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“So, you just use the rocks on blankets border?” Jason asked.
Jazz smiled. “Yes. Sam got us color coded beads for the blankets, and she turned one of the rooms at her house into a fabric shop, but all of us decided to make the blankets ourselves. And for them to be comfortable and meaningful for liminals, the cairn stones can’t fill the whole thing. So, we just put them in the border.” She gave a rueful grin as she continued, “It also helps the blankets to stay on the restless sleepers.”
Tim Drake had tracked down Sam’s contact information after the family had noticed Cass’s sudden habit of putting pebbles, small pieces of rubble, beads and marbles on Jason whenever he’s caught sleeping at the manor seemed to correlate with a less mercurial temper. The teen had laughed when he’d asked about what she’d talked to Cass about and asked for his email to send the information to.
When Jason had started reciprocating with everyone, Tim had called her back and she’d laughed at him and sent more information. Eventually, after Jason had lent Tim his blanket after being injured, Tim just gave up, he wasn’t finding any other information about this anywhere else, and called Sam to ask how many tickets he needed to buy for her to come to Gotham.
A week later saw Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Danny and Jazz Fenton as guests in Wayne Manor. They had brought with them a collection of patchwork quilt looking lumpy blankets and an offputting old fashioned treasure chest.
“And you color code the rocks?” Steph asked, a dangerous gleam in her eye.
“Yes,” Tucker answered. “Not all of us can look at or touch them and know who gave them when they’re all in a pile. It’s not a bad thing, we just don’t have senses need for it. You don’t even need to color the whole thing. I put hieroglyphs on mine.”
“I used to put bats on mine,” Sam said. “I’ve changed to plants or seeds.”
“I just put teal dots on mine,” Jazz added. “I haven’t some up with anything else for them. It hasn’t been needed and I don’t have time for anything else.”
They all look at Danny, who has been locking in a staring contest with Alfred the Cat for the last ten minutes. Sam poked him for attention.
“I put stars, constellations, ice or snow,” he answered, not breaking eye contact. “It depends on how much time I’ve got, how tired I am, or if I just need to keep my hands busy. I gave one to Jazz once that was covered in fern frost and the Aquarius constellation.”
“And you do that for all of them?” Damian asked.
“It makes sense for us, since we just have ourselves,” Danny shrugged. “If you guys do that too, I’d suggest something simple in a single color. Your Fraid is bigger than ours, so it’d be difficult to personalize each and every one.”
Ok, so I've seen a few things that say Bruce Wayne and Sam Manson are Jewish. And I've seen a couple of things about Jewish traditions that say that they leave small stones on graves of loved ones, something about anchoing souls. And there's this one fic, I can't remember what it was or who wrote it, that had Sam placing small stones on Danny sometimes, just because.
I had this thought. Since Danny and Jason aren't dead, what if their loved ones made them weighted blankets, with those stones instead of beads/rice/what-have-you in regular weighted blankets.
Those blankets quickly become their favorite. It's soothing on an instinctual level. Sleeping with those blankets is the best sleep they've ever had. No nightmares. Just happy, sleeping, ghost purrs. Because those blankets are full of love and recognition of loss and ghosts appreciate that recognition of loss from the living, need it.
It's why Ember wants to hear her name, why Skulker and Technus shout their names and titles. They want to be recognized.
Just imagine, movie night at the manor. Some poor soul tries to playfully steal Jason's weighted blanket. Jason's eyes haven't been so bright since he emerged from the Lazarus Pits and he's snarling and growling to impress a dragon. Message received: don't touch the blanket.
Something to note about the weighted blanket, the pebbles have to come from the person's grave or have been given to the individual directly, otherwise it's just a rock. So these blankets take a while to make, because the rocks need to mean something.
When Sam started putting pebbles on Danny, it was more for her piece of mind than anything. It quickly became something important to both of them. Tucker also did it sometimes, and Jazz after she found out, but it was mostly something between them.
It was also a little game for Sam: which ones would he like best? Sam ordered little geodes that Danny would display in his room, but his favorites were ones that were picked up off the side of the road with him in mind.
So when her parents took her places outside of Amity Park, she started picking up little rocks and pebbles wherever they went. It made the awful boring trips bearable. She always liked bringing her friends souvenirs, and with this? Even if her parents stopped her from buying anything, she always got something for Danny.
After something happens at FentonWorks, Danny asks if he can store his 'rock collection' at their houses. Of course they agree. And Danny isn't getting sleep, between ghost attacks and nightmares, so they look up stuff that might help. And they find weighted blankets. And they look at the literal treasure chest (gifted by Princess Dora for precious things, that Danny also can't keep at his house) and decided, why not?
The final product is a clashing collection of ghosts and stars and plants and hieroglyphs and tech and puns and books and bats in square patches of cloth that looks like a godawful quilt. Danny cries when they give it to him (birthday, death day, or something to brighten up a bad day) because it settles something in his core that he didn't even realize was hurting.
This weighted blanket that his friends and sister made is the closest thing he has to a grave. If the ghosts come through the portal and find him sleeping with it, they just turn around and come back later. It really is the best sleep he's ever had.
Any way, at some point, Sam's parents bring her to Gotham for a gala. She obviously manages to slip away outside and starts picking up pebbles. Her Fraid has learned that picking up their own rocks means more than sharing or trading, but she has more chances to pick up different ones than they do, so she 'buys in bulk' so to speak when she leaves. Also, the whole thing is surprisingly grounding for liminals, too and Jazz has been very stressed lately.
Anyway, one of the Wayne's, dealers choice, but I'm thinking Tim or Damian, maybe Cass or Steph, sees her wandering around outside and picking something up, or digging around in the garden, gettingclose to securityfeatures. They go out to confront her about it and she just answers politely that she's picking up pebbles for her friends.
One of them died, and we've just started making them weighted blankets out of grave pebbles. They found it so comforting we decided to make at least one for each of us. Solidarity, you know? Oh yeah, Danny died, but he got better. He's just got a medical condition now. And she just goes on as she keeps going around, picking up pebbles.
I imagine if it was Tim or Dick, they start giving Jason pebbles, just as a joke. They see him taking a nap, drop a pebble on him. He's being annoying, throw a pebble at him. And as this goes on, they notice: he keeps those pebbles. They're displayed in his preferred safe houses, and kept in his pockets. His temper has mellowed out a bit. And the others notice. So they ask.
And eventually everyone starts doing it. Jason quickly gets used to waking up from naps at the Manor to a small pile of rocks somewhere on his person. He starts sorting them.
And this gets to be such a habit that everyone starts doing to each other too. Bruce loves this because it's an expression of love that he doesn't struggle with, and that is accepted by all of his kids. The first time was an accident, mistaking a half blanket buried Dick or Bruce as Jason, or a joke putting one on a Tim that has randomly passed out somewhere.
That first person who talked to Sam realizes that Jason's got a lot of those pebbles now. They remember that she was talking about weighted blankets. So, for a group project, the bats and birds steal some of the pebbles to make Jason a blanket. And at first he's pissed. And then he sits under it- and wow this is the best blanket ever, no you can't touch it unless you want to lose your fingers.
Ok, so I've seen a few things that say Bruce Wayne and Sam Manson are Jewish. And I've seen a couple of things about Jewish traditions that say that they leave small stones on graves of loved ones, something about anchoing souls. And there's this one fic, I can't remember what it was or who wrote it, that had Sam placing small stones on Danny sometimes, just because.
I had this thought. Since Danny and Jason aren't dead, what if their loved ones made them weighted blankets, with those stones instead of beads/rice/what-have-you in regular weighted blankets.
Those blankets quickly become their favorite. It's soothing on an instinctual level. Sleeping with those blankets is the best sleep they've ever had. No nightmares. Just happy, sleeping, ghost purrs. Because those blankets are full of love and recognition of loss and ghosts appreciate that recognition of loss from the living, need it.
It's why Ember wants to hear her name, why Skulker and Technus shout their names and titles. They want to be recognized.
Just imagine, movie night at the manor. Some poor soul tries to playfully steal Jason's weighted blanket. Jason's eyes haven't been so bright since he emerged from the Lazarus Pits and he's snarling and growling to impress a dragon. Message received: don't touch the blanket.