#damien also learns about tim getting claimed early and is at very least interested

[lichen-ash]

Sentient Gotham - Claims

In an AU where gotham is sentient, I think Tim would actually have quiet a strong connection to it.

Obviously Bruce has a strong connection to the city- it's in his blood and spirit. But, I think within the bats Tim would have the second strongest.

For as much as Bruce is gotham, so is Tim. Sure, the Wayne's have done a lot more from the city, but I don't think Tim's linage is why he would have such a close connection.

Tim's spent more of his childhood - and teens - in the city than Bruce. Especially when it comes to the darker parts of gotham.

Bruce was off training for most off his teens (I think? my sources are mostly fic) and the majority of his younger life is Bristol, the slightly nicer suburbs.

Tim was mostly in Bristol too, until he started his photography (stalking) of the bats when he was eight. And Tim likes hanging around the rougher parts of the city. He'd follow the bat, yeah, but he'd hang around places like crime alley and the bowery because he likes them. I like too think he'd come around during the daytime as well- he already knew some of the people.

By the time Bruce adopts Tim, he had already been claimed by the city. The rest of Bruce's kids didn't get claimed until he took them in, and still.

It took a while for Gotham to acknowledge Dick- he was foreign, and not gotham at all. Probably around 11 or 12 was when he was claimed.

Jason got claimed much faster. It hadn't even taken a half a year before Gotham had claimed him. (He was left without the feeling of that claim for a while after he was revived. He gets it back eventually, once he re-accepts his place in the family.

Tim got his either right before, or soon after Jason died, I think. Before fits better, I think. When Bruce finds out Tim's already been claimed by Gotham, and, at the point he realizes, probably related to the Titan Tower thing, that it's so intense. His other kids had brought it up to him when they got claimed, so he assumed Tim hadn't been, but in reality, he just claimed before he was even Robin.

Cass gets claimed a little before she gets adopted. It helps. And, she fits in well with Gotham and it's shadows, after all.

Damian gets claimed almost as soon as Gotham learns of him- the first time he enter Gotham to find his father. He asks Dick about it at some point, but also partially assumed it was just part of Gothams supposed cursedness- Taila had been very sure of the city being cursed.

Anyway, I like Tim, the idea that he spends more time in Gotham, true Gotham, not the suburbs- and that that's made him have a closer connection.