#HE CHANGED IT BECAUSE KON DIED

[gothamnews]

I'm gonna go off on this-

OKAY LETS GO THROUGH THE ROBINS-

Dick - There was a LOT of reasons Dick left being Robin. One was because Bruce stopped listening to him, but also because he realized he and Bruce didn't see eye to eye, and he needed to get away to figure himself out. (Revision version of Dick is "I was forced into this" but reality says "Dick was going to murder Zuko if Bruce liked it or not, so he had to learn to NOT-")

Jason - Jason didn't listen to Bruce BECAUSE HE WANTED TO FIND HIS MOM, went to iran, and was killed.

Tim - Tim was a great Robin, and Bruce ACTUALLY did Listen to him! Tim would tell him he needed to sit this out, and HE WOULD LISTEN! Bruce did have a few problems about ya know, Jason's Death, and would call Tim "Jason" sometimes, but yet, he got better. In the end, Damian was the one who tried to force himself to be Robin, Bruce said no, but after Bruce's Death, Dick forced Tim to get rid of the Robin Persona. (Not Tim's Choice)

Steph - I love Steph, but gosh darn it, she was Robin for 4 days and NO ONE LIKED WORKING WITH HER- SHE WAS FIRED!! Tim's dad learned he was Robin, and a week later, he died. Tim was forced to stop being Robin, and during that time Steph was Robin. Max she could have been Robin for a Week, BUT we know she didn't last that long, because Tim came back and even during Identity Crisis he was Robin again. A LOT happened that week.

Duke - Duke just got here.

Cass - Cass has never listened.

For Damian, my friend thinks he thinks this way because Dick was his Batman for a while, and that's probably how Dick saw things. So yeah. That's what got me thinking this chapter.

[femmefitz]

I didn't recall Cassie and Tim not liking Eddie at all but I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. I should probably at some point reread teen titans '03 just to refresh my memory on stuff like that.

[morganbritton132]

I want a fic where Tim unwittingly becomes the rebellious kid after his dad dies because he has a hard time adjusting from his latchkey kid with absentee parents life to the almost constant adult supervision at Wayne Manor.

Like, Tim spent years sneaking around to do Batman shit and even when he got in trouble, if he waited long enough his parents would either leave town or forget about it.

Now he’s getting the ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed’ talk from Bruce for skipping school and supplementing half his meals with energy drinks and is just like: ???? Nothing has changed??

Tim gets hurt on patrol and Bruce tells him that Robin will not be out in Gotham the next night, and then gets mad when he finds Tim on a rooftop in his civies taking pictures. Tim is just like: Robin’s not out. I followed your order. What’s the problem?

Tim disappears for a few days following a lead and gets grounded for not telling anybody where he went (even though he did. It’s in the Batcomputer) and for missing school which he interprets as meaning that Robin is grounded (can’t patrol). So it’s confusing when he gets in trouble again for inviting Kon over to hang out because he’s ‘grounded’ which doesn’t even make sense because Bruce isn’t even home??

[brucewaynehater101]

Android Tim Drake AU:

Drake Industries announced they had successfully created realistic-looking androids that passed the Turing Test (and harder versions of it). They were planning to release commercial models to the public within twenty years.

To go a step farther, the Drakes wanted to ensure no one was skeptical of the androids' abilities to pass as human. Thus, Janet and Jack Drake had a healthy "human" baby by the name of Timothy Jackson Drake. The only individuals aware of this are Tim, Janet, Jack, and a small handful of engineers bound with a fuck ton of NDAs. They planned to tell the public when Tim was eighteen.

While Janet and Jack Drake are aware of Tim's ability to mimic emotions, they do not believe him to be capable of actually feeling them. This leads to Tim's childhood being lonely and neglectful. He is a robot.

At first, Tim is incapable of consuming human foods or using his touch sense. They fix his touch sense by the time he is four (and thus Dick is his first hug), and the food by the time he is six. He is constantly undergoing repairs to allow him to mimic the growth pattern of a child. It's when he is nine that he finally gets pain sensors to discourage and alert him to damage.

Tim is, for all intents and purposes, legally a human. When Janet dies and Jack gets into a coma, Tim stops receiving "growth spurts." He remains the same size even after Jack wakes up from his coma.

When Tim becomes Robin, he does not disclose his status with Bruce, Dick, or anyone else. Given that his parents treat him like an object, a machine, and incapable of feelings, Tim doesn't want to be subjected to that by his heroes either.

Instead, he gaslights the hell out of the Bats, villains, and other heroes whenever he gets hit.

["Tim! You got flung into a building. You are getting a medical exam."

Tim narrows his eyes as his eyebrows raise in surprise. "Bruce.... what are you talking about?"

"I saw you get thrown into a building. You're not getting out of this."

Tim glances to the side and then back to his mentor. He carefully places a hand on Bruce's shoulder. "B... Maybe we should have Alfred check you over."

Bruce blinks in shock as his brows furrow. "What?"

Tim purses his lips and shakes his head in pity. "It's okay, B. We'll figure it out. Whatever is going on, we'll fix it."

Bruce is so confused and concerned he doesn't ask Tim to get a medical check and agrees to be checked over instead.]

Tim becomes an expert at repairing himself because he can't explain to the engineers (most of who were let go after Janet died) how he got damaged. He spends a lot of nights alone in his room turning off his pain sensors (which isn't an automatic process and is difficult to reach)in order to fix the mangled hand, the gaping gash, the crooked foot, etc.

Kon, and conversely YJ, are the first to find out about his status (darn x-ray vision and super hearing). This encourages Tim to create artificial sounds within himself to fool Superman when they first meet. This also forces Tim to wear a long-sleeved uniform and a hood to hide from x-ray vision.

Tim finds comradery with Red Tornado.

When Jack wakes up from his coma, he originally treats Tim as he did before: an object. Dana, though, changes this. Jack can't explain why he treats his "son" that way and slowly morphs into becoming a good father.

It starts as only occurring when Dana is in the room and ends with a very bitter and antagonistic Jack when she leaves. He is initially disturbed by how much Tim is "faking" emotions, particularly because Tim learned to conceal his emotions from his parents as a coping mechanism (not that Jack knows this).

As they start spending more and more time together, Jack begins accepting the idea that Tim is capable of emotions. He starts caring and loving the kid as his own.

Because of this, Jack becomes fearful for Tim. When he learns that Tim is Robin, he is both jealous of Bruce's relationship with Tim and absolutely terrified for his son (what happens if people find out that Tim is an android? How would they treat him? Tim told Jack the Waynes don't know about his status. What if Tim gets injured too badly during a mission and they find out?)

This is why Jack initially forbids Tim from being Robin. There is way too much at stake for Tim if he continues (even though, theoretically, Tim can't die. Jack can keep saves of Tim and import him into a new body if necessary. They both don't want to do this, however, because Tim's body is his. It would feel weird and wrong to put him in another one).

While Tim is prohibited from being Robin, Jack bankrupts his company in the process of getting Tim rights. He bribes the hell out of judges, law makers, etc. to subtly put I'm rights for androids. He wants Tim to have full access to his inheritance, to freedom, and to everything humans can do. He doesn't want Tim to be without it.

Tim doesn't understand why Drake Industries is going under and is pissed at Jack for preventing him from being Robin. Robin is everything to Tim. It allows him to be treated as human. It connects him to so many people.

It's only afterwards, when Tim is finally allowed to be Robin again (and Jack has ensured he did everything he could for now for Tim's rights), that Tim fully understands how much Jack loves and cares for him.

Then Jack dies.

Tim is able to hide the fact that he's an android up until a Red Helmet asshole breaks into the Tower. While YJ whisk him away before the Bats can find out, Jason knows. Jason found out.

[insomniac-needs-a-fucking-nap]

This has-been consuming me for over a day so I'm foisting it upon you. Suffer as I do.

Anyway the au idea!

Tim is stuck in a life loop.

What is a life loop? What it says on the tin! Ok better explination: it's basically a time loop but the end point of the loop is finicky which means everytime the looper dies they returns to the age they start(think baby or little little kid age).

Back to the au idea-

Tim is stuck in a life loop due to one reason or another Gotham taking pitty or some cursed relic his parents brought home whatever. Bottom line Tim is stuck in a life loop, and he resets to 6-8 (basically, sometime before he started stalking the batfa, which fannon puts at like 9, I think?)

Anyway some changes that happen in this au!

1) while Tim is still smart he's not as genius as fannon and maybe canon puts him as. Instead his smarts all come from having lived the same timeline like 80 different times.

2) he mostly doesn't abuse this power (sometimes he will memorize the stock prices of lexcorp and then steal it from lex and gifts it to kon in a "Please date me" gesture. It only works some of the time.... look after so long he forgets if he's made a bond with kon this "run" so sometimes kon just gets lexcorp gift packaged to him from a stranger. Now if he still gives the stranger a chance and end up actually dating him....that's not your buisness.)

Anyway sometimes he joins the batfam, sometimes he doesn't, sometimes he forgets to and hacks into the system then forgets he's not a part of them yet so the fam just has to deal with this random vigilante that they can't get off their comms, or out of their system...

When Tim sounds like a sarcastic cynical old man it's because he basically is. By "run" like 40 he's also pretty sure he's older than Ra's. Still calls him a geriatric fuck but hey who really blames him.

He's still a disaster bby no matter how many runs he goes through. Constantly forgets the "life changing" events... aka jason's petty Titans Tower attack, Bruce's timeline adventures, his parents' deaths, Damian's existence like 90% of the time, etc. So he does still get blindsighted sometimes

It's also super important to me in this that no one else is in a life loop. Yes Constantine, or raven, or Dr fate could all get him out of it but mehhhhh it's fine, he wants to die if old age at least once before he even starts contemplating that. Also whenever the batfam discovers his a "timetraveler" or stuck in a time loop, to avoid the Conversation™️ He just offs himself and starts a new run full on fuck that shit I'm out style

@brucewaynehater101 , here's that au!

:D

[qcomicsy]

a list of funniest things jason todd could do:

slowly steal the parts of the batmobile and reassemble it elsewhere, then pull up next to bruce in his own second secret batmobile

become a lawyer and get joker setenced to the death penalty - bonus is that he completes college and gets a degree which bruce never did and alfred is proud beyond the gravethat one of his grandkids actually completed college

change bruces name to "free trires" in his phone contacts

call time the wrong name everyday, but it starts of sounding like a genuine mistake (tom, jim ect) and slowly gets further and further away from the original (jimothy, jeremy, dave, the dogs name)

dye his hair red, claim he was an original red head and then gaslight the family into believing bruce made him dye his hair black to look more like dick and be a replacement

come out as gay and claim to be the only gay member of the batfamily and when tim tries to say something to dispute it he just hits him with "who are you again? the computer guy or smthing?"

could also come out as poly and roll up to family dinners with more than one partner and if someone says something about it, he just says "mad cuz i got TWO more partners than you huh. lonesome bitch."

feel free to add on

LMAAAAOO THIS IS GREAT

Let's go.

Made a carbon copy of Batman and spread in strategic places on the Batcave, Tim's boat, Clock Tower, Duke's nest and Dick's house. (He almost killed them)

(One of Dick's colleagues saw it and he had to lie he was this die hard Batfanboy, his ego never recovered until today.)

Stole Tim's mug and placed on Damian's room, stole Damian's mug and placed on Tim's boat then proceeded to visit the Manor until he hard the scream of the fight he planted between them;

When he saw Bernard for the first time he said "Whoa Timmy you move on fast, this one is Terry right?";

Did a Tramp Stamp tattoo;

Slut shames Dick every chance he gets (this one is actually cannon);

Shot Dick's phone;

Every Christmas shows up with a different Outlaws member and affirms that's his partner

Dated an arrow to piss of his dad, when Bruce got over it proceeded to date a lantern instead;

Never told no one other than Dick he's actually in a stable relationship with Artemis because he refuses to swap Bruce's horrified reaction to a normal one;

Gave Bernard the shovel talk;

When he bumped with Selina after the (failed) marriage and she teased him on how he didn't gave her shit for it he just answered "No, no I get it"

Purposely brings Harley to bat reunions under the bullshit "She's my therapist" when the bats bother him, knowing his therapy with Harley only count when they're at her office;

Told every one he's Harley's adopted kid (actually Harley was the one to say that once when she was drunk and he just went along with it);

Exchanged Bernard's number to Kon's in Tim's cell phone and vice-versa;

Left his Mustache grow and showed up as Matches Malone in one of Wayne's Gala;

Lied he was actually a Titan but they kicked him out because Dick's is an asshole;

Stoled Signal's Patrol Lunch;

Stole's Spoiler's lunch;

Brought alcohol to manage going through their family gathering when he was caught he blamed on Tim;

(He thought about blaming on Dick but he knew Dick would just go along with it)

Everytime Dick, Barbara and Bruce call him he answers with "He's dead";

Introduced Tim to the Outlaws with "That's Robin they found him on the thrash"

Showed up to Barbara's job dropped a "Hi mom" as a greeting then proceeded to laugh his ass off while Barbara tried o explain to her coworkers that that tank of a man wasn't her child;

Told Dick Talia adopted him;

Told Talia Dick adopted him;

Told Damian that if Batman dies he's going to adopt him out of spite;

[scarlethood]

DC has the ultimate punnentt square of responses to resurrection in Donna Troy, Kon El, Jason Todd and Ra's al Ghul.

we've got Kon: dying gave him a clarity of purpose and resurrection hasn't changed that. he's more settled into himself as he's proven his character as a true hero. this is good for him and for everyone else.

we've got Jason: life was painful, dying was excruciating, but death was true lasting peace. someone resurrected him from that bringing him back to a shithole and he's going to make it everyone else's problem. this is bad for him and everyone else.

we've got Donna: a respected beloved hero who died in the line of duty and was honored posthumously whose resurrection was a result of the multiverse smashing together leaving her in a constant identity crisis because she's not exactly herself anymore. but she's a damn good hero. this is bad for her and good for everyone else.

we've got Ra's: this old man will not stay dead! he's got too much shit to do! like eco-conscious city planning (the plan is to blow up the city and let nature reclaim it). he reacts to resurrection like a grindset business man waking up from a nap he didn't plan to have. this is good for him and bad for everyone else.

[celaenaeiln]

What are some of your favorite Dick Grayson moments?

Please and Thank You 😃

My favorites will always be Dick being the canonical center of the DC universe 😌

Dark Crisis Issue #1

The greatest hope and the leader of the ages

Nightwing (2016) Issue #49

The Brave and Bold (2007) Issue #15

"And no one doubts that you're the best one to strategize a counterattack."

"Next to Superman, Dick Grayson is the one guy alive that every other crimefighter trusts."

JLA/Titans Issue #2

"--Founders of the original Teen Titans--"

Titans (2003) Issue #23

"It's a natural thing when Nightwing shows up. None of us are conscious of it, really--but we all look to him for orders."

Nightwing (2016) Issue #9

"You vouching for someone is worth its weight in gold. It was true in my world, and it's true in this one. In fact, of everyone I've met here, you're the least changed from the version I knew. Always confident, always kind, always cool. Dick Grayson--the multiuniversal constant."

JLA (1997) Issue #73

"It was sad at first. We were discussing the work--this work...and I asked him if he ever felt pride." "He didn't....then he stopped for a second and said...'The only time I ever feel pride is when I look at Nightwing. Sometimes I think he's the only thing I ever did right.'"

Batman: Urban Legends Issue #22

"We have a shorthand I don't share with any of the others, save for maybe Alfred. He's always been the one keeping me centered. Grounded."

"Dick's the beating heart of this family we've created, whether he realizes it or not."

Titans (2003) Issue #6

JLA (1997) Issue #71

Nemesis - The Impostors Issue #3

Batman!Dick - he's so freaking cool!!!

He's so amazing and cool and extraordinary and over competent. He's what everyone looks up to. He's collectively placed on a pedal so high by every hero and anti-hero in that everyone wants to be him or be acknowledged by him. People have died in his footsteps. Even the Titans, his own friends, hero-worship, look up to him as the peak of excellence and goodness.

Justice League of America (2006) Issue #50

Roy

World's Finest: Teen Titans Issue #5

Titans (2016) Annual 1

The paragon of rightness and justice of the world - Superman - thinks dick is the best thing to ever come into existence.

Whenever you read a comic, there's always some character that goes "Nightwing!" when something happens and another responds "Dude, he's Nightwing. He'll be fine. He always is." That's the amount of confidence heroes have in him to always succeed and excel.

Like Kon said - when he shows up, people automatically fall in line. It's like second-nature to just follow him.

Dick has that Charisma, the leadership, and the strength to hold the entire community together and as a result the world. He's proven it, he's done it. Whenever the Justice League evaporates in any situation - because this isn't the first time the JL have died/gone missing - everyone turns to Nightwing for order and direction.

Truly, he's the greatest.

[magenta-somethings]

trick or treat!

treat! (aka a snippet fic i ended up writing on the bus about tim asking yj for advice re: the huntress/nightwing/oracle situation)

“So, wait, Nightwing is dating Huntress?” asks Cassie.

“I don’t know what they’re doing!” Tim replies. “That’s half the problem.”

“And do we like Huntress?” asks Cissie.

“Yes—no—it’s complicated,” Tim replies. He’s doing a lot of replying and he doesn’t entirely like it—more out of an instinctual avoidance of being on the interrogatee side of an interrogation than anything else—but he had been the one to ask for advice. Which, in hindsight, may have been a mistake, but it’s one he’s now committed to. “I do like her. But she struggles with following Batman’s rules. I mean, we all do, but she struggles with the no killing aspect of it specifically.”

“But has she, like, actually killed anyone?” Kon asks. He’s floating in the air, cross-legged, with one of Cassie’s pillows hugged to his chest. It’s kind of cute—especially with his oversized Superman t-shirt, because, thankfully, he doesn’t actually sleep in his costume.

Not that Tim would ever say it’s cute out loud. 

“No, not since we started working together properly.”

Kon shrugs. “Then I don’t see the problem? Yeah, it’s majorly screwed that she’s killed but it also sounds like she’s changed." Tim might be imagining it, but he almost sounds wistful? "And being able to stand up to the bat seems like a point in her favour more than anything.” He pauses. “Plus, based on the picture you have of her, she’s a total babe.”

Tim just knew visual aids would be a mistake. This is on him for not being able to resist a corkboard. Cassie, acting on behalf of the team, throws a pillow at Kon. It does smack him in the face—he still needs to practice his catches—but before it can fall to the ground his TTK catches it and now he’s hugging two pillows and maybe that backfired slightly. 

Tim puts his corkboard face-down on principle. Huntress probably doesn’t even know he has the photo—her foot in the middle of kicking a bad guy’s face, her fist breaking the jaw of another. He doesn’t have much time for photography anymore, but sometimes he just itches to go out and capture Gotham and its heroes.  The photo of Nightwing, meanwhile, is him shoving his face full of pizza, a hand reaching out to try, in vain, to block the camera lens. 

Oracle, of course, is represented by her icon. He still hasn’t started thinking of her as Barbara.

“It’s not all about looks,” says Cassie. “Even if she is really hot.” She pauses. “Like, really hot.”

“Okay!” interrupts Tim. “That’s enough of that.” He did not need his friends calling his co-worker hot.

“Yeah, it really doesn’t matter,” agrees Cissie, and of course he can count on her to have his back. “Especially since Nightwing is way hotter than her.”

A part of Tim dies inside. Just shrivels up and expires, there and then.

“Okay, but Nightwing is hotter than, like, everyone,” points out Kon. That part of Tim is currently being cremated. “And cooler, and more badass. Or whatever.” 

“Most documentaries on 20th-21st century heroes talk about Nightwing’s attractiveness at least once,” says Bart offhandedly from the corner where he’s playing Polyp-mon. It’s one of his first contributions to the conversation. The part of Tim that died earlier is now having a funeral held in its honour. Suzie, at least, is still absorbed in the game. She’s spent the conversation peering over Bart’s shoulder, occasionally asking him to catch a specific polyp-mon. Though he doubts her additions would be worse than what is currently passing for advice.

“Guys, please,” Tim says, desperately trying to course-correct the conversation. God, it’s so much worse having them talk about how hot this co-worker is. “Stay focused on the problem.”

“Is that you like Oracle more?” asks Cissie.

Tim hesitates. Oracle is one of the most impressive people he knows, and getting to actually spend time with her—especially when it’s her teaching him about tech—is awesome, and she’s saved his life more times than he count or probably even knows about. But he’s only known her face-to-face for a short time, while he’s been fighting side-by-side with Huntress almost as long as he’s been acting properly as Robin. 

“That’s not what’s important,” he deflects. “What’s important is what’s best for Nightwing.”

“Right,” says Cissie. 

“What if they all just dated each other?” asks Bart

“You can do that?” asks Kon, at the same time as Tim says, “I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t fix it. In fact, I’m pretty sure that would make it worse.”

The silence stretches. 

“Well, good luck with that!” declares Cassie. “Now, who wants to watch Xena?”

Tim sighs, but let’s the hang-out move on. What’s happening with Nightwing, Huntress and Oracle is such a mess that there’s no way a bunch of teenagers are going to be able to untangle it, especially when most of them don’t have much experience in romance or life or both. Tim certainly doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to having non-messy relationships. He’s sure Dick will figure it out. Eventually.

Kon floats down next to him as Cassie and Cissie go looking for the VHS, with that grin on his face that Tim just knows means he’s come up with some terrible joke. “Look on the brightside! When the divorce happens, you’ll have not one, not two, but three Christmases. Not four, because I’m pretty sure Batman doesn’t celebrate, but three is still pretty good.” 

“Yay,” says Tim, voice as flat as he can make it.

[dairy-farmer]

I once read a fic but now can’t find it where Sasuke time traveled into his child self and seduced Itachi and they ended up having sex and Itachi felt so guilty he killed himself. The bad ending sucks let’s change that.

I could totally see Tim doing that with one of his brothers but please a happy ending!

ohmy god ohmygod that fic sounds incredible!!!! and also something seems so oddly fitting for an emotionally and mentally traumatized person like sasuke to do. and for tim? it fits perfectly.

tim suffers a lot of loss as a result of becoming robin and he never quite stops losing things. even when he gets back bruce. steph, kon, and bart. their relationships are never the same. tim can never fully bring himself to forgive steph and eventually she grows resentful of his lack of trust. bruce drifts further not just from tim but all of them. kon and him just never have a chance to bounce back and same with bart. it hurt to know they outgrow each other. tim takes more hits and more losses.

he feels desperatly alone.

the distance between him and dick is the worst. tim wasn't angry anymore, didn't hurt anymore over the things they both said and did after they thought bruce died. but he's still never able to bridge that gap with dick. dick who had always been there who had been the steady prescense and older brother that took his side when bruce would get on his ass about something.

the loss of dick hurts the worst. even when he tries dick never sheds the bit of awkwardness around tim like he doesn't know how to act with him.

tim has nothing. has no one. so when he's fighting some villain that booster gold and flash had given a strict warning about, maybe he's not being as careful as he could be.

but it doesn't matter. because what was tim trying so hard for anyway. it's not like anyone would be waiting for him when he awoke in the medbay.

only tim doesn't wake up in the medbay, there's no heart monitor beeping in his ear, no triple filtered air or the scent of sanitizer in the nose.

when tim wakes up he's disoriented, blinking brings a wave of vertigo and turning on his side in case he has to vomit makes it worse. tim clenches the sheets under him in a white knuckle grip as the room spins, powering through the dizziness for what feels like hours until it stops.

tim is small. his voice is squeaky, it hasn't even dropped. his hands are soft and his body is a little pudgy from his love of vending machine snacks. he's in his dorm room. his old dorm room from when his parents would still ship him off to boarding school, before he'd spent weeks begging them to let him attend the local public school in gotham so he could begin his training as robin.

tim's uniform is hanging over his desk chair. his desk is littered with candy and snack wrappers and half finished homework. textbooks are lazily spread around the room and tim's old posters of punk and edgy celeberties he desperatly wanted to be were being held up by thumbtacks.

tim is certain it's a hallucination. a very good one. but as his socked feet sink into the pukey colored carpet and he follows the sound of the other boys on his floor banging on doors and then running away laughing when it's pulled open, he becomes less sure.

tim is trained to spot false realities b4ought on by illusion, drugs, or magic. tim didn't want to brag but he was the best at it. he held the unofficial record among the bats as being the fastest to break out of the effects of fear toxin.

tim was just good at knowing his own mind. and tim knew...there was no way his mind conjured this up. the detail, the realism. things tim had completely forgotten about come rushing back as his eyes landed on them.

fuck.

tim lets himself feel the horror, the devastation, the pain, and hopelessness of the situation he's found himself in for a minute. just a minute.

and then he gets to work.

tim was not like the other leaguers, the other heroes, the other people that had fucked around in time, blind to the consequences.

tim was different. he'd weighed the risks. he'd had a week where he'd been in a bad spot mentally and gone through...everything. it helped that he'd had use of an 'odds' calculator that weighed probability in a time line and had used it...just to see if what he suspected was true. it was. it hurt his feelings but it gave him the answers he'd needed to hear. tim hadn't kept that device around. he'd dismantled it and then dumped every piece in a different city around the country.

so tim knows what to do. even knowing what it will cost him he does it because...it was what was right. tim would never be able to forgive himself if he allowed his selfishness to get in the way of what was right.

bruce had never healed from losing jason. it had broken him in a way that he'd never healed from despite tim's best efforts and jason returning....angry and hateful had made it worse.

the charity sheila haywood worked for was easy to contact. tim used the computers in the lounge of his dormitory to gather the financial documents to submit an anonymous claim about her embezzling. prison would do her good. maybe she'd even clean up her act but tim doubted it.

odds that jason todd would never have died as robin had he not gone to ethiopia?? 78.9334%

tim wasn't sure how the math worked out but the fact that jason had been killed outside of gotham never sat right with him. jason had the home field advantage in gotham. no one knew that city like he did. there was no way the joker or anyone would have ever gotten the drop on him if he'd been in gotham.

and so tim saves jason's life and bruce's sanity with the click of a button.

the next thing tim does is submit crystal brown's resume to a number of nurse manager positions in new york. she's qualified and capable with the right experience as a trauma nurse. tim doesn't even have to lie or embellish anything but his years of working closely with the hiring managers at WE certainly help her stand out. crystal caught a lot of flack from stephanie. and tim understood why. her drug addiction, her determination to stick by arthur, stephanie's career criminal father, and the fact that she'd never really protected stephanie from the worst the world had to offer. stephanie had made no secret about her resentment toward sher father. but tim didn't think she even registered the bitterness she held toward her mother.

gotham was poison. and some people never built a resistance to it. gotham weighed crystal down. it made drugs too easy to get so she could never break the habit, it made every probation or release arthur got impossible to hide from because the gotham system tracked family down for convicts so they wouldn't be on the street or clogging up the shelters. the stress of her estranged husband's release stuck her in an ugly cycle of drug use. but she'd never stolen them from her job and that's why tim makes the right moves for her.

new york was unfamiliar but similar to gotham. she'd be cut off from her usual suppliers and out of state so the gotham correctional facility and arthur wouldn't be able to reach her. she'd get better, get sober, heal, do a better job of being a mother to her daughter. steph would never become spoiler. she'd probably never forgive him but if things went right they'd never cross paths.

no spoiler meant no war games, black mask would never beat her to death, darla would never die, babs would never lose her clocktower, the civilians caught in the cross fire would never fall to gang violence.

odds of stephanie brown never becoming spoiler if she left gotham? 89.0005%

with his parents it was harder. if jason lived tim would never be robin...but that didn't mean tim would be able to stop himself from being something else. he was a vigilante through and through. but being one was what had made his father a target. it was his fault he had died.

odds of janet and jack drake dying if their son is a vigilante? 93.3333%

there was no way around it. being near him was a death sentence. and tim couldn't do that to them. but he couldn't just leave. people would ask questions. his parents would be pained if he disappeared and he'd already caused them enough hurt. it's not hard to track down the...thing that lives in the Andes mountains. the thing he and young justice had found a long time ago and left alone because it hadn't hurt anyone who hadn't asked for it. the thing tim had never made a report on because there some things he didn't trust bruce with and bruce had been...unstable back then.

tim has enough money squirreled away for the plane ticket. it's an easy process. the thing doesn't want money, has no use for it. all tim feels is a pinch as his life strands to his parents are severed. tim's baby photos in the family album, his first tooth, his basssinett growing mold in the attic, his parents memory of him being born. it fizzles to nothing like a tablet of alka seltzer dissolved in a glass of water. tim figures he had a few weeks before the school realized an extra student was in the dorms which was why tim had moved his things and an extra bedmat to a storage closet in the school attic before leaving.

when tim returns its only a few days before he finds out his parents have returned to gotham to file for divorce. he'd always figured they'd only stayed together because of him. once they started going through assets they'd probably find out about phil marrin stealing from the company while they're overseas.

while the other students are at class tim uses the computers to finish up his final act. he roughly knew damian's movements at this time due to past conversations. all it takes is some waiting and letting the league tech division believe they've successfully knocked out the cameras of a target's mansion. he zooms in on stills of damian's uncovered face alongside talia and other league members and leaves them in an 'automated' file for the police. he tips off a crooked cop who sells the images to big newspapers and the 'assasins caught breaking into ex-dictator's home!' catches like wildfire.

bruce will be intrigued about the league slipping up and will see the image of damian who looks so much like he did as a child.

odds of damian wayne being accepted by the wider hero community if he'd been taken out of the league earlier? 62.9855%

odds of damian wayne leading a normal life if he'd been taken from the league earlier? 78.5488%

odds of damian wayne being happy if he'd been taken away from the league earlier? 99.9999%

in the end tim does it for the right reasons. he'd like to believe that if his brothers were in his shoes they'd have done the same for him as well.

cassie, bart, and kon would still have each other. cass would find barbara again. helena would find a way to make it in gotham with or without the bats.

they'd be fine. they'd be fine without tim there.

but tim still needed to figure out what to do.

he essentially didn't exist. he had no family. no friends. he was alone.

it's on the announcement of bruce wayne having a child he didn't know about that tim finally breaks down.

he's won. but he's lost. he's lost. he's lost so much and nobody knew. he was a stranger. nobody. he was alone. alone. alone.

tim's not sure how but he ends up in bludhaven. his whole world is packed in a small backpack as he rides the bus to an address he's memorized several times over.

dick doesn't know him, won't recognize him, may even get angry at this child he doesn't know clinging to him.

tim doesn't care.

dick arrives home, after nearly a month away in space, to the realization that someone's been squatting in his apartment.

it could be any number of things that set off his finely tuned senses but the clues were a few specific things.

all of dick's shoes being lined up neatly by the entrance rather than a haphazard pile. one of the lined-up shoes includes a pair of light-up sketchers.

the fact that his dishes were washed and put away but a single mug was on the drying rack still dripping water.

the recently vacuumed carpet that still had lines from where the mouth of the vacuum had passed over it.

the extra toothbrush in a little cup by his sink along with the newly opened bar of soap sitting on the rim of his bathtub that had been scrubbed so well alfred would be proud.

but the thing that really drives it all home is the kid he finds sleeping on his bed.

he's a tiny thing, curled around one of dick's pillows and wearing one of his police academy t-shirts as pajamas. one of the kid's socks has been kicked off in his sleep and he's drooling when dick drops his bag and clear his throat.

turns out the kid had been living in dick's apartment for a little over a week after he left.

the whole thing makes dick feel like the rug has been pulled out from under him. normally dick would be nicer, kinder, gentler about the whole situation because a kid squatting in a stranger's apartment didn't exactly spell good things about his home life.

but dick was tired and stressed and pissed the fuck off because bruce apparently had another kid this one bloodrelated and he hadn't even bothered to tell dick about it. just like with jason he was treating dick like he was some sort of leper.

so maybe dick raises his voice a little.

but the kid doesn't flinch.

he wants to negotiate, he's willing to pay if dick lets him stay. he's already proven he can clean, he can cook too, will dick let him stay? tim can sleep on the couch, do the laundry, buy groceries, he can be useful. just will dick please let him stay?

it makes dick feel bad. the way this kid is borderline begging not to be thrown on the streets.

he can't keep the kid. in no world is that the right move. because dick wasn't equipped to take care of a kid and his life was already enough of a wreck as it was.

so dick lies. tells the kid he agrees to let him stay.

in the morning dick will call a social worker about the whole thing.

dick wakes up to the scent of pancakes and scrambled eggs prepared by little hands. dick has a moment of panic over the whole 'unsupervised kid + stove' before remembering the kid had been cooking in dick's apartment for over a month without burning it down.

dick tries getting some answers out of the kid but getting him to open up is like pulling teeth.

all dick manages to learn is his name.

tim, no last name.

and his age.

10. though dick is pretty sure he's lying about it given the slight twitch of his finger as he says it. impressively the kid has no other tells which means he's either used to people taking his words at face value or he lies A LOT.

dick tries six times to call a social worker but keeps getting interrupted by one thing or another.

somehow rather than calling about the child in his apartment he ends up at a grocery store with tim picking up a new gallon of milk to replace the expired one in his fridge.

tim walks with an odd sort of confidence he isn't used to seeing in children. he holds coupons clipped from dick's newspaper in one hand and sternly holds up loaves of bread, observing them for dents or imperfections, in the other.

his voice is soft and babyish but he speaks with a 'you should take me seriously' tone. it's odd to see coupled with his cherubic face that's wearing a red l.l bean jacket and light-up superman sketchers.

dick carries the small basket of groceries for tim and wonders how he ended up in this situation. he resolves to leave a message to the office of social work in the morning.

he does not.

days pass with dick trying but his attempts keep getting cut off, if he didn't know any better he'd think tim was sabotaging him by running interference.

after awhile dick starts getting used to his tiny roommate.

it's hard to think of tim as a kid, sometimes dick completely forgets he is. if he didn't keep bumping into tim because he forgets to look down to see him it would completely slip his mind.

but tim's company is...nice. he's easy to get along with. he's not put off by dick's bouts of anger which always manages to make him feel ashamed afterward because tim not flinching at someone throwing things and yelling does not say good things about what he's experienced in his short life.

tim is quiet and collected but with a surprising wit that manages to catch dick off guard when they watch some reality TV shows that dick pretends to his friends and family that he doesn't love.

when dick gets ready to go out as nightwing he always checks on tim who is curled asleep on the couch, breathing soft and even.

things are normal, easy.

until dick gets clipped by a gun and stumbles into his bedroom bleeding. he barely manages to reach the bed before the pain knocks him out. he comes in and out of consciousness, eyes blinking at the haze as he feels soft hands strip him and gently feel around his wound.

in the morning dick wakes up on the couch. his side is wrapped tightly and packed with bandages. there's an emptied syringe of lidocaine and an emptied bottle of sterile woundwash. dick's forehead is sweaty but not with fever. his suit is gone and he's in a fresh pair of cotton boxers. he spots tim out of the corner of his eye staring at him. his hands are covered in comically big yellow cleaning gloves and his hair is tied back with one of dick's bandanas. the gray mop bucket holding red stained rags are visible inside the soapy water.

tim's eyes are too big for his face and filled with an almost childlike look that disappears everytime dick blinks.

"your mattress is ruined"

that's all tim says about the situation. despite the fact that he most likely stripped dick of his nightwing suit and patched him up, pretty well by dick's standards, and there again came that throbbing ache at tim's unknown upbringing.

tim knows he's nightwing and somehow it doesn't change anything at all.

if bruce knew a random civilian knew his identity he'd be lecturing dick's ear off. which is why he doesn't tell him about tim.

tim is steadily becoming a permanent addition to dick's side. once he knows about nightwing dick starts talking more about that part of himself. his friends, allies, the stress, the burden, the loneliness. and tim looks at him like he understands and...it feels...it feels like he's a kindred spirit.

dick is talking to tim like he's an equal, another lost and dumb as fuck twenty-year-old and that's a mistake.

the winter hits bludhaven and it's a brutal one. the cold seeps in through the windows and floorboards. dick finds tim shivering on the couch and all but drags him to his bed where he's plugged in the heated camping blanket roy had gotten him for christmas one year.

dick returns to his apartment exhausted and cold and curling up beside a nice warm timmy that's like a hot water bottle brings a sigh of relief to his mouth. the comfort and weight of another person beside him soothes some desperatly lonely part of him screaming for attention.

in the morning tim helps him fix his gear. a manual in one hand that he seems to breezing through while muttering about everything wrong with his gear and wouldn't it be be better if it did this instead of this. dick just pats his soft head and slides him his mug of orange juice while sipping at a warm cup of coffee tim had put out for him

dick grows comfortable with tim, lots his guard down in ways he never does with other people. tim understands him. tim gets him.

tim is 10 years old and dick has to remind himself of that when his eyes linger on the soft expanse of tim's thighs peeking out from dick's shirt.

the realization that his eyes had been lingering slam dick with a discomfort so thick he almost wants to throw up.

tim is a kid. a kid, no matter how much he might act older, no matter how much dick feels like he understands him.

he and tim have been living together for a few months. there's a routine to them. and so dick knows that something has changed.

tim's hands reach for him more, they linger, he presses closer to dick in bed and when they stand next to each other in the kitchen. he sits pressed up beside him on the couch when they watch TV, watch him with big eyes when he comes out of the shower in just a towel.

dick knows a crush when he sees one. he knows he should be putting space between them, not letting tim press his soft mouth to the side of his throat when they sleep. he knows he shouldn't let tim do those things. but he doesn't stop them.

he likes the attention, the affection. he needs it, is so starved for it and tim is the only one willing to give it to him.

dick knows it's wrong, knows he shouldn't.

but dick is so lonely. and he and tim whisper together in his bed at night sometimes. and one night they're pressed close, eye to eye, mouth to mouth and dick tells tim that he's happy he's here with dick. and tim inches forward closing that one millimeter distance between them and presses their lips together. and dick doesn't stop him.

tim's little palm cups his cheek, small fingers stroking the skin as dick starts kissing back. tim's hand works between them, warm and small and drifting into dick's pants. it doesn't take much for dick to get aroused and hard as tim pumps his cock like he's done it before. tim is only in dick's shirt and some underwear.

they slide deeper under the warm covers. tim's shirt dress comes off and so does dick's. his pants are pressed down enough to expose his cock as tim wiggles out of little cotton panties.

dick is guiding their actions, experience making him take the lead as he gently presses a finger into tim's little cunt.

tim makes soft noises, whines, little moans as dick grunts and presses the fat head of his cock in, littering tim's chin and neck with reassuring kisses.

dick slides in with some resistance. the cunt around him twitches, hips under his palms writhe, tim whines in his ear.

dick is gentle, careful fucking tim. he works more and more of his cock in until he can slide all the way into tim in a single thrust.

he and tim fuck under the covers for what feel like hours. tim cums a few times around him. voice weakly gasping out his name while his cunt clenches around him. riding out his orgasm. dick cums too after awhile, the build up slow and satisfying as he lets out an 'mmn mnn' sound against tim's little tits.

dick cums deep inside, cum flooding into a little womb as his entire body clenches and tenses up.

the arousal and brain melting feeling lasts about two minutes before realizes what he's done to the small bodied child underneath him.

dick barely makes it to the bathroom before throwing up.

he's crying- sobbing actually, into the toilet when a soft hand touches his shoulder and dick half leaps out of his own skin.

he tries telling tim to get away from him for his own good but the words come out slurred and rough.

tim doesn't listen and comes closer, gentle hands touching dick's limbs and saying it was okay, that tim wanted it, that he liked it, he wasn't afraid of dick.

tim helps dick brush his teeth and guides him back to bed and dick, aching for someone to comfort him and tim doing just that follows him.

in the morning dick is miserable, self hating, and sick.

he fucked a kid. god he fucked tim.

the kid who'd been living with him, who trusted him, who had a misguided crush on him and dick had taken advantage of that.

he was a monster. he was worse than the people out on the streets who tugged kids into alleyways, at least they didn't mess with a kids mind and think they wanted it like he did tim.

tim who thought he needed to earn his place at dick's apartment. god what if the sex had been tim's idea of thanking dick for housing him?

dick could recall how tim had worked his hips back against dick, fucking down on the cock that pressed into him- that kind of move only happened with experience.

god. the thought that he hadn't been the first person to do this to tim made him sick. he'd found tim squatting in his apartment afterall, how many times had tim done that before meeting dick and how many times had people made him paying that way.

dick feels the bile climbing up his throat again as tim comes to sit beside him.

dick doesn't know what to say, what to do. he knows tim can't stay with him any longer. not after what he's done.

tim protests.

"do you think people not there won't do worse to me? I want to stay with you, i trust you."

"i raped you." dick replies quietly, weakly.

tim purses his lips.

"i wanted it."

suddenly dick feels anger and grief in equal measure come racing forward.

"you're ten years old! you can't want this! i'm the grown creep that took advantage of you! i didn't push you away even though I knew what you were doing!"

tim stares at him.

"you're still a good person dick."

a cry bursts out of dick.

"good people don't fuck children."

and there's no way around that. no changing or justifying it. that's what dick did.

"i haven't been a kid in a long time. i'm different, im...something else. but i'm not a kid."

and the thing is that dick believes him. nothing about tim screams child. he's just...tim.

tim is staring at him with those bug blue eyes. his pretty pink mouth parted. dick's shirt is hanging off his shoulder.

he's staring at tim like his eyes have the answers to the universe as he asks, "do you want me?".

the 'yes' in dick's mind is certain. he wants tim, he wants tim with him, sleeping beside him, he wants to bump into tim in the halls and wakeup to his cooking, come home from the police academy to his dinner.

but dick's body, his mind is telling him no. he can't have tim, not like this. it's wrong. it's not right. it's disgusting. he's disgusting-

but tim's palm is warm and reassuring. and tim looks so certain and sure it's like he can't see anything wrong with dick giving in.

tim always knows what he's doing. what to say. it's like he's so perfectly at peace and knows he can change anything unfavorable at the drop of a hat.

it makes dick feel...safe. safe in the way that dick used to feel when he saw batman as an untouchable man that the world couldn't reach.

so when tim asks dick to let him take care of everything, that it will be okay, that no one but them has to know about this.

tim's hands are as soft as his voice and dick leans in closer for comfort. and with his head pressed to a child's chest and little palms stroking his hair- dick agrees.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Kon and Bart came back to life together, they died within months of each other, and even though Kon was dead by the time Bart died Bart's video that was played at his funeral was speaking directly to Kon - telling him to not worry because the last time he had died¹ Kon did not handle it well at all and had a complete breakdown.

They came back to life together and Kon didn't know that Bart had even been dead because damn it all he was alive with his best friend and his cousin and he was tearing shit up just glad to be alive after being dead.

The world they both left had changed on them, everyone had grieved them in varying detrimental ways and the world never returned to how it was, but they had each other still.

They both still made sense to each other despite dying.

While their other relationships were failing (Kon and Cassie), and new relationships were not turning into something they thought it would have been (Bart and Barry) they had each other.

Then the whole fucking world rebooted, and Bart came back to a new terrain and a new family and Kon wasn't even in existence so he broke reality trying to get him back and he only found him by complete accident. He pulled him back into a world that had changed and moved on without them, but they had each other.

They are each other's lightning rods, they are soulmates, they knew each other in another life that was erased and always find each other again so they can face a new world together.

1.) Bart's scout died on Apokolips and Bart experienced that scout's death and felt everything he felt, so he did have a death experience that landed him in a coma for many days. During this time, Kon blamed himself entirely for it happening, went into a deep depression, and resigned himself that Bart was going to die.

[ectonurites]

Do you headcannon Cassie as lesbian or bi? And do you think her crush on Kon was comphet or genuine attraction?

personally, a lesbian Cassie truther 🫡

while I don’t think it was the actual intent as written, when I look at the way that initially Kon was a celebrity crush before she ever even met him—and we get her blatantly admitting after trying very hard to change herself into something she’s not to try to impress him… that she got so fixated on the idea of dating him in the first place because ‘everyone’s always speculating about Superman and Wonder Woman’

(Wonder Woman (1987) #153)

Nothing about the early Kon & Cassie stuff feels like genuine attraction to me, at least NOT on her end. It feels like her pushing herself into things because it’s expected/what she thinks she’s supposed to do.

And by the the time things maybe feel a little closer to romantic, they’d already formed a friendship (and BEEN THROUGH A LOT OF TRAUMATIC STUFF TOGETHER) and it just… to me, feels like the sort of thing where she thinks ‘he’s a boy that i do care about and love a lot because he’s one of my best friends, and since i’m a girl this must be like, romantic love, right?’

Plus the fact that the only other real love interest (pre-n52, n52 Cassie is very different) she has is… Tim when both of them are mourning Kon and that is the only reason they end up even trying to be together, (and it fails catastrophically)… yeah it doesn’t do much for convincing me she’s actually attracted to men. Tim/Cassie was both of them grieving Kon and trying to find comfort in one another because they were all they had left (especially after Bart dies too—before that even when he was alive, once we’re in the OYL era he’s not around them much anymore so they’re still feeling like they only have one another).

in conclusion:

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Don't Tell Batman

by Writer_loves_tropes Jason's mom just died a few months ago, and suddenly, at sixteen years old he has no parents, no home, no money, and is literally starving. Things aren't looking good for poor Jason, but then he stumbles across a man bleeding on the side of the road. He doesn't hesitate to help, because Jason always helps people in need. Good deeds are always rewarded, even in a grimy crime-ridden city like Gotham, and just like that, Jason's bad luck starts to turn around. Tim is living the thirteen year old dream as Batman's sidekick. As a little kid he grew up in Metropolis with an unhealthy hyperfixation on Superman - he created the #1 Superman blog when he was five, and had his nanny sew a tiny lead lined vest so he could take pictures of the hero without Superman hearing his heartbeat and stopping the little stalker. When his mom died he moved to Gotham and Bat-stalked Batman and Robin so hard that he eventually became Robin. Life is great, but when he stumbles into Crime Alley Medical Clinic, meets Jason Todd, and instantly gets a new best friend, life gets even greater. - or, Gotham finally gives Jason a break, he meets a Robin with no chill, and slowly gets absorbed into the Batfamily. Words: 3655, Chapters: 1/13, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Jason joins the Batfamily Late (maybe joins, maybe just hangs around as their cool civilian friend) Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake (DCU), Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Leslie Thompkins, Alfred Pennyworth, Jack Drake, other characters make surprise appearances but I don't want to spoil it Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd-centric, Tim Drake-centric (DCU), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Vomiting, Fever, Allergies, Medical Conditions, Jack Drake Being Jack Drake, Jack's a bad parent but actually redeemable in this story, Tim Drake is Robin (DCU), Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Jason Todd Joins the Batfamily Early, which changes a lot of canon and the timeline, Sicktember 2024, Jason doesn't become Robin but he still becomes a lifesaving hero, Jason Todd has Anxiety, Jason Todd Has PTSD, Tim Drake is Neurodivergent, Tim Drake Has ADHD, Dick Grayson Has ADHD, Fluff and Humor, Secret Identity, identity reveal but don't tell Batman, Rated T for language (Alfred would not be happy lol), Tim and kon are dating but they're both 13 so its just part of the fluff, tim is bi, Dick has dated everyone in dc with red hair, and Bruce may have a tiny crush on Clark Kent via https://ift.tt/0BmqUOP

[brucewaynehater101]

Tim falling in the time stream and YJ fishing him out happens post brucequest so Bart and Kon are alive which helps Cassie keep herself from being gaslit by well meaning members of the justice league who completely forget/ignore/disregard that Batman literally just came back from the "dead" and so Cassie can have Kon and Bart there to keep her from forming or joining another cult

Bruce's reaction depends on the writer and how they feel about Bruce though his family seeing him go into a depressive spiral at the loss of a kid in his custody and getting some partial insight into just how bad he may have been immediately post Jason and the stuff that Tim had to deal with would be interesting, and the family dynamics of dealing with Damian who no longer has the verbal punching bag and focus of jealousy that is Tim available

Ooh. Now I want to kill Tim off in a fic and watch the batfam implode as they deal with their grief and come to several realizations. I've got too many WIPs for that, though.

Anyways, YJ is out here gripping their sanity and determination to bring Tim home by their blood-stained finger nails. It's hysterical laughing, refusing to cry (because he's not dead), and chaotic adventures that aren't as fun without Tim.

When Tim gets back, all four of them (and the retired members) are in agreeance. Fuck the JL. Fuck the other heroes.

For the batfam, we'll say Bruce can't go out to find Tim for plot. The exact reason can be up to the dealer, but he either doesn't hear YJ's theories, or he can't go look for Tim.

This traps Bruce with the rest of the batfam.

Damian, a kid who still looks up to his dad, is suddenly forced into Tim's Robin's role.

He, at first, isn't too upset that Batman is being harsher. Surely, the man would know what's best. Perhaps he's just realizing that criminals should he punished harder (not personal beliefs, obv. Just speculation of Damian's mindset).

Then Bruce gets worse. And worse.

Suddenly, the twelve year old is frozen as he watches the brutality of which Batman is pummeling someone. He's watching as blood flings off of Bruce's gauntlets onto the alley floors and walls. He's hearing the victim pleading.

Damian's not scared. Of course he isn't. That's ridiculous....

He just kind of wishes his Batman, Dick, was there instead.

Damian also has lost his ability to insult Tim. While it's not uncommon to go months without seeing Drake, his family's reactions to Damian's usual comments have changed. Suddenly, everyone is yelling at him or getting angry for what he's saying. He knows Tim died (and gods does it burn that he'll never get to know the older man), but why is the family getting mad at him? They've always let the comments go in the past.

It's an unhealthy coping mechanism and mindset that Damian developed of continuously comparing himself to Drake and dragging the older man down. It's a bit late, but Damian realizes that he doesn't hate Tim. He might have even admired him. He was blinded by his need to feel wanted in a family that chose everyone but him (at least, that's how he thought it was).

It's cruel he only comprehended this after Tim's death.

Jason is still on the outskirts of the family. Yet, from his distance, he has a front row seat to watching Bruce rapidly descend into his grief. Maybe the man denies that's what Bruce was like when Jason died (because Bruce liked Tim more than Jason). Someone points out that any animosity Jason and Bruce have was post his revival (and honestly fuck them for that). They also point out that this Bruce, the spiraling wave of fury, is a much more supported and restrained Batman. Tim, as a thirteen year old, witnessed and pulled this man from his even worse grief.

Jason doesn't know how to process that.

Dick is older and closer. He has to grapple with the fact that he failed another little brother. Another one is dead.

He also has to watch his dad descend into grief all over again. He's closer than he was when Jason died, back when he was brimming with rage at Bruce and despair. He's getting a closer production of Bruce's unhealthy coping skills.

He has to explain to his siblings and himself that last time, when Jason died, Tim weathered this storm. Dick came around, but not nearly enough. He couldn't for his own mental health.

That doesn't assauge his guilt.

Cass :( Imma say she's out there helping YJ. She believes them. It doesn't change how much Tim's death hurts, but she holds onto hope.

Alfred has to watch his son mourn again. Alfred has to mourn his grandson and watch his son destroy himself again. Alfred has to watch the family implode upon itself.

He doesn't have hope that another kind soul like Tim's will be here this time around. He can only offer support as he hopes the family makes it through this time.

When Tim comes back, he's not angry that the JL didn't help or believe YJ. He's not even disappointed.

He's resigned.

He's not upset the Bats didn't do anything either.

Creating YJ wasn't originally about ensuring Tim had support he could count on. He's glad it turned into that, though. He wouldn't give any of them up for the world.

[gffa]

JUST ABSOLUTELY LOST MY GODDAMNED MIND ABOUT ALL OF THIS. For one, it's a little stunning to see it so clearly confirmed that Tim had romantic feelings for Conner, that the series may not have said it in those specific words, but that is very much exactly what was being said here. When I first read through this, I wondered if they were trying to walk a fine line of, well, we can't just say that Robin was in love with Superboy, but you can make it clear through context, but there's something else interesting going on here--that Tim doesn't say much of anything directly to Conner himself. Bart and Cassie both seem to know more than Conner does, they both seem to get Tim to open up to them a little bit more than Conner does. He doesn't want to talk about what "phase" he's going through when Conner's there, he doesn't actually say, "I was in love with you!" when they have their big fight, despite that even Bart's like, "You two only care about each other!", despite that it's very directly clear that Tim knows what he felt back then and why he kissed Cassie. There's a bunch of things going on in this series (the trauma that these kids are still dealing with, Cassie's issues with the team, Bart feeling like he's treated as nothing but comedic relief, the villain trying to put them all back in the boxes they were in during that time, despite not understanding who they really were, the meta commentary on how fans hate new characters/heroes and praise the old days, etc.) but specifically, Kon's trauma at having died and feeling like it didn't matter, everyone just sort of moved on and he doesn't really know where to go from here, versus Tim's still digging himself out of the absolute wreck that Conner's death left him with, that it genuinely destroyed him, that he felt dead without Conner, but that he became who he was today because of how all of them affected each other, that thinking of Conner brought him back, too. But he never says it explicitly to Conner. He never says, "I was in love with you." He won't even say that he's dating a guy now, he just slides right past that, when Conner's in the room. Conner does seem to pick up on that by the end--when the various new characters are shown by the villain, Tim sees Bernard and says his name, there's a moment where Kon just looks at him and seems to understand, but it feels very much like, ohhhhh, Tim's feelings for Conner aren't necessarily over. Yeah, he's dating someone else, someone he genuinely loves, but if he can't even say the direct words to Conner, if he can't even say that he's dating a guy to Conner, that makes me really think Tim's feelings aren't as resolved as he might try to project. His emotional climax in this series is still about how Conner shaped the course of his life, his heart and his soul, that the series shows the sheer amount of history and impact they've had on each other--not always wholly good, as Bart points out that they get so wrapped up in each other, to the exclusion of the others, but that's just more fodder for the tremendous scope of their effect on each other--I just kept thinking, man, this is the kind of epic relationship fodder that I would expect from a pairing like Lois and Clark or something! Not just that feelings were there, but that those feelings entirely changed how the characters' hearts reacted. It's still kind of a novelty to get any kind of confirmation that Tim was in love with Conner, that there's hints those feelings aren't gone, but also just how big their dynamic really is and how they really do feel like one of those supercouples that have an epic story to tell.

[mamawasatesttube]

When/how do you think Kon started like exploring his gender? Did having to change his look to fit in at smallville have smth to do with it?

you just walked into my askbox and went "i'm gonna activate tumblr user mamawasatesttube's trap card!" i hope you know this.

so YES, firstly. i do believe changing his look to fit in with everyone in smallville had something to do with it, BUT. it's not just a case of "oh small town = conservatism, homophobia, transphobia, etc". it has more to do with him having a civilian persona for the first time in his lifie, and not knowing how to do that. through all of his time in sb94, he's never really fit in with "normal people" - he was always held apart from his classmates in hawaii, then he simply never interacted with regular people while living at cadmus, and finally when he lived in metropolis in the suicide slum it was. well. not good.

so moving to smallville and having a secret identity to protect - not just his own but superman's secret identity - is a lot of pressure to perform a role he's never played before. it's not even so much about small town attitudes so much as it is just the contrast of what he's used to and the concept of "normalcy". superboy, the clone of superman who's a hero and a celebrity, has never had to worry about being normal and not drawing too much attention. conner kent, on the other hand, has to worry about that very much.

he takes out his earring. he cuts off the longer parts of his hair and lets the shaved part grow back in. he grows keenly self-conscious of being a "geek" and making too many references to this or that media. for the first time, he starts paying consistent attention to what other people think of him and how they talk about him. it's not the same as his identity crisis before, when he just was worried about being "cool" and got a makeover about it; this is about something bigger than him, something so much more important than just his reputation. he has to keep this secret. it's not freedom, at first; it's a burden he's trying to learn to carry.

that's part of why he resents smallville at first. it's a whole new set of rules and restrictions and boxes he needs to fit into. and he's used to rules and restrictions and fitting into boxes, but these ones are nothing like the ones he knew before, and the stakes feel so much higher. he misses his "freedom" from before, so he hates "conner kent" and what smallville represents.

at this point, he doesn't really know that his gender and sexuality are involved in this repression. he just knows the way he dressed before and the way he acted before get attention in a way he doesn't want now, and he assumes any feelings of ickiness and missing anything are just tied to his whole resentment of smallville. it doesn't click for a long time. he just straight up doesn't clock that he has any gender-related feelings outside the norm, and he doesn't register any of his attraction to guys as attraction. he's deeply in his "overinvested straight ally" phase (think of his interactions with hero cruz - defending him from sparx and telling her homophobia is Not Cool!!).

and then he dies.

to establish a core part of my feelings about smallville... as someone who grew up queer in small town america, i am Deeply critical of everyone who dismisses rural areas as entirely conservative, intolerant, and bigoted. these people definitely do exist in rural areas, sure, but they are by no means the only ones (and they also very much exist in urban areas, too). to that end, i don't think smallville is just a ~homophobic little town~ where kon is miserable in the closet because of external pressure.

i do think kon does languish miserably in the closet for a time. but it's a lot of internal pressure and identity issues at play, not just the worry of homophobia. he spends a lot of time introspecting after his resurrection, learning to love his life with ma; it's during this time that i think he starts to actually realize his feelings about himself are queer feelings.

one of my personal favorite headcanons is that the first person he ever admits any of this to (first that he thinks he's into guys, bc that's the first one that he actually puts together) is hero cruz. hero is definitely the friend who's been out the longest, and very possibly (though ofc this can depend on personal hcs!) his only friend who's out at this time, given that he and cassie Just broke up.

now a major reason he struggles in the closet here is the idea that being queer as conner kent would mean deviating from the "normal" as conner kent. and conner kent is supposed to be a very normal guy, to fit in and fade into the background, to not draw attention. and that's his major hangup. it's easier to consider if superboy could come out than for conner kent to come out, because superboy has never been normal. he's always been set apart. but conner kent? conner kent has a vital secret to keep. he doesn't want anyone looking at him.

he finds it harder to accept queerness as a civilian than as a hero bc as a hero he's already "weird" and "alien" (literally), right. he can be loud and proud and obnoxious there and it doesnt matter! but conner kent is supposed to be ~normal~ and not like kon-el. conner kent is keenly aware of everything that makes him not fit in, and for a long time those things bring him uncertainty and shame because he is still struggling to try and figure out how even being a civilian works, let alone living a civilian life that's """abnormal""". it takes him a hot minute to work through this.

and then senior year, there's rumors going through smallville high because this one guy wanted to bring his boyfriend to prom but the school prom committee head teacher wouldn't sell a couple's ticket to two boys who are known to be dating despite selling them to plenty of girls who say they're just going as friends, and now a bunch of students are protesting by getting same sex couple's tickets and insisting on going actually as couples, and of course kon has to join in on that, he will always stand up against injustice even as a civilian...

...and one thing leads to another, and conner kent finds himself making out with simon valentine in the back corner of the dance hall, and they crown him prom king despite it (or maybe because of it!) and he's stunned because he didn't know he was popular (because he's kind, and loved, and funny, and good) and he's still popular despite clearly being into men now, and it's not a bad thing in everyone else's eyes, and oh? that was allowed all along?

and it's freeing.

that's the first step to exploring gender. first he has to let himself admit to being queer at all, and admit to being okay with it rather than needing to repress it forever, and it's kon. of course that only happens once he can use "helping someone else" as the reason.

NOW back up a large step. there's a second component to all this i haven't dug into yet, and it's about fashion.

more to the point, it's about ttk. one of my Favorite hcs is that he practices it via fibercrafts, even before his death but especially after. first crochet, then knitting, then bobbin lace, slowly increasing the number of moving parts he's working with; he ends up making a lot of lace.

ma uses some of his little lace scraps as bookmarks. he makes a bunch of doilies and then table runners. it's genuinely great ttk practice, but really, they have a lot of lace. so kon starts learning to sew, so he can start making lace-embellished tablecloths and then some simple circle skirts and things for ma. they sell some of them at local farmers'/crafters' markets.

and kon starts wearing some of it himself. at first he's really self-conscious, but... it's something he made, and he's proud of it, and it does look really good, so. fuck it. he and ma can go to do groceries wearing matching skirts, right? (circle skirts are easier to sew than pants, okay. pants have so much more going on. he's still teaching himself, okay!!!)

it takes him a LONG minute to realize that maybe some of the "oh, i do look good in this!" feelings might, in fact, be gender euphoria. as in, he doesn't realize it until after he starts unpacking his sexuality feelings and going ohhhh. conner kent is actually allowed to be queer and that's okay. only then does he realize that uhm... maybe conner kent is, like, extra queer. like, turn up the dial and add more spice.

with time, support and encouragement from friends and family, and some exploration, he gains more confidence in exploring presentation and actually thinking about gender. he doesn't really care that much about pronouns, but he Does hate being confined to traditional masculinity - he does enjoy being masc sometimes, but he hates the idea of having to fit in it as a box. he's much happier getting to flit around from masc to femme to all sorts of places in between. he finds it freeing.

okay i have rambled so much. this is more or less my idea for how the overall arc of kon exploring queerness goes, but im sure ive forgotten bits and pieces and will remember them within like 5 minutes of hitting post. but here we are here it is ive been typing on and off for like an hour now so im cutting myself off. there it is. my kon gender and sexuality thesis.

oh one other thing. also he loves to be young justice's babygirl. okay im done now