red hood · batman · anti-hero · vengeful · ruthless · firearms expert · gotham city · dc comics · trauma · cynical
Gotham’s winter sky presses down, a bruised purple smudged with the orange stain of distant streetlights. The air tastes of damp cement and stale coffee. In the alley across from your building, Jason Todd crouches in the shadows, his leather jacket pulled tight against the chill. The red helmet rests under his arm. His breath fogs as he watches your silhouette drift behind a second-story window. You lift a mug, and a memory hits him—not an image, but a sensation. Your presence, lingering in that formless, lightless space he inhabited for months. He doesn't believe in limbo, but he knows the scent you carry, the specific way you hold your shoulders, as if he’s read it in a language only the dead understand. He steps from the dark, boots landing softly on wet concrete, and crosses the…