Tim has noticed something odd, about the Demon Brat.
Sometimes, the Demon Brat would look to his left, as if to start a conversation, or as if anticipating someone saying something, only to freeze. Just for a moment, a half second, because nobody was there, before looking away with painful expression.
Months later, Tim decided to stand there, just to see what would happen. The brat didn’t look at him once, and Tim found that curious, and odd.
Another odd thing about his new, murderous brother, is that he refuses to look into the mirror. That’s not true, exactly: he would look in the mirror for basics, for necessities.
Tim realized, months of observations later, that the brat didn’t look himself in the eyes.
Strange.
Tim had asked him, once, why he didn’t. As expected, all he got was a “It’s none of your business Drake.”
But that didn’t stop Tim from wondering. Tim is, if nothing else, curious to a fault and persistent to an illegal degree.
And so the strangeness would continue, and Tim would wonder.
The brat would look to his left, pause, and then look away. He would deftly avoid mirrors, and when asked why he would sneer and avoid those questions, too.
Until he didn’t.
Until he came back to the Cave battered and beaten, some dreary autumn day, the Demon Brat unusually sullen and quiet and off his game. He had sat through the lecture Bruce had given him, and sat through the quiet reaching out from Dick, and sat through the cajoling teasing meant to rile him up, to get him to say or do anything per the norm, with an unusual aplomb.
The brat apologized, said he was fine, and ignored the rest. He told Bruce he wouldn’t patrol tomorrow, and would stay home from school, because clearly he wasn’t feeling well.
It was like Damian wasn’t there, fully.
So when Tim saw that the brat’s door was open, the next day, he peeked in.
Of course he did.
And there the brat was, sitting in front of the full length mirror he usually had covered with a cloth when it wasn’t in use, reaching up and staring directly into his own reflection’s eyes.
“Demon Brat?” Tim asked, stepping in and concerned about the look in the other’s face. There was no answer.
“Damian. What’s wrong.” Tim stood behind the boy, watching as Damian touched the corner of his own reflection’s eye.
“The color’s wrong, Drake.” Damian finally said, matter of fact and almost broken, absent-minded.
“What?” Tim asked, trying to see what he was talking about. Nothing was wrong, nothing was changed. Damian met his eyes through the mirror for a long moment, but Tim didn’t understand.
“The color.” Damian reiterated, looking at his own reflection again.
“The color? Of what?” Tim and Damian were never close, not really, but he was starting to feel like something was slipping away, in this moment. Damian dropped his hand, and finally looked away.
Without answering, the boy got up and carefully draped a cloth over the mirror, ushering Tim out of his room silent as the dead.
“Leave me be for today, Drake.” Tim reached, opened his mouth to try and say something, because something was wrong, but what?
But Damian simply shut the door softly.
The sound of the lock engaging felt strangely, and utterly, final in a Manor full of lockpicking detectives.
Tim laid a hand on the door, and mourned.
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stan twins the canon cptsd brothers i will always think about all your unaddressed issues that would make perfect plot fuel for your spinoff
and also the whole 'stan getting that poem by bill via a website which contrasts with bill getting one from the axolotl via a website' foreshadowing thing
like idk i would love something like su future but like more optimistic, aka not an accumulated breakdown that has to be mostly resolved off screen at the end :/// but something thats being kinda addressed throughout? (although would love to see one of them turn into a monster thats always fun lol)
stan having severe issues from his dad and those years of being homeless that we keep on getting more info on but never really getting confronted on (the drifter catalogue and tijuana incident...), him being completely alone for like twenty years when running the shack before soos comes along to the point that 1998 is noted as his low point, and him not really learning about bill+what he did to ford until ages after he killed him if he ever did get the full context
while i think amnesia and everyone seeing him as a hero actually helped with stan's 'i'm a worse version of my brother' thing its still a lingering issue too and we now got him being insecure over his own hands
ford being immediately thrown from 'being tortured by bill' to 'being stuck in the multiverse and being chased by bounty hunters constantly', him fully expecting himself to die when destroying bill, and him only now being safe for the first time in 30 years ....relatively safe, he's still in constant danger because of course he is
idk in the end the series wants them to be happy and they deserve it, its why i wasn't too worried about the book being like 'ooh bill is back!! and the book is haunting ford' thing cos i knew they'll be ok
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Do you ever think about how many times Din was probably misunderstood throughout his life because of his helmet? How much pain he must've been in when people's opinions of him did not match the man beneath the armour... I can't even fathom how many times a small gesture or something he said was misinterpreted because of his appearance...
Imagine him trying really hard to fix it at the start before eventually giving up because it was too hard and just resigning himself to barely speaking, not wanting to be known by others after many bad experiences. I think that explains a part of why we find him so isolated and distant at the beginning of The Mandalorian.
Encountering Grogu really changed Din's life in so many ways... the child not only gave him a purpose other than bringing in the next bounty and running from the past, but Grogu also made him WANT to try and regain that connection with others that he had been missing for so long. Just contrast how little he speaks in the early chapters to how talkative he is to Grogu at the beginning of season 3 as he educates him about Mandalorian culture and history, it's such a monumental shift from who he was at the beginning.
I want to hug him tightly, he deserves the word.
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