A/N: I really dropped the ball on this series. Well, all my writing in general. I know this isn't update day, but there are somethings going on and I figured I had a day I might as well put up a chapter that I've had already for a while but neglected to post.
ENJOY!
My Robin Reversal AU:
Dick- 10 Jason- 15 Tim- 17 Damian- 23
Chapter Twenty-Six: Trials of a Thespian
It was something Damian and Bruce had been threatening him with since the day Jason showed up at the manor. Alfred and Dick even kept adding their two cents, insisting it would be a good idea. Steph and Barbara have even considered going with him to the Local Comunity Theatre so they could all go together, and even Cass wanted to join.
However, despite everyone's insistence that Jason should join the theatre as a side hobby to his crime-fighting, Jason kept insisting that he just didn't have the time nor the interest. He honestly had no idea why everyone was so sure that Jason would be a good actor. Aside from the very, VERY few undercover gigs, Jay had been apart of, not one of them have ever seen him perform. Even then, that was 100% improv, and Jason wasn't entirely sure about his ability to deliver memorized lines in the exact way they had been written for him. So, in the end, Jason always refused any attempt to get him on a stage.
Then Mrs. Peddruzi announced over the PA system of his school, that year Gotham Academy would be preforming 'Hamlet' by the noble bard himself. Jason all but ran to the bulletin board outside of the drama department where Peddruzi was pinning the sign-up sheet. The moment she was out of his way, Jason wrote his name down.
A week later saw Jason in the Drama Classroom watching as more and more girls walked through the door, each grabbing an 'audition sheet' on her way in. Jason frowned and looked at the few guys and wondered how this was going to work. He knew 'Hamlet' by heart, he knew that there were a total of 18 speaking parts, and only two of those parts were female. There were a total of 23 students in the room to audition, and only eleven were boys.
A fun little thought came to his mind of switching the roles and making a complete gender-bend of the play, maybe even leaving the dialogue completely unaltered so that the absurdity of the whole thing isn't lost on even the worst of the uncultured swine. Then again, remembering Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's reintroduction to Hamlet having something to do with getting into 'Lady Luck's pants, it would be pretty hilarious if they were instead two girls and it got turned into a tasteful lesbian joke. He could totally see a few of the girls willingly portraying the two bumbling idiotic ex-friends of Hamlet's as two bimbo groupies instead.
He knew that the Bard himself would love it if not for the fact that he lived in a time when women just weren't even considered for actors, hence why there were so few female roles in so many of his plays and why there would some times be jokes about them having beards (*coughcough* Macbeth *coughcough*). But if there was one thing that Jason loved about Shakespeare above all else, and something he'd NEVER point out to Damian, was that Willy S. was total low brow humor. Hamlet alone was filled with countless crude jokes made by the titular character himself about- . . .
This is a 'high school' play, isn't? Jason suddenly got nervous, there was no way the teacher wasn't going to end up rewriting a good two-thirds of this whole script to 'keep it clean'.
"Mr. Todd, I suggest you work on memorizing your lines for the audition, you won't be allowed the script during," Mrs. Peddruzi muttered darkly.
"Uh, sure thing, just real quick," Jason got her attention, "how much of this are you planning to 'rework'?"
"I would never," Mrs. Peddruzi sneered, placing a hand to her chest as if the very idea hurt her heart. Jason could almost relate, but there were some pretty adult things said, mostly by Hamlet himself. But hey, if the teacher said it was good, then who was he to argue.
"Oh, okay, my bad," Jason 'apologized' and looked down at the paper to see which scene they were auditioning. Of course, he should have seen it coming. Act 3 Scene 1 Line 57, . . . 'To Be Or Not To Be'. Jason wasn't sure how anyone was going to remember any of it before Peddruzi started up the lines for the students to read, Jason wondered if this was her way of testing to see who could actually remember the most the fastest. Luckily for Jay, he had a head start on everyone else. A quick glance through it and he set it down and went back over it in his mind. How many times did he preach this exact speech in his bedroom in Crime Alley in front of the mirror? It was Hamlet's deranged speech about how he wanted to give up on life but was too scared of death to just commit suicide. Jason used to hang on to that speech to get him through when he had nowhere, muttering it as he tried to justify to himself how many pockets he was picking and how many days without food he was suffering. Hamlet lived cause he was too scared to die, Jason lived because he was too stubborn to die.
"Jason Todd, I will not remind you again, these pieces have to be memorized!" Peddruzi growled at him. Jason jumped a little and realized he had been staring ahead of himself lost in memories.
"Sorry, Mrs. Peddruzi, it's just, I know this play," Jason tried to explain to her, "I can go ahead and recite the whole thing if you'd like." He'd hoped she'd be impressed with that, that she'd let him go ahead and go or at least stop getting on his case for not keeping his nose to the paper. She got a constipated look on her face instead as she scrutinized him. Then he remembered that the teachers knew of his time on the streets. She was about to call him a liar. Why would a nobody from the gutter memorize Shakespeare, after all?
"Alright, Mr. Todd. If you know this play so well, then I want Act 2 Scene 2 lines 527 and on," she dared him, crossing her arms. Jason frowned.
"But you only gave us the lines for Act 3-"
"I thought you said you 'knew' this play," she sneered at him.
"I do, I just wanted to be sure you knew you were switching it up on me." Jason didn't like where this was going, but he'll be dam-darned if he was going to let anybody challenge his love of Shakespear, much less the play he connected to the most in the whole world.
Act 2 Scene 2 held one of Hamlet's longest speeches, even longer than that of Act 3. This speech was Hamlet comparing himself to the actor he had just spoken with and felt guilty that the actor could put so much emotion in his character that Hamlet knew full well that the man did not truly feel. He then goes on about how if the actor felt as Hamlet did about his need to avenge his father, surely the actor would drown the audience with his tears. Hamlet then spends the rest of the speech calling himself a coward for not having killed his murderous uncle yet, how it made him a villain to let his father's killer continue to live. There was something in it that spoke to Jason on a deeper level, and he knew that he needed to nail this piece. Even if it was only for his own pride.
Strutting to the front of the classroom in a way he had always imagined Hamlet would, Jason took a deep, though intentionally shaky breath as he began to pace the front of the room nervously.
"Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" Jason stopped his pacing at one side of the room to address one of his fellow classmates directly. "Is it not monstrous that this player here-" Jason pointed behind himself and to the side at an imaginary actor. "But in fiction, in a dream of passion, could force his soul so to his own conceit?" Jason had moved his pointed finger to his chest to grab at his heart as he spoke. He strutted to the other side to address a different classmate. Putting his hands in front of himself in emphasis. "That from her working all his visage wanned-" Jason threw his hands to the side on the word 'wanned' before bringing them back up slowly to where he looked down at them and back to the student. "Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect. A broken voice, and his whole function suiting with forms to his conceit? And all for NOTHING-" Jason threw his hands again and stomped off, "For Hecuba!"
"That's enough, Jason," Peddruzi called out. Jason stuttered a moment. He mentally counted the lines he quoted. He was nine lines in. He hadn't even gotten to the good part either. He pouted, he thought he was doing pretty good, there was a couple of students who had started to clap but had stopped when they realized they were the only ones. When Peddruzi didn't say anything else, Jason just went back to his seat and moped. She was the only adult involved in this process. She was the one he needed to impress cause she was the casting director. He had a sinking feeling in his gut that he was going to be one of the four extras.
Jason accidentally slammed the door as he rushed in through the manor, finding Bruce going over some paperwork with Dick in the living room. Dick had spent the past year insisting that he didn't want to be adopted, he already had a dad. However, they were running into some issues with some details concerning Bruce's guardianship of him. Jason wasn't entirely sure what the troubles were but figured the two could manage whatever problems came up. Putting that on a topic for another day, if it ever got brought up, Jason went to stand in front of them, fidgeting in place.
"Yes, Jason?" Bruce asked from his spot on the couch. Jason lasted a single second longer as he took a deep breath before shouting excitedly.
"I got a part!" He cried out as he jumped up and down. He couldn't control himself. He had been so convinced after how unimpressed Peddruzi had seemed during casting that she'd put him off out of spite alone.
"Which part? Hamlet?" Bruce smiled as he asked.
"Well, no, but that's okay," Jason waved it off. He would have LOVED to be the titular character, but that was hoping for a little too much for him. "But I got the next best part! Horatio! Hamlet's best friend!" Jason could barely breathe he was talking so fast and so loud, quickly going into a deep explanation about how Horatio was the one to serve as the 'straight man to Hamlet's lunacy throughout the play. Bruce listened with a patient smile on his lips, nodding along while Jason rambled. Dick looked at him as though he had grown a second head that only spoke Vulgarian. Whatever, Dickie just didn't understand. This was the best day of his life thus far, and it would only get better as the play continued. "I have to go practice my lines!"
Jason started out the door as Dick called out, "Why do you have to practice? I thought you knew it already?"
Jason was already up the stairs, so he didn't bother to reply. After all, there was a difference to just reciting Shakespear, and performing it. And frick if Jason didn't intend to give a performance of a lifetime!
When Damian had heard about Jason's play from his father over the phone, he had assumed that it would be something his younger brother would talk about non-stop throughout dinner. Except, when the family sat down for dinner and Richard started grumbling about how he disliked Mathew Crowby from school, there was not a peep from Jason.
"He's just a jerk for 'jerk'-sake, like what's the point in throwing my books on the floor? No one else laughed with him, so it's not like it makes him more popular to pick on me!" Richard kept going before looking over to Jason. "What do you do when bullies start picking on you, Jay?"
"I don't believe it would be wise to look too closely to Jason for advice in this respect, Richard," Damian warned. "The last thing you need is a disciplinary record."
"What do you mean?" Richard asked.
"He means I'ma bad influence an' ya don't wanna end up like me," Jason grumbled from next to him, finally breaking his silence.
"Why not?" Of course, this was just the start of the barrage of questions. One of the things that had been clear to Damian from the start about Richard Grayson, he was an irritatingly direct and persistent child. Damian took a deep breath to keep from snapping at the boy before him. Instead, Damian gave another answer and hoped it would satisfy Richard's curiosity.
"Because Jason's method of dealing with those that bother him at school has, on more than one occasion, lead to me having to stop my day halfway to go pick him up from the principal's office of his school." The end of Damian's answer started to get ground out from between his teeth. "He has only recently been broken of this habit and I would be very disappointed to find that I am to repeat the process over again with you."
It may have come out harsher than he meant because Richard ended up shrinking into his seat. Sighing at himself more than anything, he turned to his other little brother at the table to see how bad the damage was there. Jason hadn't seemed to really care either way, picking at his meatloaf with his fork until it was shredded.
"Are you planning to just play with your food all night?" Damian asked, hoping to spark some other reaction from the boy. He could easily see that there was something bothering Jason, but he also knew that if Jason wanted to talk about something, he hardly ever needed the invitation to do so. Meaning either Jason didn't actually wish to share his troubles at the table, or that he himself wasn't sure what it was that was bothering him.
"Jason, why don't you tell us about the play? I would think you'd want to update Damian all about it." Damian wanted to smack his forehead in his father's stead. Redirection hardly ever worked that way with Jason. Well, it did, but you had to be sly about it because Jason liked to challenge people who he felt were trying to outsmart him. Sure enough, Jason's jaw set, and his breathing went deep in a way that told the eldest that he was trying to keep himself calm. *Please, no one push this. Please don't ask any more questions.* Of course, his father also noticed this change in his third child's demure, though he came to a different conclusion. "Jason, did something happen with the play?"
Jason threw his fork down on the table and immediately started into a rant that had Damian's ear's ringing from volume alone.
"I hate theater, I hate school, I hate Shakespear, and I hate people!" He cried out. His face was red, though his eyes were dry. "What I didn't mention last time was the fact that the lead characta was going ta be played by none otha than Jerkwad 'Kegs' Kingsly, 'imself! I figured 'whatevea' 'cause ya know, it's 'acting' mean'in that I don't actually have ta like the guy playin' 'Hamlet', I just gotta pretend ta be his best pal. But Kegs had a diff'ent opinion on da matta. So he tells Peddruzi that he could do betta as 'Hamlet' if his actual best friend, Jem, played 'Horatio', which was my role! Jem had been cast as 'Marcellus' which was already a pretty small role. I wanted ta argue, but I'm pretty sure Peddruzi hates me, 'cause she didn't even give it a second's thought before she just took me an' Jem's scripts an' swapped 'em. But then Andy Cantz decided to speak up about wantin' ta have Randi Straits as his partna, cause Andy plays 'Barnardo' an' Randi is his girlfriend. So Peddruzi just switches me an' Randi's scripts. Randi wasn't even really cast! She was the second extra in at least three diff'ent scenes!" Damian just sat there stone-faced, not even having it in him to correct Jason on his annunciation at the moment. Considering what his little brother had just told him, Damian didn't blame him for getting flustered and slipping deep into a Crime Alley accent.
"But you're still going to do it, right?" Richard asked.
"Of course I'ma do it!" Jason glared at him. "Only 'Drama-Queens' and 'Divas' quit a production just because they didn't get the role they wanted. I'm not a 'Diva' and I'm not a quitter. It sucks, but I'm not going to just run with my tail between my legs." Damian nodded in approval, and with his speech going back to proper dictation, Jason seemed to be calming himself back down. Maybe he did just need to get it out? "Besides, in the very unlikely chance something happens to Kegs, I'm his understudy. So, you know, 'the show must go on'."
With that, Jason finally had appetite enough to finish his dinner. The four of them made their way to the cave where Jason, Damian, and their father got in uniforms for the night while Richard jumped onto the computer to man coms. He still wasn't old enough to pass Batman's 'age requirement' to go out yet, though everyone knew that an exception might be made for the boy soon, if only by a year. Just as they had for the past year, the three heroes went out and kept the people of Gotham as safe as they could. However, tonight, Shadowbat had tried to keep an extra eye for a small bit of red in the distance.
Finally giving up on trying to be 'nonchalant' about 'running into' Red Hood, Shadowbat blatantly went deep into the Bowery to see if he could hunt the other man down. After stopping a few crimes; a rape attempt, and a home invasion with a side of B&E, at least a half dozen carjackings - Shadowbat finally came to the conclusion that Red wasn't in town. Probably with the Titan's somewhere.
Grumbling under his breath, Shadowbat ducked into an alley and muttered into the comms. "Shadowbat to 'Hood, you read me?"
There was static for a moment and Shadowbat frowned at his luck before he heard a break in the line.
"What do you want Shadow?" It was irate and grumbled from between teeth, but it was a response and since Shadowbat's reason for calling out to him was personal, he knew he needed to patiently navigate the thin ice he was already on with the other brother.
"Have a minute for a 'private life update' about Nights? Something's going on with him," Shadowbat figured the safest route at the moment would be the more direct one. Aiming the conversation at Jason usually kept Timothy from blocking him out. Sometimes if it was about Cassandra or Richard as well, but Jason was his obvious favorite.
"What is it?" Red Hood's voice became noticeably less hostile. Shadowbat then took the time to explain the events going on with the school play.
"I think he could use a bit of rallying. Maybe if you show up and give him some moral support or even just a promise to go see the play-" There was a click sound and more static. "Hello? Red Hood, you still there? Do you read me? God Dammit!" Shadowbat growled into the empty comm.
For the next couple of weeks, Jason's mood seemed to depend on how recently he had been to theater practice. He'd either come home seemingly normal, playing with his siblings and causing a ruckus and then other times he'd just be moody and melancholy. Days where it had been really bad, usually because the teacher and some of the other theatre kids would be unfairly harsh to Jason, saw the boy just march up to his room and refuse dinner. Bruce had officially gotten to the point of never letting the boy try for theater again.
At least it never seemed to interfere with his night job. Nightling was as calm and collected as ever, in fact, possibly more so than he had been in a while. It would almost be a relief if it wasn't for the fact Jason could sometimes be heard muttering Hamlet's speeches under his breath at some points.
"Which is not tomb enough and continent to hide the slain? O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" Nightling spoke steadily louder as he beat his way through a street gang.
"What are you even talking about, Kid?" One of the thugs asked from beneath where Nightling had him pinned.
Nightling repeated the last line in a different inflection, "My thoughts be Bloody, or be Nothing worth!" He then looked down at the guy, "Too much on that second one? Not enough? Common, I need some feedback if I'm going to potentially go on stage with it."
Just then another set of three came from behind and forced Nightling to dodge-roll. "I mean, it's not like I actually got the part, but still, gotta be prepared, right?"
By the end of the night, Jason had a few notes to try and some confidence back. Only for it to be dashed again in practice the next day.
It was three days before the production when Jason came home, happy as a clam. In fact, he was so ecstatic, he was bounding through the front door and straight into the family room with the largest grin on his face that any of them had seen in little over a month.
"I'm Hamlet!" He announced proudly.
"I thought you were an extra?" Dick asked confused.
"Kingsly's parents won some sorta 'sweepstakes' or somethin' and they're taking Kegs and going to Hawaii on production weekend! That means they need me, as his understudy, to step in and play the part. Peddruzi's face, when she realized what that meant, was priceless! She started to try to find someone, like anyone who knew the lines better than me, but no one did. She was trying to make up stuff about how I wouldn't know the blocking, but I've been paying attention every practice where Kingsly was supposed ta go and how he interacted with the stage. She was so mad and she can't do anything about it aside from call the play off, and she can't do that either!" Jason was laughing hysterically as he explained what had happened to make his change in mood.
"You didn't rig the sweepstakes, did you?" Dick's voice was hesitant as he wasn't sure if he should suspect Jason of such a low move or not.
"I wouldn't even know how," Jason shrugged, "I guess karma just decided to give me a free-be."
The night of the play, the whole family went to see Jason finally on the stage, where many told him he belonged for so long. And as he did, they could see his bravo puff up to hide how nervous he really was, but they watched confidently as it leveled out and he grew more comfortable in front of the audience. He nailed his every speech and hit every cue. Damian sat between Dick and Cassandra while Bruce, Alfred, Barbara, and her grandfather Jim sat in the row on the other side of his youngest brother.
The young adult was honestly impressed with his little brother's acting, cringing a little for his co-actors who stumbled over their lines and tripped over their feet. Jason was doing such a great job of creating the immersion necessary for the audience, Damian almost jumped a little when Cassandra tapped him on the shoulder and made a minute motion with her hand to point over her shoulder toward the back.
Following her discreet example, Damian slowly drifted his eyes to the standing room of the auditorium. Right by the exit, completely concealed by the shadows and virtually impossible to see, unless one were intentionally looking, stood Timothy. Damian excused himself and kept his way to the back, just in time to watch his wayward sibling duck out of the room.
Once in the hallway, Damian called out to him.
"Thank you. For helping Jason." Timothy stopped walking and only turned his head to look over his shoulder.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I just stopped in to see my little brother on a stage." And with that, Tim kept walking.
Damian shook his head and sighed. If that's how the guy wanted to play it, then fine. At least Damian could always count on him being there for Jay.
A/N: So, I would like to thank Chalseha_Wing from Archives Of Our Own for giving me this idea with their comment on the second chapter a long while ago. I've had this one in file for a while but kept reworking it. Also, I fucking love Hamlet and it is my favorite play.
R&R if you liked. (Need a default response? Just say 'Encore!'. I'll take it.)