#it’s by silverwhittlingknife I think

[bonemeal12]

He’s a freak in the spreadsheets

[umbrellacam]

Have any Dick & Tim fic recs for us poor unfortunate souls? We’re hungry for brotherisms

I feel you anon, there can never be too many Dick & Tim brotherism fics! 😊 I had a great time wading through my bookmarks to pull some recs (and inevitably lose a bunch of time re-reading things lol), so thanks for the ask!

so I've organized the below first by general time period, then categories like Canon Divergence and Alternate Universe. I've also limited myself to fics that have a clear focus on Dick & Tim as the primary relationship (although some of them include other characters or ensembles).

Hope that you find something new that you enjoy, friend!!

A Thousand Ninjas, by @silverwhittlingknife (100k WIP series) - Silver's fantastic epic that covers the span of Dick and Tim's relationship in preboot canon. Some of the individual works are WIP, others are complete - just read them all, okay, you will not regret

Dick and Tim, through the years: from Lonely Place of Dying, through Tim's Robin years, and beyond Red Robin. "Watch me on the trapeze, Tim. I'm going to do my act - 'specially for you." (B 441) "Who the hell are you?" (NT 60) "Dick Grayson is my brother. My best friend." (R 181) "You're my equal. My closest ally." (RR 1) "I can't see him. You can't see him. But I know Robin. And Robin's always there when you need him." (TT/O Secret Files) "You're my brother. You'll always be there for me." (RR 12) "And then I think... no... it's for Tim. For him, a thousand ninjas is just the start of what I would do." (N 138)

EARLY ROBIN TIM

Brothers Have the Worst Timing, by @havendance (1k) - god I love Tim just popping up randomly to be the most annoying little brother ever, and frankly there's no better time for it than during Nightwing/Huntress, when he can bother both Dick and Helena at once.

Tim crashes Dick and Helena’s ill-advised one-night stand; this is awkward for everyone involved.

A Long Fall with a Sudden Stop, by @eggmacguffin (5.1k) - Interesting and appropriately awful take on fear toxin, with a relatively young Robin!Tim having to manage an incapacitated Dick. Also good Dick & Bruce content.

Dick Grayson was not and never has been afraid of heights. However, there were moments, moments in the wake of tragedy, in the midst of doubt, where he was deathly afraid of falling. — Dick Grayson. Fear Toxin.

Little Brothers and Stupid Ideas, by lazarusfell / @gretahayes (2k) - Tim breaking into Dick's apartment to be a neurotic little dork at him, my beloved.

Dick doesn't think he'll ever get used to his little brother's idiosyncrasies. It's like whenever he thinks the kid can't get any weirder, he decides to just blow Dick out of the water with some new abnormality. It's endearing.

LATE ROBIN TIM

lifeline, by me c: (~700) - just a ficlet, but I'm still fond of it, so. set nebulously post-Infinite Crisis, after both brothers' Really Bad Year.

At a low moment, Dick thinks he needs to catch Tim, and he just - can't. Tim catches him instead.

a soft place to land, by unchosenone / @bitimdrake (3k) - set during the OYL cruise around the world; gorgeous brotherly feels and support and absolutely adopted as personal canon.

Tim rubs the back of his head, trying to affect a joking tone. “I knew I should’ve just gone for the new escrima sticks.” Dick is ready to be a good big brother to his grieving little bro. Tim flips the script.

ribbons just beyond the eye, by silverwhittlingknife (5.9k) - you know how Dick and Tim had their island adventure in NW #143, and afterward they had to swim out several miles to where they parked the Batsub because the remote stopped working, and Dick talked about making a pit stop in Palermo to visit a "great little Italian restaurant that serves a great ciambellone for dessert"? Well, this is what happens when they do, and it's lovely.

Two weeks after their fight over the Lazarus Pits, Dick and Tim go on a trip, and Dick confronts some old memories.

RED ROBIN / BATMAN REBORN (Dick!Bats) ERA

Brothers, by KelpieCodyne (8.5k) - a refreshing and measured look at the divisive events of Red Robin, from Dick’s perspective. bashes no one, hurray!

Bruce is dead, Dick is Batman, and his brother is floundering. In a desperate attempt to save Tim from himself, Dick tries some tough love. It does not go the way he hopes. Or - Red Robin's 'BruceQuest' through the eyes of Dick Grayson.

We've Taken Different Paths, Traveled Different Roads, by Sohotthateveryonedied (2.3k) - brothers 🥺 even in the middle of their Brucequest fight, Tim can show up out of nowhere for a middle-of-the-night pajama party and heartfelt talk.

Dick is suddenly very awake. He bolts upright, staring at the dimly lit figure. “Tim?” “Hi, Dick,” Tim whispers. He isn’t in uniform for once, instead wearing a pair of sweats and a shirt that Dick recognizes as one of Bruce’s. Dick was wondering where that went. “Jesus, kid,” Dick exhales, an uncertain mixture of disbelief and bafflement. “What are you doing here?” Tim and Dick are still in a fight of sorts, or are they? Have they made up yet, or is the terrain still cracked? Dick wants so badly to ask, but just having Tim in the same room as him is already more than Dick could have hoped he’d get.

a conversation at 4:30am, by xscintillate / @scintillyyy (4.6k) - Dick having a nightmare that Tim is dead and checking all of his regular napping spots with increasing paranoia to prove that he's alive, my beloved. such a great look at the brothers, suffused with all of the love they still share post-Brucequest.

dick & tim, post RR#12 because sometimes having a conversation might end up going nowhere, especially if it's one you're not ready for, but it's enough for now

the best of both of us, by @ashynarr (7k) - a lovely pair of conversations between Tim and Dick, working through their conflict in RR and reconnecting after everything.

They used to have a routine, involving shitty take-out, shitty movies, and a bit of shit-talking. Dick wants to restart it, after everything. Tim's not sure if it's that easy. Or: After Harkness' arrest, Dick and Tim have a heart-to-heart. It helps, a little.

there's an endless road to rediscover, by @zahri-melitor (1.2k) - post-RR fic where Dick and Tim skip right to affectionate violence as a gesture of reconciliation, which is so delightfully in-character, tbh.

Sometimes the only way to show that you've moved on and forgiven each other is to take a flying tackle from the ceiling. Dick and Tim know each other's demonstrations of affection. Damian doesn't.

When it Rains, by vellaphoria (5.8k) - an exploration of Tim and Dick's (most recent) experiences with sexual assault, so warnings for past rape. really excellent.

After Cass and Tim return from Paris, something seems... wrong. Dick tries to find out what it is.

nightwing and red robin hit the town (or do they?) by xscintillate / scintillyyy (7.2k) - hilarious reversal of the "Tim is sad Dick never has time to hang out with him because Eldest Daughter Syndrome" trope.

Dick just wants to hang out with Tim on patrol, like old times. It's a shame that everyone else seems to have the same idea. It's fine. Dick'll get him next time.

POST-FLASHPOINT / MODERN ERA

so won't you stay, won't you stay (with me?), by dizarys / @dizaryswrites (1.4k) - beware the ANGST, this one really stomped on my heart 😭 but it's lovely

Dick seized his hands, holding tight. A long moment of silence passed. Tim kept time with Dick’s breathing as it steadily returned to an even pattern. "I'm proud of you for asking for help." His big brother whispered. "But I haven't." "I dunno, TimTam. Breaking into my apartment seems like a cry for help." Tim's having a hard night. So where else does he go but to his big brother's apartment? Whumptober Day 12

go past where our feet could touch, by redboard (Ink) / @upswings (1.5k) - this is such a lovely fic about the brothers having feelings about their long-gone mothers, and Dick seeing himself in Tim and processing things in his own life by being there for him (without sharing his own issues, at least that we see, lol). perfect characterization.

Today Tim was calmer, almost cheerful – as if it was any other Saturday afternoon. But it had also not escaped Dick's notice that Tim had gone on a universe-hopping trip to rescue Bruce, and one of the first things he'd done upon returning was, apparently, unbox a lot of photos of his dead parents. "How was the multiverse?" Dick asked.

WE'RE NOT DEAD (WE WALK)., by orpheusaki / @damianbugs (4.9k) - fantastic whumptober fic. the boys go through it, by god.

Dick is overwhelmed for a moment, filled with clarity and inexplicable confusion as he blinks around him bleary-eyed. There's the familiar itching covering his skin, tiny grains of dark sand invading the cuts that have torn through his suit from the crash. He coughs, throat dry and closing with every gasp of harsh air. The desert is as unforgivable as the last time he was here, an empty expanse of dunes that might just be a trick of the heavy sun against the back of his neck. Dick pushes the panic away behind his eyelids, savoring the darkness before opening his eyes again. Immediately, he sees Tim. Unconscious, hunched over, covered in blood and sand Tim. (Dick and Tim get stranded in the desert, Dick is always moving forward.)

CANON DIVERGENCE

long distance, by unchosenone / bitimdrake (1.7k) - A Red Robin era AU where Bruce is actually dead.

Six months—months—radio silence, and Tim is calling him. Dick doesn’t even know where Tim is. He scrambles for the phone.

Holding the Line, by Birdchild / @birdchildsnest (6.6k) - part 2 of the series and the first part is just as good, but more focused on the Dick&Tim&Damian relationship as a whole. In this, Dick is plagued with nightmares about the people he loves falling, and struggles through the resultant insomnia.

"Dick was used to anxiety dreams, even (or especially) ones about falling and failing to catch people. They weren’t pleasant, but he understood that they were his brain’s way of working through buried fears. The garbage disposal of his subconscious. But these dreams were more like the hyper-vivid nightmares and thrashing night terrors he’d had after his parents’ deaths. And they were constant. Every time he closed his eyes. He didn’t just feel rattled when he woke up; he felt flayed open."   (This will make more sense if you've read "Redrawing the Lines," but it takes place before "Season of Darkness, Season of Light," so you don't need to have read that.)

now the little red lighthouse knew that it was needed, by xscintillate / scintillyyy (22k) - beloved Tim never becomes Robin but shows up in Dick's life and becomes his brother anyway fic of my HEART

"Kid," he says, frustration bleeding through, "I don't know who you think I am, but I can promise you, I don't know anything about any companies. You might want to call the police about this, instead." "No, that's just it," the kid says, "I can't trust the police. I think they're in on it. I think I might get arrested soon. I need—I think I need Nightwing's help." in an alternate universe where jason survives ethiopia--dick and tim still find each other.

this also has a WIP sequel, so the little red lighthouse tried to shine once more, which is equally excellent

well, what would you do if you went back in time?, by xscintillate / scintillyyy (3.5k) - yeah, in retrospect Tim's smug know-it-all tendencies would become exponentially worse if he traveled back in time and actually knew everything, lol. of course he takes the opportunity to be a Pest to both Dick and Bruce c:

tim goes back in time, and prevents certain things--but still makes his appointment at the circus with dick and is kind of a menace (aka: snippets from an au where tim goes back in time and makes it so he doesn't become robin...but he's still just having fun going around and preventing everything he can think of regardless and making sure to bother dick)

the time you won your town the race, by silverwhittlingknife (4.4k) - technically WIP, but absolutely works as a (DEVASTATING) oneshot. It's been well over a year and I still have not recovered tbh.

He doesn’t know exactly what Tim would say. But he knows what Tim would do. Tim dies. Dick doesn’t take death for an answer. A Red Robin 12 AU.

the picture frames have changed and so has your name, by zahri-melitor (24k) - a fix-it it fic for Grant Morrison's 2009 Batman and Robin comic run, which infamously has Dick more-or-less forget that he's supposed to have a close relationship with this alleged "Tim Drake" guy. (Little brother who?)

So, in this fic, Dick literally forgets. Tim notices, and investigates. Also wonderfully highlights Tim's relationships with Helena, Barbara, and the Birds of Prey, and sometimes with Damian.

There’s something wrong with Dick. Tim thought everything was getting back to normal. Bruce was alive and back in their timeline, the Birds of Prey were once again operating out of Gotham, Dick had the city well under control as Batman and even Damian had been less obnoxious than usual. And then during a firefight at a warehouse by the docks, Tim was almost hit by a flying boomerang. And Dick never noticed. When something is wrong with your big brother, who else do you turn to but your big sisters?

Dizzy Edges, by Jojo_Squires / @jojosquires (156k WIP)

A Tim-time-travels-and-interferes-to-make-his-family's-lives-better fic which includes the whole Batfam, but is definitely centered on Dick&Tim and the weird itching dissatisfaction of their missing close relationship from the original timeline - which neither of them can even remember that they're supposed to have.

I leap on my email notifs and stuff new chapters in my mouth as soon as they come out.

Tim Drake didn't quite know what he was agreeing to four years ago, but he tried to make the best of it! Using notes from his past (future?) self, he (somewhat messily) tried to help everyone his other self cared for. Now, it's four years later and he can mostly ignore the second set of memories lying in the back of his brain. It'd be much easier if Dick Grayson would just leave him alone. If Tim believed in destiny he might actually think that the universe cared about what was lost. Dick Grayson has spent the last year feeling like he's veered off course. Something keeps itching at the back of his brain. He's missed some clue. Helena Bertinelli's promised to help him crack down on human trafficking, but Dick thinks her foster kid might actually be more help in that department.

First Priority, by avaya29 / @avayarising (6.8k) - okay so Jason does feature prominently in this one but also he's a hilarious outside observer to Dick&Tim's shenanigans. Also, GLUE TRAP.

As the door opened Tim quickly disabled another three separate electronic sensors in the doorjamb by swiping them with a device that looked a bit like a thumb drive. “Walk where I walk,” he said. He took a big step over the doormat, eyed the floor carefully, then took a careful skipped sidestep to another mat against the right-hand wall, where he removed his shoes. “What the hell?” whispered Jason, still standing in the open doorway. Tim pointed up. There was a net rigged up on the ceiling. “Pressure pads under the carpet.” “I repeat, what the hell? After Tim completely derails Jason's beatdown attempt by asking him for a hug, Jason's first priority is to get this touch-starved kid more cuddles. Tim's first priority is to avoid DIck's traps. Jason learns a lot about his brothers and what happened while he was away, and something about himself too.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Patchwork Siblings, by Raberba_girl (40k) - fluff and whump and we also get both Talon!Dick and regular!Dick being big brothers, which is delightful.

Years ago, young Dick Grayson was taken by the Court of Owls and made into a Talon. When Talon is flung into an alternate universe where Dick Grayson was taken in by Bruce Wayne instead, he latches onto the first familiar person he sees. (Or: Little Bat-stalker Tim Drake is understandably alarmed to find that an undead assassin has imprinted on him.)

5+1 Night's at Freddy's, by cowboymater (6.6k WIP) - okay so this is only the first chapter of an expected six, but it's already a wildly interesting and entertaining scenario with great characterization. my kingdom for 5000 AUs where young Dick and Tim are thrown together into Trials and Tribulations out of nowhere for their brotherly meet-cute.

The 5 nights Tim spent at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza with Robin and the 1 he spent with Batman, OR, this would be the coolest thing that happened to him ever if the animatronics were trying to kill them less, OR, the "Batman meets Freddy Fazbear" fic I found hidden under a loose floorboard in Tim Drake's childhood bedroom.

darling boy, by deitybird (335k) - Fuzzy and funny de-aged!Tim shenanigans, with Dick as his primary caretaker but the whole Batfam getting involved. Author pulls what plot, character, and relationship points they like and want to explore from varied canon (post-Crisis, New 52, Rebirth, Infinite Frontier, Batman the Animated Series, etc.) and fanon to build out that 335k of story, and it's a very fun time. Toddler Tim is such a gremlin ♥

His comm crackles to life. “RR’s suit is in a pile on the floor,” Jason says, voice grim. “But no sign of him. Something bad must’ve happened if he ditched it all.” “I wouldn’t say it’s bad, per se,” Dick replies, gazing down at the kid nestled against his chest. Now that he’s looking properly, he can see hints of his little brother in those small features. “But at least I can confidently say that he’s not dead.” Or: Tim gets de-aged to four. Dick takes care of him.

Under a Parent’s Wing, by IzzyMRDB. (39k) - YMMV on whether this will be your cup of tea, as this is an AU where Dick comes into a parental rather than brotherly role for a younger, AU!Tim, who is also autistic and abused. But it’s also delightful, heartfelt, and a thoughtful exploration of the complicated, difficult situation as given.

Also I would, no lie, read hundreds of fics based on the premise of kid!Tim discovering that THE Dick Grayson (aka THE ORIGINAL ROBIN) is coaching gymnastics classes and using his sneaky determined ways to finagle himself into said classes.

When Tim found out that Dick Grayson was a gymnastics instructor in Bludhaven, he quickly signed up. After all, learning gymnastics from The Nightwing himself is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Dick Grayson is more concerned at the obvious signs of child abuse he sees in one of his students. AKA Dick Grayson, as a childcare worker, is a mandated reporter who knows how to recognize child abuse in his students. Tim Drake, after a lifetime of fear and confusion, learns to trust adults.

[havendance]

Okay, I want to play too. Building off of @dustorange's post and @silverwhittlingknife's post

I think, how I would play this: the circus still happens obviously.

And then Dick dies when he's 16 in circumstances similar to Batman #408, where Dick is shot by the Joker and it causes him to fall to his death. (Dick has to die by falling. To me.) Bruce isn't able to catch him.

Bruce is obviously devastated. Going off of Silver, we'll say no Robin!Jason in this AU. Jason can get away with stealing the tires off of the Batmobile of an extremely grieving Batman. As a treat.

Tim is also devastated. I usually have Tim being 3 at the circus, so I guess he's 11-12 when this happens.

I think the fact that Dick was the only Robin in this scenario means that Tim is more reluctant to push himself as a replacement Robin. That and the fact that his HERO Dick Grayson died means I think that he's slower to act.

Eventually though, things get bad enough in Gotham that he does just because someone has to and he ends up as Robin. We'll handwave the details for now.

I think that Dick should get to come back to life during the Knightfall Saga. As a treat.

He comes back to Gotham just in time to see that there's a new Robin and watch Bruce get his back broken.

Tim's been Robin longer before Knightfall in this AU, so he's got a little more experience, but he's also 14, and while Bruce is lying in the Batcave and they don't know whether he's going to wake up or not, and he's fetching the medicine in that one comic, he runs into this unknown, edgy looking vigilante who blames him for Bruce getting his back broken and it's just everything he's been thinking to himself.

Dick sticks around in Gotham long enough to see that there's a new Batman and of course Bruce has someone else he can get to do that. Of course he doesn't need Dick. He runs off to go do like, black-ops vigilante work somewhere.

I think he and Tim do run into eachother once more before Dick leaves town though and Tim's like 'I know I'll never be as good as the first Robin, but that just means I need to learn everything I can' and tries to bother Dick into teaching him stuff because he can tell that this mysterious vigilante is way more skilled than him.

Dick mostly avoids Gotham, but I think they keep running into each other, coincidentally. Tim ends up teaming up with him during Contagion instead of Catwoman and they're both in Paris at the same time etc etc.

And eventually on one of these team-ups, Dick does a quadruple somersault and Tim sees it and everything clicks together and he imminently runs away because that's Dick Grayson and Tim has been talking up the first Robin all this time and it's a lot okay?

I think this is about when No Man's Land happens so Tim goes to go hide in Gotham and help out Batman and become a National News story and all that jazz instead of thinking about it.

But afterwards, Tim is ON THE CASE. I think he doesn't tell Bruce about this because if Dick hasn't told Bruce then he probably has his reasons? And what he was actually wrong? (Even though he knows he isn't)

And then, um, let's put the Dick and Bruce finally confronting each other during Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive because Dick comes back to Gotham when he hears that Bruce murdered someone because he doesn't want to believe it, but I think he also can't have that same bone deep belief in his innocence that he does in canon because of all the estrangement.

So he attacks Batman and demands to know the truth (without revealing who he is) and Bruce won't answer. Bruce also doesn't know how this mysterious vigilante knows he's Bruce Wayne/got accused of murder, so he low key suspects DICK of framing him, which normally he'd be too busy being Batman full time to care, but here he also recognizes some of Dick's fighting style so he starts investigating him to uncover the mystery.

Meanwhile, Tim noticed that Dick is back in town, so he's trying to recruit Dick to help him get to the bottom of this. He knows Dick's identity now, but he doesn't tell Dick that, he just drops various hints that he knows and hooks Dick up with a line to Oracle (who he has also not shared his conclusions with other than a vague 'there's something about him')

And hmm somehow this all resolves with like, Dick's identity getting out and him and Bruce talking face to face. Bruce is just so desperately amazed that Dick is there, meanwhile Dick still has various issues that are not resolved and it probably ends with Dick running away again and Bruce holding himself back from chasing after him like he desperately wants to. Because if Dick doesn't want anything to do with him then that's just his right because Bruce WAS the one who got him killed.

He does stalk Dick from afar though. Just without initiating contact. Tim and Barbara are more pushy about trying to hang out/talk with Dick in the aftermath.

To skip ahead, I think Bruce leaves Dick the Batmantle after he 'dies' as this last ditch attempt to share how much he loves and respects Dick.

And this getting long so I think I'll call it here.

[umbrellacam]

reply by @silverwhittlingknife:

COSIGNED you and i are probably the only two people in the world who care about this but we're correct. also, in b&r 10 dick mentions tim's found evidence when arguing with damian, so if tim's return hasn't happened yet then you have to imagine some kind of weird telephone game where dick found out about tim's evidence + believes him yet inexplicably doesn't tell tim so. they're bad at communicating but they're not THAT bad sdfsdfds

reply by @zahri-melitor:

EXACTLY

all the indications in the story are that Tim has spoken to Dick about the quest conclusions to some degree. I just reread it all for story research. Plus Damian needed recovery time between #9 and #10. It only makes sense to have RR first. To put it together the other way suggests Dick & Tim do not have a functional relationship at all, which…lol

also the RR storyline kicks off a month before the B&R one, therefore unless DC notes otherwise you should expect RR to occur first in the timeline*

*except for all the times DC does not follow this rule but it works as a rule of thumb

but I’m right, everyone back in 2009 trying to make Tim’s quest pointless are wrong, they even badged the B&R story as ‘The Return of Bruce Wayne Begins Here’, QED RR has to be ahead of this.

Love to be writing and then get distracted into a 300 word footnote explaining why actually you prefer Red Robin #9-12 to come before Batman & Robin #10-12 (2009), before remembering the only nerds who care about which way around these go do not need the footnote, and people who aren't aware of the debate will not realise it exists from what is written, so it's essentially superfluous.

It is better with RR first so that the order of events goes: Dick tries to resurrect Bruce and realises it doesn’t work; Tim arrives home and reveals his conclusion that there are clues left behind of Bruce travelling through time; Dick and Damian investigate the Manor and find the Barbatos chapel. It just fits together better in terms of the storytelling, and incidentally also lets Tim say ‘I saw a portrait’ and Alfred to pay attention while rehanging the gallery to the Mordecai Wayne portrait. Dick's already had the 'Tim might be right that Bruce is alive' realisation; he can find the chapel while they're expanding the search on Bruce's return.

'Dick already found the chapel' when Tim is trying to explain his conclusions leads to the whole quest being superfluous as well as making Dick actually behaving worse by not contacting Tim to let him know; and I can't cope with that sort of dramatic irony.

[pokeberry5]

PLS what is the story/lore behind the tim insomnia art piece (w/ him holding the bloody batarang) the angst looks SO GOOD

ngl it's been a while so my memory of the concept behind insomnia is spotty, but for more artsy pieces like this it's less about the lore or specific situation and more about the visuals/feeling to me? so it's more that i have a scene come to me and i build that out (<- me trying to explain that i dont have elaborate lore lol)

so the context i came up with to justify the scene is tim being overwhelmed/semi-dissociating, caught up in the problems he's been running from as tim drake using robin an escape, unable to deal with them, and trying not to think about the fact that half of those problems are caused by the fact that he's robin, that he has a secret identity, and that he's going through it in ways he can't explain to people not in the know -> hence, tim clutching the batarang both as something to ground him and as something that's hurting him

i had also recently read silverwhittlingknife's post about tim as a watcher, especially when he's first introduced—the set of panels where tim is just a set of eyes definitely informed some of this ("some" being the panel with the giant eyes lol) (pls read swk's meta their stuff is always so cool)

i think? i also pulled the aesthetic of the bloody batarang from an old scrapped piece i never posted bc i didnt like how it turned out (it's like. from when i first started drawing tim) so some of that is there

this was like. one of my first attempts at more comic-style dramatic lighting and yeah damn i've come a long way. again! i dont know what's happening here, i just wanted to draw tim bleeding, clutching a batarang, and under some dramatic lighting

(this is also. beyond what you asked but: i think this shows how much my design for tim has changed since my initial conception of him--he had much straighter/longer features that have really softened up, which i think you can see most in the nose. and no moles!)

[luxaofhesperides]

BATFAM FIC REC

some of my favorite fics focused on various members of the batfam!! this will mostly be fics i think deserve more recognition and love.

extant by arseniclatte ; a tim&jason focused fic in which janet comes back from the dead just to die in tim's apartment. also features a fucked up house and i do love my fucked up houses.

wither on the shore by Scarlet_Ribbons ; tim&jason&dick dealing with tim and his father. technically not a lesser known fic but i have to pair this with extant bc both fill a very specific niche of 'jason helps tim deal with his dead parents'. bruce is also there at the end but the focus is very much tim and jason and dick.

Gotta Roll With The Curveballs by Just_A_Poor_Boy ; duke&tim! i love duke so much, he is all times panicking in the most chill way. him and tim getting along is sooo good i love this fic so much.

The Spiciest Ghost by dandelioness666 ; a duke-centric fic!! mostly him trying to figure out dick, and his powers, which tim helps with. this is a birdflash fic but the main focus is very much duke and dick!

Author's Note by Trekkele ; jason&bruce fic in which bruce keeps an eye on the kind comments strangers leave on jason's fics and also notices when one of jason's fics suddenly updates years after his death. ao3 author jason my beloved.

only you will have stars that can laugh by silverwhittlingknife ; dick&tim fic taking place during christmas in which two lonely boys try to make some good memories during the holiday. if there is ever a dick&tim fic to read, it's this one.

not within this restless heart by Alienu ; if there is ever a tim&damian fic to read!!! its this one!!! taking place during quiet moments in the kitchen when no one else is awake, where they figure out how to be family.

mothman is real and he wants to kill me by wesslan ; dick&tim&jason. they are sooooo stupid. also look at that title you know you want to read it.

coming out of my cave (and i've been doing just fine) - Anonymous ; in which tim is trans AND a dragon. there are. misunderstandings. very good tim-centric fic that fully embraces the fun of dragon tim.

Family Photos by KelpieCodyne ; tim-centric but has all of batfam involved. a look at all the eras of gotham's vigilantes that tim has photographed while stalking them through the night, followed by their attempts to find any photos of tim as robin or red robin. one of my faves fr.

Satisfactory Bonding Activities by raven_of_hydecastle ; tim and damian take over the world. literally what more could you want.

Here's a Reminder (That You Haven't Fallen Through the Cracks) by popsunner ; everyone bothers tim while he's trying to work bc they want him to know they love him. also duke continues to be the best. this is factually true (<- said by the most bias girl in the world).

i will also be making a general dc fic rec later!! and possibly a fic rec on current wips im super into. who knows. anyways show these fics some love!!

[androxys]

I was tagged by @havendance for a "get to know you!"

Last Song: "Mama's Broken Heart" by Miranda Lambert, because sometimes you have to listen to a woman going a little crazy. As a treat.

Currently Watching: The only show I'm currently keeping up with is My Adventures with Superman, but I'm hoping to sit down and watch all of Good Omens Season 2 soon!

Currently Reading: Comics-wise? Uhh... for brevity's sake, let's just say Batman Chronicles and Batman: The Cult. Non comics-wise, I'm about to start Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Current Obsession: Yeah it's going to be DC comics forever. More specifically, I recently resurfaced from a deep dive on Barbara's recovery timeline once she gets out of the hospital post-paralysis. The timeline makes no sense and I keep digging deeper. In other realms, I just finished moving, so right now I'm spending a lot of time thinking about houseplants.

Sorry if I ping anyone with this who has already been tagged in a past version of this! The original prompt said 9 folks, so here goes: @azbats @clearbluewaters @upswings @wildflower-ditch @theultimatepomegranatestan @sporkberries @scintillyyy @silverwhittlingknife @mintchocochipsposts

[flybynightwing]

@silverwhittlingknife tagged me to post my WIP's titles and a snippet of one of them, so here we go!

DC Fic

Teen Titans road trip

Cass and Jason AU

Untitled Document (this is the one paragraph of the Cass fic with no plot that I wrote at 2 am)

Inevitable Psychodrama

Dick & Donna casefic

Dick & Donna plotless teenage bonding

Reverse Robins 4

Reverse Robins 5

Star Trek Fic

Post-Queer

The Bashir Bucket Challenge (Take 2)

Garak time loop

Bashir Bucket Challenge Deleted Scenes (I'm including this because the deleted scenes constitute an entire second fic with an entirely different plot)

And a snippet! From "Teen Titans road trip":

“No, no, we have to go through Tennessee. I want barbecue,” Donna says. “We can get barbecue in Texas,” Dick says, his eyes glazing over with little crooked blue map lines. “It’s not the same,” Roy and Donna say at the same time. Dick twists around, shaking both their hands off his shoulders. “You,” he says, pointing at Roy, “are from Wisconsin. And you—” He points at Donna. “—are from a magical island. Neither of you gets to be that worked up about barbecue.” “I’m from New Mexico, actually,” Roy says. He sticks his Twizzler into his mouth and chews it like Bugs Bunny. "That's right, I forgot about the world-famous New Mexico barbecue."

Silver tagged everyone I can think of to tag, so go ahead and do this and say I tagged you if you want. (And be sure to tag me! I want to see people's WIPs.)

[flybynightwing]

@silverwhittlingknife: #a babs/dick/kory triad would not solve any problems but it would introduce all kinds of fun new problems and i'd be here for it#listen here is my pitch for how a babs and kory enemies-to-lovers arc could - *is shot*#i'm just saying though. babs spends a lot of time thinking about how pretty kory is given how little they know each other#barbara already canonically dislikes kory on account of jealousy and insecurity issues#and i think kory would find babs annoyingly repressed and controlling#(kory is already frustrated by these qualities in dick & i think you could convincingly argue that babs is even worse)#anyway so i think they should've teamed up

[umbrellacam]

Ask Game

oh shoot I didn't get a notif for this - thanks so much for the tag @silverwhittlingknife! ♥♥♥

WIP Files Game

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! tag as many people as you have WIPs

I don't have many proper WIPs that exist in files rather than just inside my head hghkldfs, but okay:

Baby!Tim meets Dick again (and again)

Tim is Jason's half-brother

the isekai AU

Tim wakes up from a coma and learns he was never Robin

Tim + villains = unhappy Dick

and also the separate game where you post an excerpt from one of your wips, so this is from 'Baby!Tim meets Dick again (and again)'

for context, Tim is 6 and Dick is 13 in this, and a few months before this scene, they 'met' again for the second time and had a memorable conversation. So this is technically their third coincidental meeting, at a museum that Tim is visiting with his parents.

“N-no, I’m fine,” Tim stammered, scrubbing at his face hastily. He couldn’t let Dick Grayson see him crying about something so silly! “I just, um. I lost my Mommy and Dad.” “You - what?” Dick Grayson said, and his voice was so strange that Tim risked a glance up at him. The taut, pale concern on the older boy’s face made Tim freeze up in instant horror. Oh no oh no oh no, so stupid! “I MEAN,” Tim shrilled, clawing his fingers into his cargo shorts in distress, “I dunno know where they went! That’s all! They’re fine! I think.” They just forgot me. I sat down, I told them ‘I need to sit down’, and they kept walking. They left me behind. Despite himself, he could feel his face reddening, tears starting to well back up. He looked down and wiped at his eyes again, sniffling as quiet as he could manage. “Oh!” he heard Dick say, sounding both relieved and sheepish. “You lost them - of course.” Dick kept talking, bright and determined, something about calling the front desk. Or going to the front desk? But his voice faded out somehow in Tim’s exhaustion. Tim pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and ducking down to hide his dumb leaky face. He was so tired he would rather die than move, even for Dick Grayson. And you were supposed to stay put when you were lost, right? That was good, because he ached to just lie down right here on the dirty floor and take a nap. But even more than that, he wanted to not be crying in front of Dick Grayson about having perfectly alive parents who just weren’t here right now, the moment he wanted them, like some sort of needy baby. He wanted to have not upset Dick Grayson by reminding him of the most horrible day of his life - for the second time - like some sort of - of - bad memory charm – “M’sorry, Dick,” he mumbled, rubbing his forehead too-hard against his knee. The pressure was somehow grounding against the awful tumbling knot in his chest. In his stomach? Somewhere unpleasant. Dick paused, mid-sentence. “Huh? For getting lost? Oh buddy, it happens to the best of us, believe you me.” Tim shrugged, an awkward roll of his shoulders while still curled up. “Ummmm. No? For um. For saying it like that. I know what it made you think.” “Oh. Oh, hey, hey…” Gentle fingers touched his hair, and Tim went still as a mouse. “No. You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Timmy. I’m the dummy who… Nevermind.” Dick laughed quietly. It was somehow just as good a laugh as the bright, bouncing one he’d given at the circus, before everything, even if it was a little sad. His fingers carded quick and light through Tim’s neatly combed hair - once, twice - enough to mess it up thoroughly before dropping down to settle on his back. “Don’t worry, Timmy. I’ll help you find your Mom and Dad. It’ll be okay, I promise.” His voice was so warm and steady; so was his hand on Tim’s back. And the horrible seething tangle in Tim’s stomach loosened, just like magic.

tagging (but only if you want to play, or have any WIPs for that matter!) @zahri-melitor, @alternis and anyone else who wants to play! I'm not entirely sure who else may be a writer who hasn't already been tagged for this by someone else🤔

edit: oop, just kidding, kept scrolling through my dash and I see you were tagged already Zahri! this is what I get for stepping away from tumblr for a week plus lol

[havendance]

World Gone MAD

AO3

Fandom: Batman, DCU

Featured Characters/Relationships: Dick & Tim

Wordcount: 5600

Summary:

Ask the GCPD about the Joker’s death and they’ll tell you he died of natural causes. Ask the Justice League and they’ll tell you that it’s a matter that has been resolved internally. Ask Batman and he won’t give you an answer because he’s Batman. The truth of the matter, however, is this: Dick Grayson beat the Joker to death.

[Or: A few months after the death of the Joker, Tim Drake comes to Haly’s Circus, looking for Dick Grayson.]

I am hyped to be finally sharing this fic with you all :) Inspired by this tumblr post by @mzminola, with special shoutout to the addition by @silverwhittlingknife, and tags from @avaraydrake.

I've also taken some liberties with the Justice League and how it operates. While ‘8 guys (gender neutral) who get together on the weekends and beat up aliens’ works for the comics, personally I think ‘self-governing group of powerful individuals’ is a much more interesting concept to work with. As such, I have expanded both the membership and scope of the Justice League (at least from what they were for this particular era of comics).

Excerpt:

Stepping into Haly’s Circus felt like stepping into the past. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle — people talking, hawkers shouting, the whir and buzz of the machines, music blasting over it all — Tim could almost pretend he was a boy again. For a moment, he closed his eyes. The summer air was thick and humid, smelling of sugar and sweat, mud and animals. For a moment he was 13, a boy with two living parents who had never been Robin, who was convinced that if he just found Dick Grayson, all of Gotham’s problems would be solved.

He’d been so naive then.

The moment ended. Tim blinked, reoriented himself in the golden light of the setting sun, and started to make his way to the ticket stand. This whole trip had been a return to his roots: stalking Dick Grayson across the country with nothing more than his wits and a bus schedule. He hadn’t been surprised when it had ended in the same place it had begun. But this wasn’t— it wasn’t the same thing. He wasn’t here to fix Gotham, to fix Batman. He was done with that. This was something different.

He bought a ticket and went in.

The circus was fun. Nobody died, or almost died, which was a nice change of pace from the last couple times Tim had gone. He spent most of the time tuning out the whispered conversation from the group of teenagers sitting in front of him, and playing “Where’s Dick?” Tim thought he might have spotted him as one of the clowns again until he came out on the trapeze, and then, well, then it was obvious.

Tim wished he’d brought his camera. Watching Dick fly, anyone could tell he belonged in the air.

—

The facts of the matter are as follows:

On March 22nd, 10:21 pm, the Joker’s location was determined to be Gotham Cathedral. A force-field of unknown origin surrounding the building prevented law enforcement from pursuing him.

At 11:48 pm, Nightwing entered the building. The force field remained up and law enforcement continued to surround the building.

Around roughly midnight, March 23rd, the forcefield dropped and law enforcement entered. According to official reports, inside were found the Joker’s dead body and two other jokerized villains. The two living villains were quickly apprehended and administered the antidote. The Joker’s death itself was ruled to be due to natural causes, likely linked to the terminal growth in his brain. 

Unofficial reports put between two and five vigilantes in the building at the time the police entered and that the Joker’s end appeared to be rather more violent in nature. When pressed, all agree that the official ruling of natural causes was correct. (If you get them drunk enough first, in a quiet enough location, then they might give you a different answer, but that always involves urban legends and rumors. The sorts of things that don’t hold up in the light of day.)

Access to classified Justice League files reveal the following additional details:

On March 16th, 9:30 am, the Joker was informed that a brain scan had revealed a terminal mass in his brain. Prognosis suggested he had less than a month to live. The Joker took in this information and decided he wanted to go out with a bang. Later investigation uncovered that the brain tumor was in fact a hoax created by a doctor out for revenge. As by that point, the Joker was already dead, from what were determined to be natural causes, the decision was made that this information would remain classified.

The Joker entered Gotham at an unknown time on March 22nd. Joker gas was released at Arkham Asylum at 4:42 pm on the same day. According to recovered comm records, Oracle sent Robin to investigate Arkham Asylum at roughly 10:30 pm. She lost contact with him at 10:48 pm, shortly after he entered the building, at which point she called in Huntress for backup. Robin was reported dead by Huntress at 11:21 pm.

In his confession, Nightwing stated that he overheard news of Robin’s death,  and then immediately stole Black Canary’s bike and raced to the Cathedral. (Black Canary corroborated this fact.) Upon arrival, he attacked and killed the Joker. Robin arrived shortly after, followed by Batman, Huntress, and Spoiler.

Robin’s confession gave the following sequence of events: Upon entering Arkham Asylum, he was attacked by various jokerized inmates. In the struggle, his uniform was torn, later leading his allies to believe him dead. He was captured and brought to the Joker who attacked him. He fought back and the Joker was killed in the struggle. Shortly afterwards, Nightwing arrived and decided to take the fall for him.

Batman and Huntress both testify to the following facts: They arrived to find Nightwing and Robin already there and the Joker dead. Batman ordered Huntress to attempt to revive the Joker through CPR. This failed and the Joker was declared dead upon the entrance of the authorities.

Oracle did not testify, but submitted audio logs from the night as evidence. Interference due to the barrier around the cathedral, damage to the comm devices, and standard issues with Gotham architecture rendered large chunks of it unusable.

Spoiler was unable to be reached for testimony.

— 

The truth of the matter is this: Every man has a breaking point. Even the best man will cross their line in the sand if pushed far enough. Sometimes you fail to do the right thing.

Nightwing walked into Gotham Cathedral that night and beat the Joker to death.

Continue reading on AO3!

[pokeberry5]

hiii i love your art, you draw everyone so pretty!!! i was wondering, do you have any fem tim headcanons or thoughts? :)) also, and ignore me if you're not feeling it, but would you ever want to draw fem kon? thank you and i hope you have a great day!!!!!

thank you!! i hope you have a great day too!

i think my favorite interpretation of fem tim is @misspickman's by any other name would smell as sweet, i.e. not chill about it at all and has her gender wrapped up in all the other roles she feels she needs to fill, and i especially like this in contrast with an older femme tim who is very confident in who she is and how she wants to present (see also: hairline fracture).

this got kinda long so i’m gonna put the rest of it under the cut:

you didn't ask exactly this but my gender headcanons for tim are kinda all over the place so: i'm also fond of a transmasc tim who just kinda Is, and a tim who doesn't really care but is willing to be/present as whatever is most useful to him in any given situation, for better or for worse (this is sorta why i tend to exclusively use he/him pronouns for him).

so i guess my gender headcanons for him tend to tie in with the headcanon that the longer he stays as robin, the more he curates the way he presents to people. i like the dynamic of who does and doesn’t have access to the person behind all that curation, and the people who knew tim when he started as robin having to watch that bright eyed kid get tucked behind more and more pragmatism (not that the empathy that made him robin ever goes away). (this is partly where i was coming from with the imposter syndrome art) (as examples, i like tim’s fronting in Into the Brighter Night by shoalsea and more innocuous versions of that habit in @silverwhittlingknife’s Two of Six)

so like, to tie this back to fem tim: is he dressing femme bc he wants to or because he knows he can and it’s what’s most useful to him to achieve his goals? does he even know? do the people around him know to ask?

(tim: i can be whatever you need me to be :) his family and friends, shaking him: but what do you want to be??)

i do wanna say that most of the time when i draw a femme tim, i really like reading through the various gender interpretations in the tags so!! please feel free to do with that what you'd like. is my tim flat chested bc he's femme but didn't want to deal with his tits? bc she's transfemme but doesnt feel the need to have tits? bc he's wearing a binder? i don't know! it's up to you :)

also, fundamentally, a lot of it is just that i really like drawing femme styles and i really like tim 👍

(and thank you for the request! i do have thoughts now about fem kon but idk when i’ll be able to get to drawing her bc i’ve got a lot of other thoughts percolating rn)

[umbrellacam]

#YEAH #yeah yeah yeah ALL THIS #the watching and the watching and the WATCHING is so forever fascinating to me #there's comic after comic which is like. 'dick's in crisis and tim is here watching him be in crisis and worrying about it' #and dick has such complicated feelings about being watched which makes it extra-compelling to me #anyway i am never not thinking about the comic where dick had a panic attack on top of the wayne enterprises building #and wasn't breathing and then tim went and found him and when we next see them they're in the batcave #and tim's got his hand on dick's back and is telling him to breathe and gets him to sit down #and then goes to get alfred #just. constantly thinking about the gap where tim walked dick back to the cave while talking him down (tags via @silverwhittlingknife)

#what makes them SO compelling #tim having dick on a pedestal and seeing dick at his worst and removing the pedestal but admiring him still and more honestly #vs dick knowing that pedestal has been torn down (tags via @pokeberry5)

#YOU'RE SO RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD KEEP GOING #imagine the inverse too #like dick's journey into understanding tim #dick also has a front row seat to SO MANY of tim's worst moments #from the clench to forced emancipation to bruce's death to kon's death to his own dad's death #dick watches tim become a hero only to lose what he loves over and over and over again #and it makes me think that dick blames himself #puts that guilt onto himself because tim's life was ruined over and over again#and all because of tim's starry eyed adoration for nightwing and batman #i wonder if dick lays down at night and just stares at the ceiling and wonders #how much pain did he cause because of tim's unconditional love (tags via @whatdoyewant)

no, i am not thinking about dick and tim's relationship and how many awful, tragic moments of dick's tim has had a front row seat to. that night at the circus when dick's parents die. when his wedding with kory was ruined. when he kills the joker. when dick asks who adopted him if there is no bruce wayne and is met with silence. when donna dies. when dick breaks down in a burning building because blockbuster is dead and it's his fault. when dick is so full of self-loathing that he tells tim to forget he ever knew him. when bruce dies. when damian dies. when the worst happens.

i'm not thinking about how tim met bruce in a deep low and it colors how he views him. but dick? he has seen dick fall apart and hit rock bottom and it has never changed who dick is to him- his hero, his role model, his brother.

i'm not thinking about how unconditionally tim loves dick. how undeserving dick feels of tim's love. how bruce's death pushed them apart when they needed each other more than ever.

i'm totally not thinking about them

[havendance]

WIP combined ask game

Thanks to @silverwhittlingknife for the tag :)

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! tag as many people as you have WIPs

Gathering these from the four corners of the earth (the four different locations I keep my writing in...) Some of these have multiple names because they are in multiple locations and have different names in those different places.

(WIP) #0032910 Lamb to the Slaughter

(WIP) Blood for Blood (alt: Shadow Princess)

(WIP) Isn't She Wonderful? (alt: Reverse Robins)

(WIP) 4. Chicken Noodle Soup for Vigilante Soul

(TKiDLLtK) 2. You eat a snake's heart, you consume it's soul

Dead from the Beginning (alt: Oedipus Rex)

Thou Shalt not Kill

3. Starring NIGHTWING as the Cavalry (alt: Batman for Dummies Ch 3)

4. Title TBD

5. Epilogue

Truth in the MADness (MAD IV)

DTD Time loop

Evil Stepmother AU

A not insignificant portion of these are completely drafted and either queued for publishing or waiting for one reason or another. Some of these are also empty placeholder documents, so...

Ask Game 2: post a excerpt from an wip.

Take a little preview of the next chapter of The King is Dead:

Finding the Joker was easy, the old bastard was nearly as unpredictable as he liked to think. He was holed up in a old warehouse filled with props from some doomed attempt at a tv show, licking his wounds from the last time they’d met.

Killing him was even easier. Jason didn’t bother was any of the theatrics this time around. There wasn’t any point. He just put a bullet through his head, watched the blood pool on pale concrete, and waited. Death came as he knew she would. She walked passed him, ignored him just the same as she had when it had Bruce bleeding out in the alleyway. It rankled this time in a way it hadn’t before.

Tagging: @anguigenus (if you're not too brain dead), @androxys, @zahri-melitor, @eggmacguffin, @dyke-terra if any of you guys want to play

[arwainian]

Reading this Week 2023 #15

Finished:

Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum, preface and chapters 5, 7, 8, and 9

Started and FInished:

Left Unwritten by printers_devil on ao3

the palace perspective [author orphaned] on ao3

"snippet: Cass and Jason, guns and targets" by silverwhittlingknife on tumblr

124 fatt fics for the marathon (i think?)

Started and Ongoing:

"Sports and Social Class" by Pierre Bourdieu

1 fatt fic for the marathon

Ongoing:

Frequency by cryptocism on ao3, chapters 7-8

non-linearity by 0shadow_panther0 on ao3, chapter 22

[forestlingincorporated]

I saw some tags on a post @silverwhittlingknife reblogged about Tim’s introduction, and it got me thinking about how CLEVERLY it was written. 

Because Tim’s first appearance is NOT in a Lonely Place of Dying. 

Tim first appears in Batman 436, a Dick centric comic. It’s in the aftermath of Jason’s death, the first time Dick returns to the manor, in time for the parole hearing of Tony Zucco - the man who killed his parents. During this storyline, we get a recap of Dick’s backstory. 

This is the first appearance of Tim Drake. He has a presence in this flashback, they certainly draw attention to him, but I think if you read this without knowing Tim will be important going in, you’d assume he was little more than a writing divice - a stand in for the entire circus audiance, demonstrating how the audiance feels watching the Graysons die and Batman appear on the scene, a reason for the Graysons to have a final family photo in the moments before their deaths, and an anchor in the crowd to see, yup, Bruce Wayne dissapeared right before Batman makes his entrance. 

The next several comics are still focused on Dick’s backstory and the plot with Zucco. It wraps up with Dick sitting down in front of his parents’ graves to chat with them. 

A Lonely Place of Dying is the NEXT issue, where Tim is present, but we don’t see his face yet. 

Tim’s a little creepy! He’s off panel, he knows things he shouldn’t, damn, he drives his bike through a couple puddles of blood. And that dialog is not actually comforting out of context. 

Tiiiiim, that’s breaking and entering. Tim, that’s illegal, lmao

We first see Tim’s face as a Not A Toddler in The New Titans 60, three months after his first appearance. 

We don’t find out he and the kid from the circus are the same person until Batman 441, released a week later. 

And... idk, I really like that pacing of it? Reminding us of Dick’s story from Dick’s perspective first but with this slightly added element, and only making that element more important later? That way the audiance can go “oh, yeah... that photo, from the last storyline, yeah, I remember that” the same way DICK has to feel “oh... yeah, that kid from the circus... I remember that.” 

Idk, I just really like it, I think it’s really well-done.