The Signal - Blog Posts

Discuss:

My most random Duke headcannon is that he would have a pet rabbit.

The rabbits name is Bat-Bun and they go paroling together sometimes.

Duke teaches Bat-Bun all the cute trick like playing soccer and giving high fives.

Damian often goes over to Duke's to play with Bat-Bun, even if Duke isn't there. He often comes home from patrol to Damian and his mum sitting together and talking while feeding Bat-Bun sweet potato.

Duke threaten to steal Damain's mum in retaliation.

Damian threatens to steal his rabbit if he tries.

They both settle for playing soccer with Bat-Bun together.

Do you think when Duke was starting out as the Signal and got his bike Gothamites gave it a dumb nickname? Like how Batman has his batmobile, Duke has a signalcycle.

Genuinely just curious, no hate or anything. Honestly I don't fully understand what is going on with him.

Duke Thomas consumes my every waking thought. Every conversation leads back to him. Every song relates to him. Every time I see the sun or moon, I think of him. I find myself thinking, "what would Duke do?" for almost every situation. Just, Duke, man, he is everything.

Random Duke Thomas Headcannons pt 4

Insired by @overcookedfool 's headcannon about Cass and Duke being banned from hide and seek, Bruce uses their hiding skills to train the other batfamily members.

The training involves Duke and Cass hiding around Gotham and the others having to find them before sun up (for Cass) or sun down (for Duke). So that everyone can still get their work done, this only happens once a week.

If someone finds them in time, they can get a trophy from the batcave, if Duke or Cass remain unfound, they get the same deal.

Dick gets them to use carnival rules so winning a lot of little trophies can get you a big one. After a few months of the training exercise Duke and Cass put their trophies together to offically own the dinosaur.

Random Duke Thomas Headcannons pt 3

I think Duke would gets given a lot of gifts while on partol. It comes with working the day shift, really.

The first few weeks people were hesitant about a Bat being out during the day, some openly hostile, but now many see it as just a part of Gotham's charm.

One day, a girl runs up to him, holding a paper tightly to her chest. It was a drawing she made in class of Batman. The girl asks all shyly if Duke could give it to him and what was he meant to say? No?

So Gothamites started giving him things, first with kids crayon drawing, the some teens who made badges and pins, adults with letters of gratitude. Soon Duke was passing on drawings, t-shirts, crocheted dolls, poems, etc to all the batfamily.

Gothamites wanted to share their love to their heros. Bruce, Dick, Barbara, Cass, Damian, Stephanie, Tim, Kate, even Luke now had piles of trinkets after only three weeks.

One day, while on patrol as usual, a kid waved him down. He held poorly wrapped box in his hands. Duke swung down and took the box from the boy. When serching for the same he was shocked to find "Signal" written messy across the top.

Inside was a drawing of Duke a week ago, saving the boys dad who got trapped under his car. He hung to photo up on an empty wall in The Hatch.

Soon, that wall became more full than the rest of the family's piles.

When he gets in his own head, doubts clouding his brain, he stares at the wall. Art, photos, poems, letters, badges, stickers, patches, pins, shirts, dolls, shoes, all the items from Gotham, showing how he is loved by them. How he is their hero.

Duke still is asked to pass on gifts for the rest of the Batfamily, but more often he gets given gift for himself.

Random Duke Thomas Headcannons pt 2

I think Duke and Bao (Clownhunter) would be childhood friends.

Bao and Duke both grew up in the Narrows. I imagine Duke meet him at Bao's parents pho restaurant and dragged him off to play together.

The two would run through the steets, play tag with the other Narrows kids, do their homework, which at that age was mostly just colouring in, in a cornor seat at the restaurant.

When Zero City happened, Bao's family would move in to the apparentment block with Duke's family and others. It was that point when their relationship chnaged from friends to brothers.

They were attched to each other. Duke took it upon himself to be the older brother (dispite only being a year older). He would tell Bao to do riddle while he went out to get fish, no matter how much the other protested (or how much he was scolded when he got home). Bao use to pretend to be more scared than he really was so he could stay with Duke, hoping to protect him a bit.

So their bond grows, as they start middle school they don't hang out as much being in different grade but are always together at lunch. They get into petty fights, play video games together, were general hooligan(/aff) on the streets.

Then Bao's parents we killed by Joker. He started living with his aunt and uncle, Duke and his parents would bring food around, mostly as an excuse for Duke to just sit with him. In the grief, Bao closed himself off, stopped responding to Duke's messges, stopped going to school, stopped leaving the house.

Duke tried to keep contacting him, he would show up at his house, force Bao to sit with him and do his online school homwork while Duke did his, like when they were kids in the restaurant. That stopped by Joker got Duke's parents too.

Duke got washed away in the foster system, in being Robin, in becoming Lark and later Signal, in joining the Outsiders.

The Joker War started, Bao became Clownhunter, was washed away in his bew found duty to finally stop the Koker how Batman never could.

They almost naturally just stopped talking.

Until, while waiting for Jay to be able to take custody of him, Bruce sent him to Gotham Academy.

There was Bao again. The first thing they did was fight. They were both mad at each other for abandoneding the other. A few hours later they made up. Dispite not talking for so long, they were best friends, more than that, brothers.

They caught each other up if their lives, keeping the vigilante business out. They started messaging each other regularly. Duke would fight the people who builied Bao, the two spending a few afternoons in detention because of it. They would just sit with each other, happy to be in each others space.

Bao joined Batman incorporated which caused Clownhunter and The Signal to finally meet.

After taking down Professor Pyg's operation, some of the Batkids, lncluding Signal, arrived for clean up. Clowerhunter knew about the Signal, he was Gotham's hero. Signal knew about Clownhunter, he'd read the file Batman had on him. When they saw each other they immediately understood who was under the mask.

There wasn't a chance to talk that night, they didn't want to reveal each others identifies to the other vigilante's and Ghostmaker had an argument with Nightwing, quickly ending Batman Incorporated's time in Gotham.

They meet the next night, in costume, on the roof of their old apprentment building. Once they shared during Zero Year. Not much was said, Duke didn't mention the people Bao had killed, Bao didn't mention him joining the Batfamily. However, they understood each other mor now. Not much needed to be said. Duke gave him a Signal beacon, a promise to help if Bao ever needed. Bao gave the same sentiment. The two parted ways again.

They knew at that point they were closer than ever, dispite being so far apart. They had their own paths to follow but they felt more secure now knowing they had family in the hero community who will help them in any way.

Random Duke Thomas Headcannons pt 1

Duke is my all-time favourite character, and he doesn't get enough love, so I'm going to share some random head cannons I have for our boy.

I love the idea of sensory seeking autistic Duke.

He is canonically a fan of a metal band and I can imagine after a log day of patrol and school him just listening to them full volume. Even with headphones his cousin, Jay, still have to bang on his door sometimes to turn the volume down.

His meta ability would let him visually stimming by causing the light in a room to flash repeatedly. This would also work with him manipulating shadows to make the area dark and light again.

Or he would use his Ghost Vision and pace around a room so the versions of him all burn into one. Duke would also do this during bat family dinners. With so many bats around running all over the manor to help with food or run from each other in importune game of tag. I image the overlapping visual would be immaculate.

Did I give his these head cannons as a form of projecting?

Mostly, yes, but it's my post so I can do what I want./lh

My favourite boy, Duke :3

they're brothers your honour

Damian: GRAYSON! TODD! The girls wanted me to inform the both of you that they have challenged you to a water fight.

Dick: oooooooh we haven't done that in a while.

Damian: yes they will perish beneath us. We will drive them to the ground! WE WILL-

Dick: ok-ay. Jay, you coming?

Jason: gimmie a sec. The water js almost finished boiling.

Damian:

Dick:

Duke, who listened to it all from a concealed area of the room: THE FUCKING WHAT?!

Batfam as things my family said pt.2

Jason(while robin): if i'm 25 and not covered in tattoos and have a motorcycle punch me in the face

steph: i’m convinced men are the ones with periods

dick: the eggs were carbonated

tim: i feel like a flintstone

babs: the mormons are out-

duke: actually ima be a stripper now

tim: what's goin on single fucks?

damian(talking to tim): i'm gonna put you in a box and send you to north Korea

bruce(to dick): what kind of crack are you on?!

dick(to bruce): the good kind obviously😃🔫

damian: i am not a demon for you to summon

cass: i have the butt of a ballon dog

inaccurate Batfam quotes #35

The Batboys Ranked for how rebellious they are.

Starting at number one: Timmy Drakeson.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Isn't Jason the most rebellious?" No. No he is not. Timmothy fucking Drake is a powerhouse of untapped chaos and a goldmind of comedic genius, just look at the iconic Truth or Dare pannel where he was dared to take off his mask. He did so and underneath his mask, was another mask. Secndly, he doesn't give a shrap about the "Protect ID" rule. Also, he was the one that diliberatly went out of his way to find out Batmans Identity by stalking him and taking lots of photos, sneaking out at night and throwing himself into fights even just to get information. Plus, he 100% discreetly shares Batmans weaknesses to the rest of the league because it's "unfair for him to have a strategic plan against them without them having some way to get through to him".

Number two: Terry McGinnis.

Need I say more? If there's anyone who dislikes supers more than Bats himself, it's this guy. But Duke is ok in his book.

Number Three: Dick Grayson.

He left the fam and even the mantle of Robin, which meaned so much to him, to find his own path and had diliberatly made it so that Bruce knew him leaving was all his fault. He even neglected his own "Brothers" somewhat because he didn't want to see that man up until Jason died.

Speaking of, Number four: Jason Todd.

To be Honest, not that rebellious. Sure, he's kinda edgy, but it's a good look for him. Really good. Do I simp for Todd? Hell yes, I do. The actions that lead to him going burserk honestly, not his fault. He was hyped up on the glorified pool water and felt betrayed from the very people who took him in. He understood that when one robin leaves, another steps up because Bruce has issues with the 'sad orphan eyes'. He just can't help himself. But the Laz made his views boggled so he went cray. A good kind of Cray. I don't blame him for being upset about the ordeal. I'd slap the shit outta Bruce.

Okay so hear me out... Five: Alfred.

We all love our main man, glue of the family butler. But on multiple occasions Alfie has stated he would violate the "no kill rule" to protect his charges and honestly, what a King. Pop off, Pennyworth. He loves Bruce, but he puts this grown man in time out and I don't blame him. the guy makes questionable moral decisions and that's coming from a diagnosed psychotic. We stan Alfie✨

Number Six: Damian.

We all know that this little boy got some mommy issues here and some daddy issues there, but honestly when it comes down to it, he's pretty obedient. He has the sass levels of a litterate XBox gamer and the backbone of a snake. you tell him to do something in that stern dad voice and he'll cuss you out on the way to do it. Honestly, best boy. I love him lots. And guys, stop making his character so serious. You need to check yourself on his analysis cause honEE this boy cracks jokes 24/7, likes to poke fun at people and on multiple occasions tried to make superboy, the actually serious fluff roll, swear.

Number SeVeN, Last but certainly not least: Duke Heckin' Thomas.

Our local cinnimon roll™. Not only is he badass, but he's cute and lovable too. Duke is one of those teens that don't really care if it's this way or that. He's kinda on the quiet side unless you engage in conversation with him directly and I mean, come on. Just read any comic with him in it and I guarentee you will fall in love. Just- yEs. Even though he's the only one in his family with superpowers, he stays humbled and is kinda like everyones voice of reason. Seriously, he's so underrated and I love him with all my heart.

"zombie." "flashlight." SJFIFKMGH IM WHEE ZING

Duke and Jason have been banned from being anywhere near each other in costume because the arguments they will break out into is both too intense and too distracting for patrol. Everyone thinks they're serious but after the first 10-20 times they do it for the love of the game.

Duke: Shut the fuck up.

Jason: You shut the fuck up.

Duke: Zombie

Jason: Flashlight

Duke: That's why the joker still alive

Jason: That's why the joker did what he did to ya mom.

Duke: Nigga where ya mom at? Dea—

Bruce over the comms who, along with the entire bat family has been listening to entire thing: Signal, Red Hood! SPERATE! NOW!

They are now giggling as dick and cass drag them apart.

You are the devil. I sat here for 20 minutes, debating which one to pick.

you know what I'm curious, for the duke girlies (gender neutral)

here are some batkids faces..might color them might not🤷🤷🤷 we’ll see..

I like to think that all of the batboys are, in some way, scholars in one particular field*. So I've compiled a list of the areas the batboys are the most knowledgeable about:

Richard: math, musical history, anatomy

Jason: classics, ancient history, theology

Tim: anthropology, photography, textiles

Duke: physical sciences, architecture

Damian: art history, zoology, black-smithing

*For clarification, all my knowledge of the DCU is from the Young Justice TV series, the CW Flash, wikis, and other DC fans. Please correct me if I'm wrong about something.

Dick: I just think, maybe, you're wrong.

Duke: Wow Richard, invalidating a young black man during Black History Month!

Dick, confused: Its April

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tim takes the last two cookies for him and Bernard.

Duke, who already had one but wanted one for school: Woooow Timothy, taking from a young black man during Black History Month!!

Tim: Its September!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason accidently hits Duke a little too hard during a sparing match

Duke, who is completely fine the next second but is in that mood: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW—

Jason: Its fucking November and you're fine!!

Duke, ready to double down: WOW JASON PETER TODD, BEATING DOWN AND THEN INVALIDATING THE EXPERIANCE OF A YOUNG BLACK MAN DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!

Reposting this on my main account

A happy mother's days to the mothers of my favourite Bat Kids, some of you weren't the best for reasons out of your own hands, but I'd be damned if I let anyone tell me that each of you didn't love your special little babies with all your heart & no amount of fanon, classist or racist comics or takes will change that. This is y'all day so lets celebrate it talking about your favourite Bat Mom moment

(P.S anyone tries passing Bruce, Dick, Selina, Alfred or Jason as a Bat Mom will be promptly ignored)

You know what we need?, Duke & Waylon just vibing, like fun fact Killer Croc is a black man as reinforced by Absolute Batman, I just want Duke like stopping a rampage of Croc & while he is waiting for the cops he just talks with about stuff or if this is one of those cases where Croc's atavism had made him feral & he is compliant after calming down they could play some spades or dominoes shit like that. Or you could have Duke visiting Croc for help on his Literature essays when Jason is out of town.

Yo Duke Nation, where y'all think Elaine is originally from, cause it says she ended up in Gotham after running from Gnomon

Here’s a little map of the world, on the left of the islands there can be whatever land from FromSoftware you want really, it’s just a small little island. Also, I whipped this up in seven minutes, I promise you that my other drawings do not look this hideous, 😭 I will update it at some point.

The Lands of whatever the fuck I’ve gotten myself into. Honestly i just wanted to do a drawing now I’m writing a whole ass back story to a small idea of an AU I had.

The Great City of Gotham.

Backstory-

Gotham, the Great Capital City of the Deathstone Isle, was once a source of riches and landmass. The king, Thomas Wayne, and his Queen Consort, Martha Wayne, were just and fair rulers of the Islands that house Gotham and its few daughter cities. Martha and Thomas had a son, Bruce. However, one day they were found assassinated in their bed chambers, which left Bruce building up anger and resentment to people outside of his personal life over the years.

Eventually, these feelings show, along with everyone else’s as The Plague sweeps across the lands, transforming all life, waiting for you, dear Ronin Soldier, to vanquish them and stop The Plague from spreading any more.

List of Locations in ‘Greater Gotham’-

•Wayne Family Manor

•Crime Alley

•The Reapers Harbour

•Church of the Bat

•Church of the Flame

•The Crawling Cathedral

•Arkham Asylum

List of locations in ‘Outer Gotham’

•Old Gotham

•Lower Gotham

•Wastelands

•Blackgate

•Iceberg Tavern

•Academy of Gotham

•Ace Potions and Magic

Total numbers of ‘Bosses’ within the Great City of Gotham:

23

UPDATE about the Batfam x Fromsoft ware designs I’m currently planning. There will be two of each character, one before ‘The Plague’ and one after. After each one I’ll post about the lore behind these characters and why they ‘changed’ during The Plague.

Also, at some point today or tomorrow I’ll post about the actual land around them, what it’s like, The Plague that happened, a bit of backstory.

I will probably at some point expand outside the Batfam to the rest of DC.

Here is a list of characters that I’ve got planned out so far-

•Bruce Wayne

•Dick Grayson

•Jason Todd

•Cassandra Cain

•Tim Drake

•Stephanie Brown

•Duke Thomas

•Damian Wayne

•Alfred

•Harper Row

•Barbra Gordon

•Kate Kane

Finally, I’ll tell you now, please don’t expect regular updates for photos, I’m not good at time management, I’m already ten hours into the first drawing of Bruce, and I’m no where near done yet.

Thanks all! x

Hi, I’m pretty new here.

Would anybody be interested at all if I posted my Batfam x pretty much any FromSoftware designs over time? Like, genuinely, if this gets any attention, I’ll post them when they’re finished, or I might just post them anyway.

Duke, I love you man

Duke is 1000% sure he does not want Bruce as his dad. Whenever he’s asked about it he rearranges which family member Bruce is. Everything but a father

Reporter: Mr. Thomas, have you officially been adopted into the Wayne family?

Duke: Why would my great uncle adopt me? You sound dumb.

Reporter: I– what?

Duke: Bruce Wayne's my great uncle, twice removed. He doesn’t need to adopt me. Plus I still have a dad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Teacher at a parent teacher conference with Bruce and Duke: Mr. Wayne, your son–

Duke: He’s not my dad.

Teacher: excuse me?

Duke: He’s not my dad, he’s my half brother.

Teacher:… Huh?

Duke: what? you don’t see the resemblance?

Bruce pinching the bridge of his nose, feeling a mirage brewing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Villain of the week: Why don’t you fly back to Papa bat, Day bird. This isn’t a kids game.

Duke: Excuse me, Batman is my great grandmother five times removed and you’ll respect that.

Villain, beyond confused: I– I don’t even know what to say to that man.

YES! YES! MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY! GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!

Duke Thomas looks after Tim Drake

Logically he doesn’t need to. Tim is Red Robin after all. A hero. And just like all heroes, they go through things. But the things Tim has been through?

Let’s just say they hit close to home.

Joker Junior—JJ—is a bit of an open secret in the Wayne household. Nobody talks about it, but everyone knows. Duke, a more recent addition, learns about it when he walks by Tim’s room one night, only to freeze as he catches the muffled sound of laughter. He knows that kind of laughter. It’s practically carved into his brain.

No warning is given before Duke busts into Tim room, expecting the worst. He finds Tim sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to his chest, laughing that terrible laugh.

“Tim!” Duke yells, panic spiking as he runs to his side. Had Joker broken in? Was Tim okay? He takes his shoulders and shakes him. Not again, please not again—

That seemed to be enough to snap Tim out of it, startling him lucid. “Duke?”

“Tim! You alright man? What happened—did Joker—”

Mortification dawns on Tim’s face, the detective immediately putting the pieces together. “Oh fuck. Sorry Duke I must’ve had a laughing fit. Sorry—someone should have warned you. God I’m so sorry.”

“You’re… you’re good? No Joker?” Duke moved away a bit, suddenly embarrassed by his reaction.

“No Joker. Sorry, this happens sometimes. Holdover from… well a bad run in with Joker when I was Robin. It um… was pretty messy.”

The explanation given after is… condensed, Duke suspects. Tim apologizes, knowing Duke’s own history with the joker. Duke tries to insist that’s bull, that he shouldn’t have to apologize for not telling him, but Tim gives a tight smile that says he doesn’t believe that.

Duke doesn’t push it. He’s not Dick, he doesn’t know how to make things like that better. After that night though, their dynamic seems to shift a bit.

Duke knows Tim is older than him, but that doesn’t matter. Whenever something Joker related comes up, Duke immediately volunteers himself to deal with it, no matter if it’s during the day or not. Duke is always happy to give a second pair of eyes to a case,

And secretly, while he likes making Tim (and everyone else) laugh, there’s something relieving when the laughter fades out and it stops. The pained smile on his mother’s face nowhere to be found.

For Tim’s credit, JJ hardly ever makes an appearance. Years on consistent therapy have helped. But healing is not a cure.

It’s after an all-hands-on-deck type mission that it happens. A laughing fit so hard the entire family wasn’t sure what to do. Tim JJ couldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

He laughs, stumbling through the manor, a concerned Wayne family following after. He smiles so hard, so painfully, clutching his stomach for air.

He wouldn’t stop, and eventually the hysterics laughter turned to choking as he laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe.

Duke holds him down while Dick runs and grabs a sedative.

Later, Dick would remark how bad it was. The worst he’d seen in years. But the episode ends, and the sedatives wear off, and Tim manages to slip out of the medbay without anyone realizing. Anyone except Duke, who immediately looks for him, and finds him on the roof.

“Hey man.”

“Hey Duke.” Tim responds, voice raspy from overuse.

“Doing alright?”

They talk for a bit. Voices hushed. Duke tries not to joke, knowing there’s been enough laughter for one night.

Eventually, Tim’s worries come out.

“I don’t want to be a pity case. I’m know I’m not delicate, that I’m not going to break. I just…” Tim pauses, “slip sometimes. And sometimes it scares me.”

And Duke turns his head to look out at the city. “You know, Tim, you give me hope.”

Tim lifts his head to give Duke a confused look.

“Hope for my parents. That maybe they might… get better. Even if some of it’s still there. I know I probably won’t ever get to see them normal again, but… it’s nice to have hope.”

Duke: *starts to leave patrol at sundown*

*an explosion is heard from nearby area*

Gotham Citizen: What was that?

Duke: The sound of someone else's problem.

Duke: You shouldn't be using a straw.

Stephanie: I know, I know, it's bad for the environment and stuff.

Duke: Yeah, but I mean... it's a weird way to eat spaghetti.