Red Hood's words didn't seem to have a problem at first glance, and it could be seen as providing Damian a way to save face, but Thomas, Martha, and Bruce frowned almost simultaneously because they all realized that the social education of the original Batman Family was more lacking than they had imagined.
Damian demanding Nightwing's seat looked more like a comprehensive challenge to authority. First, Nightwing was older than him. Second, Nightwing was originally the leader of the outsiders' group. Third, Nightwing had taken on more responsibilities in the family than Damian to care for others. Surprisingly enough, who sat down first was the least important of these matters.
This meant, Damian and Red Hood were completely unaware of what was actually happening in the room, they didn't understand normal social rules, couldn't read social cues, and couldn't even sense the emotions of others.
Many people can get frustrated when they encounter an individual who is constantly demanding without giving anything in return, emoting without considering the context, and expecting everyone to cater to them.
Often, these individuals are not malicious, but deficiencies in their social education prevent them from knowing how to find their place and influence others in a rational way. So they express their emotions in what seems like a tantrum.
Damian simply believes that he should sit closer to Thomas because he sees him as more of a father figure. However, he has no idea how to convince others using this reasoning and resorts to unreasonable demands or absurd justifications.
Nightwing barely spent any time at the manor, and it was the younger Dick who was closer to Aisha, not Damian. But Damian randomly muttered a nonsensical excuse that had nothing to do with the situation. He was even convinced that this reason could convince others.
Social habits and reasoning are slowly established through exploration within society, and Damian's actions indicated that he had no such experience.
Finally, under the collective gaze of Thomas, Martha, and Bruce, Damian sat in the seat furthest away at the dinner table. Throughout the dinner, he stabbed at his food with a fork, keeping silent with a scowl on his face.
He felt wronged, and he didn't understand why he suddenly had to sit so far from the people he was close to, so far away that he could barely see them. The only way he knew how to deal with this was to look for a fight with Nightwing after breakfast.
This series of behaviors resembled that of a mischievous child, but thankfully, Martha, who had grown up in the Kane family, had similar confusions in her childhood. Why did she have to obey the rules when they conflicted with her instincts? Why did her family claim to love her, but never compromise on certain matters?
After Damian had a fight with Nightwing in the back garden, which left him bruised and dirty, Martha sat on the doorstep and called him over. She comforted him and asked him why he did it.
People often break down more easily in front of their mothers. The conflict between mother and child is less than father and child, there is no need to resist a mother's love like one would resist a father's authority - this held true at least in front of Martha.
Damian resisted for only about thirty seconds before launching into a long list of complaints. However, he still didn't realize where the problem lay. He complained about Nightwing not giving up his seat and Red Hood saying he woke up late – when he was actually held up by Aisha.
After patiently listening to Damian's complaints, Martha explained why he couldn't command Nightwing to give up his seat, why they had to follow a seating order rather than seating randomly, and even why most social events in society were like a magnified version of 'finding a seat'.
In the following days, Martha, Bruce, and even Thomas patiently dealt with the trivial frictions that arose from these complex social dynamics, and the naive lambs gradually learned how to accept good influence while discarding bad, and how to use their positions to influence others.
All the Robins were very intelligent without exception, and what was unique about the Batman Family was that they were good at learning through practice. In just a few days, they began to understand the operation rules of Wayne Manor.
Damian finally learned that if he wanted to sit next to Thomas the next day, he had to first get Thomas's agreement, then ask Alfred to add a chair, and finally put a doll opposite Aisha to prevent her from feeling sad and biting her plate.
Nightwing also finally learned to exert authority in front of those he can exercise power over, to restrain them from causing trouble, and not just cleaning up after they cause a mess, preventing his life from becoming a mess.
But this was not the end. After exploring individual roles, they began to form groups divided by age, familiarity, activity time, and the groups had to find their respective positions and manage various interactions and frictions.
The groups included two sets of older and younger Robins, a group consisting of Harley, Jason, Aisha and Damian which was previously formed to find the Black Diamond and was the first group where older and younger Robins mixed, a group that attended ballet classes together consisting of two Dicks, a group learning Anatomy from Bruce, and a group that had to go out for a drive every night which included Nightwing, Dick, Red Hood and Aisha.
They started to learn how to manage their positions within small groups and use this to consolidate their positions within larger society, to handle contradictions arising from conflicting likes and rules, deciding how much of their individuality to sacrifice for the group in order to gain clearer self-awareness and a more stable personality.
When Bruce reached this point in his narration, Gordon and Barbara were looking at him. Gordon said, "Isn't this a good thing? It's a rare educational opportunity and you don't even have to lift a finger."
Barbara also sighed and said, "Thank God they're finally learning to mature a bit. You have no idea how much they used to fight in the Batcave over the smallest things, everyone was so immature, sometimes I blamed Batman for not intervening more."
"But looking at it now, just having Batman alone wouldn't have helped." Barbara said with a small smile, "Especially when he barely has time."
"If everything's going so smoothly, why are you here?" Gordon asked.
Bruce let out a deep sigh and said, "After they've worked through their differences, they finally realize that everyone in Wayne Manor is part of a common community. They should work together to fight for status for this community."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"So where do you think they plan on fighting for status?"
Gordon widened his eyes at Bruce, "You don't mean, all over Gotham?"
"Congratulations, you're right." Bruce said, covering his eyes, "All the kids have united and started fighting crime in Gotham."
Gordon opened his mouth, and after a moment of thought, he said, "Although I don't really approve of these little kids running around Gotham, at least their hearts are in the right place. Who hasn't dreamed about fighting crime and upholding justice? Right, Batman?"
"You don't actually think they're running up to criminals and throwing punches, do you?"
"Aren't they?"
"They can throw punches on their own, why would they need to unite for that?"
Seeing Gordon's puzzled face, Bruce said helplessly, "They didn't form a team, but a gang. God knows what they've learned lately! They don't want to save Gotham, they want to take over Gotham!"
Bruce planted a hand on the table and began ticking off his fingers, "One day, after Dick finished his ballet class, he didn't take a car home. Instead, he ran home from the rooftop. On the way, he noticed a new food street and goods market that had formed near the Gotham train station."
"He originally led a few other kids there to eat and drink. But somehow Damian found out a street vendor's business secret. The vendor learned in advance about a grand music festival Gotham was going to host. There would be many out-of-towners there, so securing a stall near the train station definitely wouldn't be a loss."
"Damian immediately thought he had found a way to make money so he convinced Jason to rent a stall with him for the upcoming festival. Jason felt they should make money together, so he contacted the former members of the Children's Gang to get some popular small commodities to sell on the streets."
"However, to set up a stall in Gotham, you need the mob's approval. The local mob there hadn't seen them before, and thought they were looking for trouble. A conflict erupted, and Nightwing and other older kids ended up taking them all down."
"At that point, Red Robin realized there was more money to be made sitting backstage taking a cut than setting up a stall oneself. So, they replaced the original mob and started collecting entrance fees from all the stall owners. Then they realized the turfs of the two neighboring mobs were also lucrative, especially if they could join them together with their own to form a larger market."
"Who knows what was going through Red Hood's mind, after the others had figured out the headquarters of the two mobs, he threw Aisha into their weapons depot. She took all their weapons, and the two mobs surrendered without a fight. They gained the two largest pieces of land near the train station suitable for setting up stalls."
"I don't know how Damian naturally learned the skill to launder money, but he had Tim write a letter to the Gotham City Government stating they were planning to hold a 'Gotham King Music Festival and Cultural Showcase' near the train station. They wrapped up the entire neighboring three streets and a square into one big shopping area under the cultural exhibition guise."
"They all played different parts in writing to the city government. Some posed as destitute artists wishing to exhibit their paintings, some as roaming musicians wanting to perform, some as small vendors desperate for a stall, and some as custom merchandise manufacturers that could produce goods in large quantities. Together, they created an illusion of a cultural event that was bound to take place, with an extreme shortage of stalls and exhibition spaces."
"That fool Roy was completely fooled. It wasn't until he approached me asking if Wayne Enterprises wanted to invest in this cultural event that I realized, the handwriting on the letter was all too familiar. The hundreds of letters were all written by these little rascals."
"In just less than a week, they had swindled over twenty million dollars worth of investment, 80% of which came from the Gotham mobs."
"They made over twenty posters of Gotham's urban scenery and cultural propaganda, took over two hundred photos of the actual scene, and set up an official web page posting all these images. Afterwards, it became popular on the Internet within a week, with over four hundred thousand views and thirty thousand reservations."
"Tickets for journalists from six East Coast TV stations have already been booked, including Clark Kent. My foolish journalist friend even asked me to give him early access to a touring suggestion. Even Amazon Princess Diana expressed her desire to come learn from the advanced tourism development experience and asked me to organize a banquet so she could meet with the brilliant curators of Gotham."
Gordon covered his eyes, and Bruce sighed again before turning his gaze onto Barbara's face.
"Now, Miss Gordon, you have a new mission. You need to secure two million dollars over the music festival's budget to get this cultural event off the ground - it's almost like a wasteland there right now."
Barbara slapped her forehead.