#Banshee In A Well

[thatshadowgastwhore]

I’m like, imagining a TikTok edit to tune if “I’ve been a million different people (etc)” but of all the different versions of Tim from my favorite fics, like a drakes spoiled brat Tim, a banshee in a well Tim, a having a me party Tim, a Lazarus mad dad Tim, a fly high or not at all Tim, a gotcha bug Tim, a ducks in wonderland Tim, a take it back now yall Tim, a baby birds and bat caves Tim, a signed Red Robin Tim, A HAND IN UNLOVABLE HAND TIM and I know it will never exist bc you can’t make an edit out of words on a screen but please, imagine it with me. And also read all those fics and come gab about them with me

[rt-nique]

The desire to art for Banshee In A Well (by @liverobinreaction / @bugbeee ) has manifested!!

TW: blood, suicide, death

They'll let him go, a small part of him whispers, sad and grieving and forever five years old, waiting for someone to realise he wasn't there anymore. He pushes it down, drowns it just like he drowned all those years ago, and ignores the memories of chlorine burning the back of his throat.

Because his deaths don't matter. They don't.

They don't.

He doesn't matter, bubbles up softly in his head, gentle and quiet and unnoticed like a drowning child.

Timelapse:

The way this fic has me in a chokehold. PLEASE READ BANSHEE IN A WELL BY LIVEROBINREACTION!!!

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

Summary: Tim is five years old when he drowns in his parents' pool. He dies quietly, waiting for parents who love him, but will never be there, to realise that something is wrong. They never show up, and he sinks into oblivion. When he wakes up and claws his way out of the water, the sun has set, and the lights of his house are on. He is cold and wet and his lungs burn. But most of all, Tim is alone. (If you die and no-one is there to see it, were you ever alive in the first place?)

Author: @bugbeee

Note from submitter: Really good fic featuring immortal!Tim

[sundropcass]

was rereading one of my favorite somewhat unhinged Batman fanfics (i’m talking about “Banshee In A Well” by liverobinreaction if you were curious) and i went to move on to the last chapter only to get an ERROR MESSAGE??? are you kidding me. are you KIDDING ME.

[buymeanewlaptopty]

BANSHEE IN A WELL HAD ME SCREAMING CRYING SOBBING AND I AM NOT OKAY.

anyways here is a meme of the au where Tim chose death for a nap

[liverobinreaction]

I'm so excited for the "Tim doesn't return to the Batfam" fic! I'm wondering if the premise will end up being similar to Early Retirement by KittyMaine?

YOU COMPLETELY GUESSED WHAT FIC INSPIRED THAT WHOLE PREMISE LMAO

While I want similar cathartic vibes (choosing yourself, taking the time to recover, understanding that some relationships just aren't healthy even if you love them), the Batfam will still reunite eventually. Tim will go to a cabin (I think I chose Vermont?), informs YJ about the situation and that he's taking a break, and just. Starts sorting through everything. He accepts that he chose a pretty bad way to take this break and feels a lot of guilt for it, but he's also so damned tired, and he knows that the Bats wouldn't respect his boundaries if he told them.

Here's a snippet:

There comes a certain point where stopping is the only solution. Where trying to continue isn't just futile, but actively harmful. Where taking a break isn't optional anymore. And doing so isn't wrong or a bad thing.

At least, that's what his therapist tells Tim.

It's strange that he came to Vermont to distance himself from... everything for an indeterminate amount of time, and yet he can't quite escape it. Gotham exists in his very bones, moulded to his skeleton, because no-one ever escapes that city. Not really. But he's trying to.

Therapy was not something that came naturally to him. He doubts it comes naturally to anyone, but after a while, your thoughts start to repeat and you realise you need a second opinion from someone uninvolved and unaware. He never imagined therapy would be an option, given the many, many secrets, both his and others. But it's not too hard to spin the situation in a different way.

He doesn't talk about dying or the night or the symbol imprinted so deeply on his soul he still flinches when someone says the word 'Robin'. He doesn't tell his therapist about the pool or the desert. But he does tell him about his parents, about Bruce and Dick and Alfred and Jason, about the constant limbo in both families. He talks about too quiet nights and unanswered phone calls and music never listened to and shattered bottles worth more than the average man's salary and helping a man twice his age into the bathtub with all the razors confiscated because he saw him weigh one up with a look that scared him.

He starts talking and then he doesn't stop, even when his chest begins to tighten and his bones begin to ache. Some people describe therapy like an infected wound being lanced. Tim has lanced many over those over his life, and therapy feels nothing like that. It feels like a balloon slowly being filled with water, rubber stretching and squeaking as it gets heavier and heavier until it finally bursts to the ground on sun warmed concrete while children scream in the background.

...It always goes back to water in the end.

-

And voila!!! Hope you enjoy, ahahaha!

[thatthirdtriplet]

Relationships:

Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne Tim Drake & Jason Todd Tim Drake & Dick Grayson Tim Drake & Damian Wayne Tim Drake & Ra's al Ghul Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake Tim Drake & Prudence Wood

Characters:

Tim Drake Batfamily Members Bruce Wayne Jason Todd Dick Grayson Damian Wayne Ra's al Ghul Alfred Penny worth Cassandra Cain Stephanie Brown prudence Wood

Additional Tags:

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Tim Drake-centric child Neglect meta human Tim Drake Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent Bruce Wayne is Bad at Feelings Tim Drake Needs a Hug Suicide Suicide Attempt is it suicide if you know you'll come back to life??? Resurrection It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better good Older Sibling Dick Grayson hurt Tim Drake child Death character Undeath Character Study angst fluff and Angst angst with a Happy Ending hurt/Comfort Jewish Tim Drake unreliable Narrator immortal Tim Drake Tim Drake's Missing Spleen creepy Ra's al Ghul No Bashingthe author loves all characters Damian Wayne is Bad at Feelings good Sibling Jason Todd good Sibling Damian Wayne good Sibling Cassandra Cain Tim Drake Has Issues Tim Drake Is Deranged(AFFECTIONATE) Tim Drake has the self-preservation instincts of a wet paper bag blanket permission for art and podfics Lazarus Pit Side Effects (DCU) The unreliable narrator tag is there for a REASON Deranged Tim Drake I EXPLICITLY FORBID ANYONE FROM FEEDING MY FICS TO AI

Summary:

Tim is five years old when he drowns in his parents' pool. He dies quietly, waiting for parents who love him, but will never be there, to realise that something is wrong. They never show up, and he sinks into oblivion.

When he wakes up and claws his way out of the water, the sun has set, and the lights of his house are on. He is cold and wet and his lungs burn.

But most of all, Tim is alone.

(If you die and no-one is there to see it, were you ever alive in the first place?)

[webspite]

Finished my fanbind of @liverobinreaction ‘s Banshee in a Well! Do I know anything about Batman? No! However, @nothingmuch-noreally rec’d it to me and what can I say, it was absolutely amazing :)

Check it out on AO3 here!

This is not my first bookbinding project, but it is my first full-blown fan binding and I’m really happy with how it came out!

[starry-bi-sky]

"Uhp-uhp-bup-bup." Danny says loudly, cutting off the crime lord bleeding all over his living room. He presses a finger to his lips, despite knowing that Red couldn't see it, and stifles his rage behind a playful smile.

He's lucky he's facing the kitchen, his back turned to Hood. He can see the fury green of his eyes reflecting back at him in the chrome of the sink, he's threatening to crush the rag in his hands. His vision is futzing out in the corners of eyes.

"We don't speak the 'J' name in this household." He says in almost a sing-song, because if he doesn't, then the Gotham oil sitting, boiling, behind his teeth and coating his tongue will spittle out and Danny's already haunting his apartment just by his mere presence. He doesn't want to haunt it more.

He can hear the whine of the lightbulbs, threatening to burst like a popped balloon. He turns the water off and and rings the rag out tighter than he perhaps should.

"You don't like the clown?" Hood asks him, and Danny's not sure if he's mocking him for it. There's a knowing lilt in his voice that throws back Danny to their first meeting on that balcony. If he were anyone else, Danny might've just punched him.

His heel turns sharply towards him, a tight smile on his face and an even tighter look around his eyes. At least he knows that the green has faded because the pounding behind his eyes are gone, his grief-born, death-made rage sizzling back beneath his veins. "I think you already know why, Ridin' Hood."

A grief like this don't stay buried, after all.

[ifyoucandaniel]

exactly one person asked and i’ve been DYING to make this, so here are all of my favorite long batman fanfics in general and for new readers @twisted-tales-told :)

cards on the table by @wesslan ! 69k, completed. this is one of my all time favorite fanfictions, it’s so funny and tim is a mastermind genius and a little liar <3 he basically pretends to be a fortune teller and gives scarily good predictions and advice by stalking the upper class and eventually gets involved with the batfam and has to maintain his lies while dealing with his issues :) 10/10, very found family, good angst, so much lying

Dark Matter by @mysterycyclone , 221k, ongoing. this is a batman fanfic rec, of course my bbg dark matter is going to be here <3 this is a MCUxDCU crossover where after infinity war (spoilers for that if you haven’t seen it!) peter parker gets sent to the DCU dimension with part of the soul stone and basically is haunted by the ghosts of the avengers while trying to survive in gotham and get back to his dimension. this is so well written i’ve read it at least three times, it’s still ongoing but trust me it is SO GOOD. i can’t properly describe it, but if you like spider-man and you are interested in batman, you’ll love.

Red is the Color of Sinners by @bluelotuswrites , series, 120k, ongoing, M. i want you to look me in my eyes when i tell you this is my favorite series on ao3. it is set after under the red hood and daredevil 3 where jason and matt meet in a church after jason loses his ability to speak following the events of UTRH. they keep running into each other both as matt and daredevil and eventually jason begins helping matt out with injuries and tech. it’s not finished yet, but there is something so compelling about their dynamic in this series as well as jason’s overall character and how he is portrayed. i’m a sucker for mute jason after UTRH and this series does so well giving him a fresh start and a place away from gotham to heal and build relationships. i cannot recommend enough.

buy back the secrets by @vinelark , 71k, ongoing, T. THIS!!! oh my god, so this is a timkon fic where kon still doesn’t know tim’s civilian identity, but whenever he’s in trouble tim calls for superboy which leads to them meeting without kon knowing. shenanigans ensure when kon starts spending more time with tim! it’s still ongoing but the author is currently working on the next part and it is so so worth the wait. chapter 4 ends on a cliffhanger though so be warned :))

Sales People Know (listening is the most important part) by Mayhem10, 77k, completed, T. this has the coolest urban magical realism ever. tim basically runs this magic shop that shows up places and people who need something find it in his shop :) it’s kinda a slow burn found family fic with magic themes and a smidge of angst!

Retrograde Motion by Lysical, 112k, completed, T. this is best de-aged kid fic ever. jason gets turned into a 7 year old and basically the outlaws, artemis and biz, join forces with the batfam to take care of him. but trust me when i say this is worth your time, it might sound tropey but in the best way possible!! and jason’s relationship with artemis is sooo important to me in this!

Hand in Unloveable Hand (a chokehold) by britishparty, 54k, completed, M. this is one of the best psychological torture/grooming fics i’ve ever read. pretty much what if while our taking photos of batman and robin, little tim gets kidnapped and black mask gets his hands on him and decides he’s the perfect size for a protege. years of psychological abuse and insane mind games ensue. also tim is a Badass™️

If He Had Come by bronwe_iris, 45k, completed, T. so i’m a little freak and i love the angst of arkham knight jason, but more specifically the aus where bruce saves jason before he becomes the arkham knight! this is an au where bruce finds jason and saves him from the joker after 9 months of torture and brings him home. focuses on his healing mentally and physically and rebuilding his relationship with his family

Banshee in a Well by liverobinreaction (bugbee), 43k, completed, T. veeeery good angst. basically what if tim couldn’t die? 43k of tim drake whump where he just dies a bajillion times and eventually his family notices <3

The Birds: Hatching a Family by Oceanera12, 81k, completed, T. this is like “what if the batkids weren’t adopted by bruce, but instead they were all foster siblings who can’t seem to stay out of gotham at night and batman happens to find them and decides obviously he can’t leave these kids to their own business, he has to stick his nose in it” and there’s some angst and heaps of found family

The Hellblazer’s Apprentice by @bluelotuswrites, 29k, ongoing, M. what can i say, im a simple woman, i love to see jason with literally any older male mentor :) basically in UTRH what if he took up an apprenticeship under constantine to learn magic to piss off batman! so good, i really love constantine so seeing him and jason interact in a long fic is so good. also ALL BLADES JASON TODD SAVE ME… ALL BLADES JASON TODD-

something in the static by bonerot19, 101k, ongoing series with three main completed works, T. this is a jason centric series where jason still lives in crime alley with his mom and dad and never stole the batmobile tires. it follows his life in crime alley with an addict mom and an abusive dad and one night when his dad is whaling on him nightwing finds him and the bats just can’t seem to leave him alone after that. steph is his neighbor and best friend also and their relationship is so good. this is a “what if jason took a different way home to the wayne’s” fic series and i love it so much <3

catch the asteroids that come your way by ThePackWantsTheD, 54k, completed, T. i don’t read a lot of ships in the batman fandom i’m sorry, but this kyle/jason one is sooo lovely. basically the two of them growing up together and falling in love and then dealing with the aftermath of A Death in the Family and finding each other again :) really sweet and nice!

hope you find something you like! i realized the majority of these are tim or jason centric, and i love them all dearly, but if anyone has any recs for long fics focusing on any of the other batkids lmk! and any other recs in general, i am a fiend for new fics

[thatshadowgastwhore]

Immortal Tim Drake being the usual power fandom assigns when it’s a meta tim drake au is actually so iconic

[rt-nique]

I’m back. With more art for Banshee in a Well!!!!!

(on ao3 by @liverobinreaction / @bugbeee)

-🦇-

Firstly, my favourite dynamic in the fic was Tim & Cass

Best siblings ever, the last chapter gave me so much healing. She really was there for Tim and comforted him.

-🦇-

Arms wrap around him, warm and familiar, a head of black hair tucking into his neck as he freezes. Cassandra has always been the strongest of them all, and he can feel it in the way she’s gripping him like he’ll disappear any moment now, body trembling and face wet from where it’s pressed against his skin.

Carefully, Tim brings his arms up to hold Cass back. She’s always cried loudly, almost out of spite for the silence beaten into her as a child. But right now, she weeps without a sound. He swallows, his own eyes burning as he buries his face into her collarbone, fingers twisting into the sweater he recognises as his own.

Neither of them says a word for a while. They just hold onto one another and try to breathe.

“I am not leaving. Not again. Not anymore.”

“Cass,” he says, voice dangerously close to cracking, but she just squeezes his wrists gently.

“It is not okay,” she whispers brokenly, but with a kindness he hates and loves in equal measure, “and that is alright.”

“Cry, stupid,” she says, voice trembling.

And Tim-

Tim breathes.

And he finally breaks.

He collapses forward into his sister, chest heaving with sobs that practically tear their way out of his throat, and it hurts more than any death he’s died before. Cass is crying with him, loud and open, but she doesn’t stop holding him, she doesn’t let him go for a second.

(God I eat up all these quotes from the fic. THE AUTHOR IS AMAZING I LOVE THEIR WRITING SO MUCH) *proceeds to ugly cry during every reread*

Timelapse:

[takemetomyfragiledreams]

This is a wip about banshee!Tim gradually adopting all the bats and keeping them alive. It has the possibility to be an eventual Robin pile but I haven't fully decided on where it'll go. The original intention was to eventually have it be damitim but honestly it could go jaytim, dicktim or just robin pile. If you have a preference I'm all ears.

Talia becomes aware of her father’s shadow at the age of five. A boy with skin so white she half expects him to be translucent and eyes so frigid they put the winter sky to shame. He lingers in shadows and darkened corners, ever silent and ever watching. Her father never mentions him, not even when he perches on the arm of his throne or steals bits of meat from his plate. She half thinks she’s crazy for the first thirteen years of her life but doesn’t once dare to ask. Secrets get you killed in this world and this is one she’s not willing to die for.

He never speaks to her. Never seems to speak to anyone. He’d be an afterthought if his presence wasn’t so alien. 

At the age of thirteen, the night before her first solo mission, she wakes to find him sitting on the edge of her bed. No scream comes; she’s learned the only one she can depend on is herself. 

He touches a finger to his lips and she remains silent as the guards outside walk past. When the lights from under the door fade, he speaks for the first time. 

“Tomorrow, you’re going to die.” 

Talia’s hand curls around the blade beneath her pillow. “Is this a threat?” 

“A fact.” His face is cold, emotionless. It’s like looking into the depths of a still pool; all she sees is herself staring back. “You will die many times in this world and you will pay dearly for your return.” 

“The pit,” she understands. 

“If you’re smart, you’ll start saving what pieces of yourself you have left. You’ll need them one day.” He stands. Instead of opening the door, she watches as he finds tiny handholds in the stone of her wall and begins to climb to the ceiling. There’s a small hole six meters up, where the smoke of her fires can escape. It’s barely big enough for his head.  

“Who are you?” She calls as loud as she dares. 

“When the time comes, I will scream for you. Follow the sound back.” 

He vanishes out the hole like smoke, body contorted into impossible shapes. Talia lays down and stares up at that dark maw of space until her eyes blur and droop. 

Three days later she can’t stop the sword from cutting through her chest. She slices through her enemy but it’s too late. Her knees fall out from under her as her mouth opens in a silent cry. 

Across the room, she sees a boy’s eyes turn from icy blue to black as his mouth contorts into the shape of a horrific scream; the sound rings in her ears long after it’s over. 

It’s the last thing she hears as she dies and the first she hears as she comes gasping from the Pit, naked and shaking as her heart restarts in her chest. 

He stands in the shadows when her father holds a hand out. Always watching. Waiting.

This repeats twenty times in the span of a hundred years. Twenty times in which she dies to a scream and returns to one. And then it stops. 

He’s sitting in front of a machine, eyes big as he presses his palms to the glass. She feels something sick in her stomach but cannot place just what it means. Motherly instinct? The desire to whisk her growing child out of sight and away from this creature no one ever seems to talk about. 

“His name,” he says, “what will you call him?” 

The last thing she wants to do is tell him. Still, she cannot stop herself. 

“His name is Damian.” 

“Damian,” he sighs, croons, growls. “Damian Wayne-al Ghul.”

She never told him who the father was. 

The day Damian is born is the day she loses him, if she ever had him in the first place. It’s in the way he looks past her to stare into the shadows; the way his nose scrunches and his lips curl in delight; the way he waves his grasping hands and the way she cannot stop him from leaving her arms. 

“Tim,” he babbles up at the monster that has dogged her life and death. She didn't even know he had a name to give.

Damian giggles and pats at a pale cheek with his own colored fingers. “Tim!” 

Tim smiles a ghastly, jagged sort of smile down at him. It’s like watching someone learn how to feel for the first time; unnatural, yet impossible to look away from. There’s color in his face for the first time, a light in his eyes like the first thaw of spring. 

“Damian,” he says like it’s something reverent, something holy. It’s the level of devotion a prince deserves but she cannot find it in herself to be pleased. 

It’s then that she acknowledges the bitter truth: Tim scares her in a world where she is not meant to be afraid of anything. He’s the only being she fears save perhaps her father and he’s looking at her son like he hung the stars.

What bitter irony. 

For the first time, she comes to him. He’s standing just outside Damian’s room, looking in like there’s nothing he wants more and less than to go inside. 

“Normally you’re inseparable. What is it?”

He’s silent for so long that she half convinces herself he’s an illusion. 

“I’m leaving.” 

Talia blinks. He’s never left once; not that she’s aware of. “Leaving?”

“If I stay, he won’t turn into the boy he needs to be to survive what’s coming.” Tim turns almost human eyes on her. He looks drawn and tired. “I won’t be able to let you hurt him.” 

“I would not—"

“You would. You know nothing else.” 

They stand together, staring at the closed door in mutual contemplation. Finally, Tim sighs. 

“You’ll do your best to kill the good in him, but remember death is never permanent. Not for an al Ghul. Do more than that and I’ll come for you. I don’t care what destiny says.” 

Talia’s hands itch for her knives, but she does not reach. She knows better. “When will you return?” 

“When I’m needed.” He turns to meet her eyes, small but oh so fierce. “Teach him well, Talia. Show him what he needs to know to survive.” 

He’s gone before she can respond. They both know she will do nothing less. 

(Still, he scares her; Talia al Ghul is not meant to be afraid of anything.) 

[allthegothihopgirls]

yeah

[moopiter]

happy (late) valentines day, this took longer than expected

some very suggestive versions under the cut:

[liverobinreaction]

do the banshee!bats have a new code just for tim deaths. bc theres "code white" for civilian deaths, so like, is there a "code dumbass" for "tim got himself stabbed again like a fucking idiot and now we need to drag his corpse back to the medbay and get all those monitors set up and prepare another Dying Is Bad powerpoint for when he wakes up"

YESS it's called Code Lemming and everyone groans when it's announced. They do metaphorical rock paper scissors to determine who takes the body back, who waits with Tim until he regenerates (bc they never leave him to wake up alone), and who gets to yell at him.

The yelling is a highly coveted position and tends to turn into a competition to see who gets to do it.