1 - 20 of 55 Works by starrysquarelight
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Dick can feel Tim’s hands, pulling at the back of his shirt.
“Alfred,” Bruce says. “This is Richard Grayson,” Bruce says. “And this is Timothy Drake. Our neighbour, I believe. Their parents were…” Bruce glances at Tim. “They’re like me,” he says, more quietly, and Alfred nods. “Tim, Richard; This is Alfred Pennyworth.”
Alfred turns to Dick, face warm, kind, eyes crinkling. “Why don’t I get you two a cup of hot chocolate before we retire for the night?”
Dick nods. Behind him, Tim presses his head to Dick’s back, whispering a “Yes, pwease.”The night Dick's parents are killed, Tim's are, too.
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Tim chews the inside of his cheek.
"...be careful," Bruce is saying. "I know you've bested him before, but--"
"I know, B. One wrong move and I'm dead."
Jason has remembered. And he's angry and Bruce, sort of, and distant to Tim - which hurts, in its own way, but Tim isn't thinking about it - but what Tim's really concerned about is Robin.
"Are you listening? Robin?"
Not for much longer, Tim thinks.
Series
- Part 3 of unbury memories supposed to be dead
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He finds his house, first. His legs walk him there, unbidden, and he finds himself staring at an old, cob-webbed, dilapidated mansion. He draws in a breath, lets it out.
Seeing this hurts. It shouldn’t hurt, it can’t hurt, he can’t afford hurt - not as Tim Drake, and certainly not as Robin - but his chest aches, all the same.
He walks away. His legs ache. It starts drizzling, and he wraps his arms around his chest, trying not to tremble.
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Tim Drake escapes one terrible fate, only to land in the middle of another. -
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“You’re the League’s little prince, hey?”
Damian doesn’t know how to answer. Yes, he thinks, loud and angry and sharp. I am. But he can’t say that, not now. Not when he’s nothing more than a disappointment. Not when Grandfather is - not when Mother is -
Not when Father cannot bear to look at him.Damian, and a long road to forgiveness. Somewhere in the middle of it, he learns not to kill, and talks - too much - to Jason Todd.
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There’s something wrong with Spider. Kiri knows there is. But there’s something wrong with all of them, right now - Tuk, crying herself to sleep; Lo’ak, itching to run away, eyes downcast; Dad, pretending his eyes aren’t red when he wakes up; Mom, disappearing to hunt every morning - so she pushes it away.
He’s just grieving, that’s all. Like the rest of them.Neteyam is dead, her family is crumbling to pieces, and Spider is acting weird. Kiri just has to convince herself she can fix things.
Series
- Part 4 of pit as deep as the black ocean floor
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Summary
There is always a Robin next to Batman. When one disappears, another takes his place. Gotham knows this. Gotham depends on this - the hope that Robin brings, dragged from the darkness, sharp and unyielding.
One by one, the children become Robin. One by one, they lose themselves.
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If there’s one thing Dick knows, it’s that Bruce isn’t a murderer.
He knows it like this: Bruce’s hand on his shoulder, warm; Bruce visiting his parents’ graves and leaving flowers every month; Bruce’s slow-to-come smile when Dick starts talking about his cases; Bruce, magnet-pinning Dick’s certificates and Damian’s drawings and Tim’s report cards on the fridge; Bruce, a second father, cold and angry and loving.Dick, Tim, and trust in Bruce Wayne.
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Stephanie Brown is fourteen and watching her father disappear for nights on end and tell her it’s for the best. She’s twelve, and watching her mother slip into something she’s long-known and long-dreaded. She’s ten and the house is empty and she’s lonely and pretending she isn’t, doing homework at the kitchen table and waiting for her parents to come home, tapping the rubber-back of her pencil against her cheek.
In one country, Stephanie Brown learns to defy her father. In another, Cassandra Cain leaves hers.
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There’s a small, small voice in Tim’s head that wants to keep this other him. That wants to give him a better life. That wants to - change things for him. And maybe it’s selfish, but Tim doesn’t want to let go. Not when he can help the boy in front of him. Not when he has the chance to change things for the better.
Tim’s day is going fine, until he sees himself.
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Sometimes Lo’ak wakes and thinks he sees Neteyam - the shadow of the sea, the pull of the waves, the murmur of froth, the sand crunching under his feet. And then his heart swoops, drowns in his chest, because Neteyam is dead.
Neteyam is never coming back.
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Lo'ak grieves.Series
- Part 2 of pit as deep as the black ocean floor
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one by one (all these bloodhounds keep coming) by starrysquarelight
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types
24 Dec 2025
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It’s foggy, at first. Like someone else’s memories, peeking through a dream, a dull haze. Snatches of conversation - Jason, Jason, Jason - a thick, choking heat on his skin, a distant thwang that has him flinching, unwavering darkness.
Jason remembers.
Series
- Part 2 of unbury memories supposed to be dead
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Summary
It hurts, leaving home, but Neteyam keeps a smile on his face, and consoles Tuk, and squeezes Lo’ak shoulder, even as Lo’ak scowls at him, and tries to talk to Kiri, but she’s still upset about Spider - “He’s my family, so why can’t he come with us?” - and all he can do is take breath after breath.
You need to protect them. You’re their brother.
Sometimes he stays awake at night and feels like the stars are crushing him.Series
- Part 7 of the world, turning
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Neytiri does not see when they kill her mate, but she hears it. The rattle of that dreaded gunfire, the low thump that echoes through the forest, the stricken look on her children’s faces.
She kills as many as she can, after. Heart burning, hands steady, shooting arrow after arrow.
But she is too late. They have already taken her children. They have already taken her mate.When her mate is killed and her children are kidnapped, Neytiri finds herself battling the RDA with an unexpected ally: Spider Socorro.
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There is a thrum in Damian’s head, all wrong. You killed a man. You killed a man. How do you forgive yourself of sins you don’t understand?
It itches. It pokes. He wants to claw it out of him, but he’s scared it’ll mean clawing out himself.
Father looks at him like he sees a monster. Damian thinks maybe he is.
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fragments of a memory already forgotten by starrysquarelight
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types
16 Oct 2025
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Summary
Jason's ribs burn. His fist is bloody. He stares into the wet darkness and sees out of one eye nothing.
Dad? Dad, I’m scared, I want to go home, I want to go home–
It hurts. Everything hurts, and he doesn’t remember why. Aching bones and burning eyes and pain, pain, pain–
“Batman,” he croaks, and his voice does not carry. “Bruce.”
He looks down, at his feet.
He is in his grave.
How do you escape the net that ensnares you?
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crawling through the throat of the beast by starrysquarelight
Fandoms: Avatar (Cameron Movies)
09 Oct 2025
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Summary
“Kiri?” He tries.
“What is it?” Kiri’s awake, of course. None of them sleep anymore.
Spider doesn’t know how to say it. The words choke in his throat.
Kiri sighs. “Go to sleep, Monkey-boy.”
Spider stares at the sky, dark and rippling. The hammock below him sways. The sea-salt spray of the air stings at his cheeks. Sleep does not come.Spider has been a lot of things: a boy, a warrior, a prisoner, a son.
He’s never been a liar, though. Until now.Series
- Part 3 of pit as deep as the black ocean floor
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no red rose on your grave (you poor sucker) by starrysquarelight
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types
07 Oct 2025
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Summary
Thump. Scritch. Thump. Scritch.
Tim places the lavenders over his parents’ graves. He clears his throat. “Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad.” The sky above is its usual Gotham-grey, cloudy, rain-swept. “Miss you.” It doesn’t feel enough, for the cavern inside him, the longing, the piercing grief, like a storm in his stomach.
Thump. Scritch. Thump. Scritch.Tim’s parents are dead. At their graves weeks later, he hears a strange scratching noise, and sees the last Robin: Jason Todd.
Series
- Part 1 of unbury memories supposed to be dead
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when everything's made to be broken by starrysquarelight
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
27 Sep 2025
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Summary
He’s warm, and safe, because his parents are here.
And then they die.
And he’s on his knees, shaking his Mom, pulling his Dad towards him, and there’s blood sticking to his pants, wet underneath him, soaking through to his skin, and his parents are still. Still, and dead.
And Bruce is no longer safe. Bruce is no longer happy. Bruce is filled with the sort of grief he can’t put words to, dull and terrible and all-consuming.
Bruce feels like he’s dying.
(Maybe he should have died with them, too. Maybe he’s already dead.)Bruce Wayne, and his long road to finding a family again.
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a heart encrusted in rust by starrysquarelight
Fandoms: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
08 Jun 2025
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Summary
Kyoko falls asleep with that gnawing hunger, that terrible ache in her gut, day after day after day.
So of course she makes a wish when Kyubey comes.
She just doesn’t think it will ruin her.
(It does.) -
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Summary
It happens like this: they kill Neteyam, and Lo’ak wishes it were him instead. They kill Neteyam, and Dad looks at him with those angry, hurt, ruined eyes, and Mom sobs, fury and grief, and Lo’ak wishes it were him instead. They kill Neteyam, and Lo’ak closes his eyes and hears the battle around him, the pulse of water at his chest, and wishes it were him instead.
And then - with a wrench, a pull, a deep tug in his gut - the ground is solid under his feet. The air is sweet, damp with trees. The sky is bright.
He’s home.Lo'ak lands 16 years in the past.