Chapter Text
Look, Jason hadn’t been trying to become an ‘influencer' or whatever people call it; Social media was just the fastest way to spread information. When he was a bat, they were often aware of attacks long before the news outlets actually got around to covering them. So he was completely justified in making an account, posting a video of himself patrolling to verify it was him, and sending out alerts to the alley long before the actual news got around to warning people. At first not all that many people followed the account, an upstart crimelord wasn’t a rare phenomena in Gotham city. Slowly people started to follow as it became clear that his emergency alerts were in the best interest of civilians, if Jason looks back, he thinks that his first major jump in followers was after the duffle bag incident. The regular Gotham news had picked up the story; that was exactly what he had intended, putting the fear of the Red Hood into the criminal population. What Jason failed to account for however, was that tabloid articles feed off tabloid articles, and before long the stories were getting ridiculous.
The Red Hood, a criminal terrorizing Gotham with a stream of beheadings.
The GCPD is no closer to catching this dangerous criminal after weeks at large…
Beheadings were saved for special occasions, thank you very much. Most of the scum he killed weren’t worth the effort required to cut off their heads. The insinuation that the GCPD were competent enough to catch him was definitely insulting, the only thing they did was pick up criminals left by the bats and himself, and shoot unarmed civilians.
Deranged Beheader still lose in Gotham after months at large
A masked lunatic too slippery for the bats? Public fears increase after…
Jason could admit that with the pit’s influence on his mind, he probably wasn’t the most sane person in the world, but calling him a masked lunatic was undeserved. His actions as the Red Hood all came after meticulous planning, and he had made it clear both through his actions and those of his men, that he was not a danger to those that didn’t break his rules; hell, he was funding half the charities in the alley, and all the ones without corruption baked into their internal structure.
A new Red Hood; Gotham City's second Joker?
A masked actor using the jokers old moniker is shaping up to follow in his footsteps after…
That was the article that had made the pit start to encroach on his vision, and, of course, because this was the media cycle they ate it up like a man starved; that is to say overconsumed and then regurgitating the bile that came back up. At the end though Jason was a crimelord his public image was exactly his top concern. When he started to actually care was when it started to affect the comment sections under his emergency alerts.
Comment under ‘potential scarecrow threat in coming hours for …’
@ Hoods_fan Thanks for the warning hood!!
3k views 5k likes 1k comments
In reply to @ Hoods_fan
@ xXGothamBornXx0928 Are you F***ing Sl*w? Why are you thanking a F***ing Rogue? He probably planned with scarecrow to terrorize the city
! This reply has been flagged by our systems as potential hate speech!
He quickly deleted the reply, but it was becoming a recurring issue that random people were insulting each other in the comment section; previously he had disabled comments all together to avoid this, but the kids at one of the shelters had given him puppy dog eyes and a fucking powerpoint on why comments increased views in the algorithm until he broke and turned them back on. The goal of making the posts in the first place was to get the information to as many people as possible, so he didn’t want to disable them again. He had hired someone to manually moderate the comments, but it was still possible for things to slip through the cracks; with the increased rate from his tanked public image, something was bound to slip through the wrong crack and end up targeting somebody actually vulnerable. The best way to do that was to increase his public image to ‘not targeting random civilians' status. “Im going to regret this.” his empty safe house didn’t stop him from ordering a camera off amazon.
@ The-Hood-is-Red posted a new video!
The video opens with the red hood walking into a building and approaching the counter where a woman in their mid thirties sat. “How are you doing over here Faith?” The voice lacked its usual modulation and when the camera was sat down on the counter to keep both people in frame, it revealed hood in just a domino mask, signature helmet under his arm.
The woman turned away from the computer at her desk with an easy familiarity ”As chaotic as it always is, Hood. Mark and Julie just left, but they had been running a study competition and had gotten most of the kids to play.” She smiled at him and drew in her brows when she spotted the camera. “Is there a reason you’re recording?” Her tone was confused, but not bothered by the sudden appearance of the camera.
“I figured a little publicity might help the traffic through this place; If you’re okay with it, I thought you could give the normal pamphlet spiel and I could post it to my account.” His voice was friendly, not the barked command typical of his peers “I’ll give you a bonus." A play begging tone that drew a smile from the woman.”Alright, but you better compensate according to my preformence…”
5k views 6k likes 1k comments
Comment under ‘Community center’
@ Mark_was_here You owe us a study session, Faith is much better on camera then you will ever be.
In reply to @ Mark_was_here
@ The-Hood-is-Red We will see, and I'm limited by my mask! Imagine all the faces you're missing out on!
In reply to @The-Hood-is-Red
@ Mark_was_here I think you mean ‘anything for you my poor, neglected child.’ and photogenic people don't wear masks.
Comment under ‘Community center’
@ BrokeBee A crime lord promoting a community center?? What is wrong with Gotham???
Jason’s plan had been successful, and his fear factor among the underground also hadn’t taken as much of a hit as he had expected, his second had informed him that ‘everyone already knows you're a softie, Red.’ Which, okay, ouch. Jason was a very intimidating person, thank you very much. He did owe the kids an extra study session though…Well another video couldn’t hurt right?
@ The-Hood-is-Red posted a new video!
The camera shows a mediocre set with a whiteboard covered in pre-written text. Hood steps into frame from behind the camera, his helmet is again nowhere to be seen, only a domino covering his face.”Alright as Mark was so prudent to remind me, I owe you brats a study session.” he turns and points to his white board. “The Iliad is a story about a war, and its themes are…”
18k views 7k likes 2k comments
Comment under ‘Study 1’
@ xXsarahXx The Teacher we all need.
Comment under ‘Study 1’
@ iTm_raDek Why is he better at this than my actual tutor??
Comment under ‘Study 1’
@ Metroplease01 Am I the only one disturbed that a dangerous criminal is teaching children??
In reply to @ Metroplease01
This is normal for Gotham.
Okay, maybe Jason didn’t have a good excuse for why he kept making videos, but it wasn’t his fault! He found that he actually enjoyed the process that goes into making the videos, editing especially was a balm for the pit with its tedium. His secret identity was non-existent, because he was technically speaking, a member of his own gang. So the security risk of the two being linked was non-existent. Aside from his Plans being ruined, but Jason hadn’t actually made progress on those plans in months, so they were currently on indefinite hiatus until the hurt in his chest worked its way back up to being anger. How he knew he fucked up, was after ‘Study 16’, the kids keeped asking for videos okay?
DM
@ OracleOfGotham
Meet me at XXX XXX -XXX
@ The-Hood-is-Red
Saying ‘the library’ is a lot less ominous than giving coordinates
@ OracleOfGotham
The Bat won't know. Midnight. The first window on the left alley will be unlocked.
Sneaking out of the alley and to the library was a lot less stressful when he only had to avoid the bats and not the cameras, although he still didn’t let her see the end of his route to keep some kind of surprise. There was no surprise he got there at midnight on the dot. The lights turned on as soon as he had made his way through the window and closed it behind himself. “Is it really you?” Bab's voice was neutral as she assessed him from across the room
“You wouldn’t have called me if you weren't sure. 0Rbsd5k.” his sentence was whispered but it still boomed around the silent library. The hurt in chest prepared for rejection, Barbara was his friend before, but he doubted Batgirl would approve of his current standards.
“Get over here so I can hug you, Jason” The tears in her eyes shocked him enough that his body moved on auto pilot to fulfil her demand.”Why didn’t you come back?” she pulled away after a moment to instead punch him in the stomach
“Why would I? B made it pretty damn clear I wasn’t his son, and to be honest I don’t want to be his robin.” The hurt in his chest had broken free from its cage, and pent up tears slid down his face. “I won’t go back to that babs. He’s shown enough that he doesn't care. Not enough to do what he should do. Not after me. Not after you. Not after this whole fucking city. Barbaras face was filled with regret, but there was also understanding.
“He loves you, but Bruce has always been Gotham first. I don’t think he ever can be anything else after all this time. I won’t tell him, but there is more in that house than just him. Letting them know you’re back would be nice, even if you don’t want to stick around.”
“He would never let me in. I've gone far past his precious line.”
“No, I don't think he would.” Her face smoothed itself out. “You can’t hide from me, don’t even try. I will find you.”
“How could I ever defy the great Oracle.” His voice slipped into false gravitas, but the remnants of his tears weren’t as easily forgotten. He never had been good at that part of being a bat.
“Think about it though, for me? Dick and Alfred at least, if you don’t want to meet Tim.” Barbra was all business as she looked at him, and Jason couldn’t deny her that, he did miss them
“Yeah, okay I’ll give it some thought.”