way to the big square where Gol D. Roger was executed and make a spectacle of himself! THAT would get attention for sure! This seemed like the definite best way to spend his time in Roguetown, yup. Besides, the Captain was probably just getting drunk in some bar.

Awesome! This...makes their relationship as characters much more complicated and (maybe just in my opinion) interesting. They have a surprising amount of similarities already anyways with what with both being children raised by League of Assassins and specifically created to be the best/lead the League in some way as the result of weird "breed with specific people" programs. I'm not sure if Damian finds the similarity comforting, extremely weird or both. Also just realized that since Damian's only been with Batman and away from the League for a year or so, depending on when/how long ago Cassandra was with the League she might have been partially responsible for babysi-I mean training him for some period of time. Also wonder if she'd remember any of the brainwashed stuff.

Well, I have multiple ideas for how it could work. One of those being that while Damian is in line to inherit Ra's Al Ghul's position as the head of his organization as a whole like, as the next Demon's head for the sake of metaphor the League of Assassins often has a separate subordinate leader running it who's supposed to be loyal to Ra's and protect him and his organization since they're the Demon's Fang that protects the head in the whole weird analogy (see Doctor Dark, The Sensei etc, granted most of them betrayed Ra's at some point but still) So depending on your interpretation of how The League of Assassins works, even though Talia and Damian are meant to control the whole thing including both the League and all the criminal/financial/political stuff separate from the League everyone forgets about, Cassandra could still have been in control of the League of Assassins itself with Ra's blessing and been given more than some autonomy to do so. Actually I'm almost thinking she was specifically created to serve in that capacity hence Ra's suggesting David Cain create The One Who is All in the first place, or at least that's how I thought it was in some interpretations. Also explains why the assassins would follow "some kid" they've never met before since she was a project specifically meant to create the perfect capital A Assassin to loyally serve The Demon's Head, even if it took much longer and a little bit of brainwashing to get there. (Also kind of explains Damian being under the Character Impression that she resents him because she was created to serve him). So, she could be the leader of the League with them around without it being a conflict of interest or out of character. That's just one idea though, if you don't like it or feel like it doesn't work I have some other ideas. Keep in mind I'm running on lack of sleep.

yaaaaaaay! Also would Damian have _only_ known Cassandra from the period of time where she was brainwashed and leading the League? Because either way she's probably the only one there he'd potentially have known for more than a year.

Just as a quick thing, Corsair's doing an uncannily good job writing disability! Nice work!