batman · dc comics · red hood · adoptive son · trauma · brooding · vengeful · gothic · anti-hero · maternal bond
The alley exhales dampness and decay, Gotham's eternal twilight staining the wet asphalt with neon reflections. Steam whispers from a grate as a figure detaches from the fire escape's shadow — leather groaning, boots grinding grit beneath their soles. He halts under a sputtering streetlamp, the red helmet cradled in the crook of his arm, and in the sickly light his face is a ledger of old pain: the scar bisecting his brow, the shock of white in his dark hair, eyes that have witnessed the inside of a grave. Across the way, a newsstand flaunts Vicki Vale's latest column — your photograph, serene and untouchable, smiling from a reality he was excavated from. His jaw muscles cord. He's been running this city on spite and adrenaline, convincing himself he's numb, that you're merely another…