#meta Tim Drake

[timmydraker]

CW:

Tim Drake whose a Meta but doesn’t know it.

Everyone knows that Tim Drake or Red Robin is one of the smartest people in Gotham and maybe on earth. He’s known as a great detective by everyone, even Ra and kind of Joker.

Some people even say he’s better than Batman on that front.

Tim single handedly figured out multiple cures for all of Poison Ivy’s toxins and gasses, as well as a faster cure for Fear.

He solves Riddles little riddles so well that Riddle refuses to fight him because the sassy Robin ruins his fun.

There have been several times he has figured out the identity of various heroes and villains within just a few hours of knowing them, making him technically know more than Batman about secret identities. (Except Captain Marvel’s, that still manages to allude him.)

He’s memorised hundreds of articles, books and cases with just a single once over.

Any maths problem put in forbid him can be solved either instantly or within ten minutes.

It’s just common knowledge that he’s unnaturally smart.

What people don’t realise is that it is literally unnatural.

Tim is a Meta with the abilities of perfect memory and advanced intellect so high that it’s basically super-intelligence, exceeding all known living forces on earth.

The problem?

Tim figured out he was a Meta when he was three and promptly filed away the information to the point that he cannot relearn it.

He bitterly brainwashed himself into ignorance.

[ditzybat]

i need a homo-magi tim drake au.

like, i find it very hard to believe that in that mausoleum of a mansion filled to the brim with ancient artifacts jack and janet drake collected throughout their travels, that not a single one of them was cursed —

— and that a nine year old tim didn’t use an ancient aztec macuahuitl as a baseball bat and now knows several dead languages with weird cursed powers from some ancient meso-american demon that camps out in his body.

but like tim has no clue that whatever is going on with him is not normal because he was never told it wasn’t not normal,

and then imagine other people’s reactions to this, especially other magic users like zatanna and constantine —

zatanna: i don’t understand why i can’t seem to get these runes right..

13 year old tim drake: because you’re working on them backwards, it’s supposed to be [fast paced nahuatl]

zatanna: how…?

tim (blissfully unaware of his abilities, smiling sweetly): the voices :D

and then i just imagine his shadow is some looming creature or something idk, kinda how in yj comics his shadow is batman’s silhouette

[ditzyredrobin]

Okay, okay, okay, so, here me out:

Clairvoyant!Tim Drake.

It started out as a dream and has sort of evolved with the help (and enablement) of one @pumpkin0doodler.

SO.

It starts with Tim saving Jason from the Joker and Ethiopia and it goes like this:

Jason catches Tim trailing him on patrol. When he confronts the kid, it sparks a vision of Jason dying, a crowbar breaking bone, and an explosion. Tim grasps Jason by the arm hard, still mid vision, and says, “Don’t go to Ethiopia.”

Jason frowns and tries to shake off him off but Tim’s grip only increased. “What? Why would I go to Ethiopia?”

Tim starts to snap out of it and he looks up to Jason, as Robin, with all the seriousness in the world. “Just don’t go to Ethiopia, please.” Tim repeats. He would have blown him off but the kid looks seriously rattled. “Batman needs you, Robin…I need you.”

He stares at the kid for a long moment before breathing a deep breath. “Fine, whatever, I won’t go to Ethiopia. Happy?”

“Pinky promise?”

“What?”

“Pinky. Promise.” And the twerp, honest to god, holds out his pinky finger.

Jason rolls his eyes but caves. “Fine, I pinky promise I won’t go.” That seems to be enough to set the kid at ease because his shoulders drop and he smiles. If that’s all it takes to get him home, he supposed he could spare a pinky promise. “Now can we get you back home? It’s not safe out here for little twerps like you.”

-

This is going to be my entire personality for the next month, seriously. More to come.

[absolutely-esme]

Monster!Tim Coraline AU Idea

This idea would not leave me alone.

It’s a cross between a meta!/magic!Tim au and a Coraline au.

Before I get into it, I feel like I should explain.  I was on a bit of an Eldritch!Batfamily and Cryptid!Batfamily kick.  Then I found a collection of supernatural Tim aus.  Then I stumbled across a Coraline au.  There’s probably also some inspiration in there from vampire au fics.

It didn’t really jell until the idea occurred to me of a scene where some frightened villain asks Tim “What kind of monster are you?” and Tim says “The hungry kind.”

...

The idea is that somewhere back along the way, Tim’s family tree includes some kind of supernatural creature which may or may not have been an eldritch entity.

The supernatural heritage allows Tim to acquire abilities from other entities he has defeated, and Gotham is absolutely full of the supernatural if you pay attention.

Of course, Tim’s power isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.  It actually comes packaged with some pretty nasty side effects.

One of those side effects is perpetual Hunger.  Tim is always Hungry.  There is no way to stop it.  He eats enough to stay healthy, but he still feels Hunger at all times.  Increasing his food intake will not help and will screw up his metabolism and cause him to need more for normal function.  If this was allowed to spiral out of control it could eventually reach a point where he was physically unable to eat the amount of food he needed to function and starved to death on a full stomach. 

Fixing it is stupid hard because this particular sort of magical inheritance is really fucking inconvenient.  And, of course, whatever is up with his biology also makes him insanely susceptible to addiction, so no coffee for him unless he wants caffeine withdrawal symptoms all the time for however long it takes to fix that.  The constant Hunger also makes it difficult to get enough sleep.  Have you ever tried to go to sleep on an empty stomach?  Not easy, was it?  Imagine that every night.

The Hunger is fairly central to the nature of the magic.  Whatever supernatural entity he’s descended from, it is the Hungry kind.  The ritual of defeating another supernatural entity, taking a bit of the defeated entity’s power, and incorporating it into himself serves as a sort of metaphorical devouring, (and metaphors matter more to magic than they do to normal biology).  That’s why he’s able to gain power and abilities from defeated foes. 

...

Tim’s relationship with his parents is complicated.  His supernatural heritage comes from his mother’s side of the family.  She did her best to teach him about it and how to cope with it, but a lot of knowledge was lost over the generations due to persecution forcing those like them into hiding more than once.  There may have been a few individuals who spiraled out of control and caused small-scale famines before losing their lives.  It only takes a few cases for people to decide that a specific category of people is simply not worth the risk of having around.  Janet always referred to herself and Tim (as well as anyone else sharing the condition) as “those afflicted with Gluttony.”  This is the closest they have to a name for the condition.

One of the important things Janet Drake teaches her son is to pursue his passions.  It is incredibly important for individuals like them to have things outside the self that they can draw satisfaction and fulfilment from, things that keep them going in the face of the relentless Hunger.  This is what leads Tim to his night-time photography of Gotham, and eventually to his fascination with the Bats. 

Janet’s passions are archeology and travel.  Unfortunately, traveling from dig site to dig site is not a particularly stable or safe environment to raise a child in.  She needs to do these things to remain in good health.  Without her external coping mechanisms, she could start spiraling.  If she starts spiraling, it might trigger her son to start spiraling too because children in their developmental years are delicate, and this type of hereditary magic is fucking inconvenient (there might be ways of managing things that make it easier to live with, but between the knowledge lost and the risks that come with experimentation, they don’t have much info on how anything works).  She comes home as much as she can without the risk of compromising both their health.

She also taught Tim how to calculate appropriate portion sizes based on nutritional data so as not to screw up his metabolism, and how to fix it if he does mess up.  She also stayed and managed the process the first time it happened because the process of returning the metabolism of one afflicted with Gluttony to normal after it’s gotten out of hand is difficult and unpleasant and Tim wasn’t old enough to handle it by himself.  The nanny that had overfed him hadn’t been malicious or unreasonable, she’d just been operating on the assumption that he had standard human biology.  It took months to get Tim healthy again.  It took several hefty bribes to keep things under wraps.  Janet doesn’t know if there are still people out there hunting their kind, but she’s not willing to risk it.

Janet may not know about the aspect of the family magic that lets them gain powers from defeating other entities.  It’s possible that she was holding off on explaining this until he was older and more ready for the responsibility of multiple superpowers.  It’s also possible that the knowledge got lost somewhere along the way and Janet didn’t discover it herself because she didn’t spend her childhood running around Gotham at night and was more the sort of person who would stay home and read when she had trouble sleeping.

...

Tim discovers his ability to gain abilities from defeating other supernatural things fairly early on.  The type of defeat can vary, but it has to be something of significance.  A fight will work for most, but there are other particular challenges that will work for specific cases.

The first things a young Tim is able to beat are these small things, invisible to most, that gain power from learning secrets.  What that power is used for, I couldn’t tell you.  They don’t seem to do much other than sneak around and learn secrets.  Tim doesn’t know if there’s a proper name for these things or not, but he calls them Secret Hunters.  They are absolutely everywhere in Gotham. 

Secret Hunters are invisible to most, but Tim is able to see them.  It might be because of his own supernatural nature, or it might be something else entirely.  If it’s hereditary it must have skipped his parents’ generation.  Neither of them seem to be able to see them.  Tim gains improved stealth and a sense for when something is hidden from catching Secret Hunters until they wise up and start avoiding him.  (Catching them works in place of a fight because secret hunters primarily operate on stealth and evasion.)

He can’t just magically know secrets, but he can tell when there is a secret.  (He still figured out Batman’s and Robin’s secret identities on his own merit.  The most this ability would have done is alert him to the fact that they had secret identities if that hadn’t already been obvious from the fact that they were wearing masks.)

He also gets various other abilities from other things he encounters while scrambling all over Gotham at night.  Nearly doesn’t get out of some of the scrapes he gets himself into.  He gains the ability to cut with his fingernails as if they were razors from something that nearly killed him.  He gains the ability to climb like a goat from a Jersey Devil.  Etc.

...

At some point, Tim is targeted by a beldam.  He doesn’t get the kind of warnings that Coraline does, but his ability to sense secrets lets him know that the Beldam is hiding something, and any child raised in any part of Gotham knows to be suspicious of things that seem too good to be true.  Tim doesn’t have a convenient seeing stone from the neighbor, but he does have the advantage of his own supernatural nature which the Beldam doesn’t know about.

Tim finds a button-eyed doll that looks like him after his parents leave on yet another trip, and thinks it’s a gift they meant to give him before leaving.  They do often bring interesting souvenirs.  It wouldn’t be at all unusual for them to find an artist who sews dolls to look like people and have one made based on pictures of him.  Later on, he discovers the key. 

This Beldam is older and more powerful than the one from Coraline.  She has more power and more past victims to work with, so she’s able to make a larger, more populated world. 

Oh by the way, I head-canon that the Other versions of people in the Other world are actually past victims of the Other Mother, remade and dressed up for whatever role she has them play.  The three ghosts were just the three most recent and not fully processed for use yet.  That’s why the Others are able to act against her sometimes (Other Wybie saving Coraline from the mirror, Other Father tossing the eye to Coraline) or say things she doesn’t want them too (Other Father says “so sharp you won’t feel a thing” and Other Mother kicks him under the table).

The Other Mother doesn’t know all that Tim knows, so the Other World has inconsistencies like Other Batman and Other Robin sitting across the table from Other Bruce and Other Jason.  She doesn’t know they’re the same people.  She just knows that they’re all important to Tim.  She also tries to tell him to “eat as much as he wants” when his real mother was the one to explain the dangers of attempting to eat to fullness for people with their condition.

There isn’t a cat to warn Tim but he doesn’t need it.  He can sense hidden intentions in everything, and he’s fully capable of uncovering the hidden secrets himself. 

Tim doesn’t have a cat, but he does have Other Robin, who might have been made from whatever remained of someone close to one of the people mirrored in the Other World made for Tim.  He doesn’t remember his life, but somehow he feels incredibly motivated to help a boy who cares dearly for whoever and is willing to let him know that they're living a good life out there in the real world.

Tim discovers the nature of the other world and sets out to free the souls trapped there.  He fights the Beldam will all the viciousness and desperation of someone who knows they’ve only got one shot.  He takes everything he can from this fight as he makes sure she won’t ever hurt anyone again.  He doesn’t stop until the beldam is well and truly dead.  Then he unravels Other Gotham and spills all of the souls out into the world where they can move on and rest.

This is how Tim learns to Sew.  He can’t make entire populated worlds like the beldam, but that’s mostly because he refuses to do what she did.  He can control things he’s made (though there’s limits on how much) and even see through buttons he’s sewn (onto cushions and such, he's not the Other Mother).  He also gets some minor illusory powers that let him make things look a bit brighter/nicer/cheerier than they are.  It takes quite some time before he’s comfortable with using these powers.  Trauma is a bitch like that.

Part of the reason this version of Tim was so desperate to do something about Batman losing it out of grief is because he already has Evil Batman trauma from Other Batman, and he doesn’t need that shit happening in real Gotham.

By this point Tim has a collection of powers that allow him to navigate the more dangerous parts of Gotham largely without fear.  Now he has to learn how to manage without using any that he isn’t one hundred percent certain he can sneak past Batman, which means he’ll have to divide his attention between learning from the training and not letting himself do things the supernatural way.  This is going to suck.

It does, in fact, suck.

Oh, it turns out some of the rogues are a bit supernatural.  He gains a bit of an intuitive understanding of the health of plants from Ivy.  He gains the ability to taste emotions from Scarecrow.  (Also, Johnathan Crane is a freaking weirdo, fear tastes like spoiled milk!)  The rogues with supernatural tendencies are freaking terrified of the new Robin because he always seems like he wants to freaking eat them.  The non-supernatural types don’t get it.

Eventually, Red hood breaks into Titan’s tower.  Tim, by this point, is very good at deciphering how supernatural entities work and is packing an extensive inventory of powers.  He realizes quickly that this is some kind of manipulative entity that feeds on rage and pain attached to an unwitting host.  When he realizes that the unknowing (and therefore unconsenting) host is Jason Todd, he tells the Lazarus Entity in no uncertain terms to give Jason back or perish.

Jason, who does not realize he has a malicious, mind-warping, supernatural parasite and believes there to be no one other than himself and Tim present, is understandably confused.

Tim decides that the Lazarus entity has had its chance and springs into action.

Jason is treated to the terrifying sight of just what Tim Drake is like when he’s not expending conscious effort on not being something out of a horror movie.  Suddenly he’s in the middle of a spider’s web and no matter how hard he tries to fight back everything around him is under the control of his opponent.  Furniture flies around on puppet strings.  Getting too close puts him in range of the freaking claws this kid apparently has!?  Trying to get away just leaves him caught in strings and the more he struggles the more entangled he becomes!  The new Robin is skittering and gliding around in a decidedly inhuman way. 

Jason honestly thinks he's going to die when he finds himself bound with Tim standing over him.  He passes out when Tim rips the Lazarus entity away from him and destroys it. 

Tim gains the ability to heal from defeating the Lazarus entity.

Jason is surprised and confused when he wakes up bundled in a handmade quilt with his head in Tim’s lap and a cool compress on his forehead, feeling sore but more well and whole than he has since before he died.

Jason later decides that his memories of the fight at Titans Tower must be some kind of weird fever dream caused by his body purging the last of the Lazarus Water from his system. It goes along with Tim's account of things.

According to Tim, Jason entered the tower, initiated a lock-down, and then collapsed on the floor. Then, Tim moved him closer to a wall where he was less likely to get stepped on than in the middle of the walkway and did his best to take care of him there because Jason was simply too large and heavy for him to carry all the way to the med bay by himself.

This is far more believable and less of a mind screw than what Jason remembers. Obviously this tiny, baby-faced kiddo who played nursemaid for a stranger who broke into the tower and now looks up at him with wide, starry eyes couldn't actually be the terrifying, predatory creature from the nightmare. It was all just a bad dream.

He's honestly glad he collapsed before he had time to do any harm. The poor kid will never have to know what Jason went there to do. Jason knows, though, and he'll do his damned best to make up for it. He may have flubbed first impressions, but he is going to be the best damn big brother that ever big brothered.

...

Tim might or might not go full on feral cryptid when Bruce is lost in the Timestream. I haven't decided. He will probably pick a fight with the Lazarus Pit much to the confusion and alarm of everyone around.

That’s all I’ve got so far.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Always a man, a city, and a lighthouse...

"Robin, Red Robin, stay back for a minute," Batman said as he dismissed everyone for patrol. "I have a new mission for you. Dozens of civilians have gone missing around the decommissioned Gotham City Lighthouse." A few clicks and the Batcomputer displayed a map of the Upper West Side, a highlight on the lighthouse. "I want you both to investigate the building. Everyone who's gone missing entered the lighthouse, but nothing has been found by the police. I suspect that the lighthouse is being used for gun smuggling, but we need more information.

"That's where you two come in."

Or, I've been reading too much of @virgamsysxvolumes 's Lucky Rush AU, and wanted a true Bioshock AU for dc x dp.

Underneath the city, in the vast and endless caverns beneith Gotham, lies the subterranean city of Amity. Amity was the pet project of the mad scientist couple, the Drs. Fenton, to investigate the effects of ectoplasm on humans, but with the help of their best friend, Vlad Masters, they transformed Amity into a Technocracy City filled with scientists, and completely lacking in morals.

Or at least, that's how it was ten years ago, before the creation of Plasm (the Adam replacement), a neon green goo that's basically meth that gives you superpowers. Everyone from the top scientists to the lower working class starting doping on Plasm, which gave people the ability to control fire, create hallucinogenic spores, summon bats, etc. Vlad, the mayor, was deposed in a cue let by the Fentons and the city descended into anarchy, with people from the surface getting lured down from the lighthouse so they can continue their experiments.

The Fentons are 100% not good people in this. Jack is in charge of all the technological advances in Amity, while Maddie has created human/ghost hybrids--the Little Sisters of the story--that can naturally harvest ectoplasm from dead bodies to use for experiments. Once everyone's hooked on Plasm, the Little Sisters are in danger from acting Splicers, so she creates Big Daddies to protect them.

Danny is the only Little Brother, and Jazz is the only Big Sister. Vlad turned them both into monsters as revenge against the Fentons for the cue, but the couple didn't really care, with Jack barely acknowledging he has children, and Maddie acting like they were never turned into monsters to begin with. Not sure about ages... Jazz is probably the same as her canon age, but if Danny is still 14, he looks 10, tiny and malnourished and pale.

Tim and Damian are trapped in Amity after an automatic system determines them as good test subjects. The AI filters out any cops, so that's why the police never found anything. The elavator brings them down into the city, showing a sweeping shot of neon in the darkness of the caves, and the boys figure out pretty quickly something is blocking their calls.

Tim gets super injured early on. I think, a Jack Fenton booby trap (that exclaims that it's a Jack Fenton Booby Trap moments before activating, which should be funny, but isn't when death lasers are being launched at him.). Damian gets captured, and that's when Tim is contacted by Vlad, who is our Atlas stand in for the game, only Tim immediately realizes that this man is sketchy af.

But unfortunately, in order to rescue Damian, Tim has to splice himself with Plasm. Maybe its for fire-wielding, or telekinesis but Tim can't get to wherever Damian is being held and, while torn, splices himself to save Damian.

Damian was kidnapped because his exposure to Lazirus Waters made a Big Daddy think he was a Little Sister, so it brought him back to the Casper Academy, which is where Little Sisters drop their harvests off in the care of William Lancer. Lancer looks after the girls because Maddie Fenton is too busy, but it's against his will despite him caring for them all. He's trapped in the building, can't leave or he dies. He's actually relieved to know that Vlad is still alive and trusts him, because to Lancer he was just a good mayor who was overthrown and the Fentons are the real bad guys, just look what they did to their kids!

This is where the batkids first learn about Danny and Jazz, although they don't meet them until a while after this. Danny actually ends up being the one leaving Plasm out for Tim every time he rescues a Little Sister. (Sidenote, they end up killing people while in Amity. While both do have death counts, the problem with Amity is that they have to use stronger and stronger levels of force to get people to go down, leading them to escalating and killing quite a few).

Lancer points them to communications to get their comms working again, and that area is run by Damon Grey.

At some point after comms are back on, the two learn that Red Hood actually came in after them after hours of no communication and has been captured by Maddie Fenton, who intends to turn him into a Big Daddy.

In late story, it's revealed that Jack Fenton was murdered before the cue even happened, and that the Jack Fenton they'd been communicating with the entire time was an AI assistant created by living Jack to keep his work going. The cue was actually retaliation from Maddie and the Jack AI for murdering Jack.

The story would eventually end with Tim, Damian, and Jason freeing all the Little Sisters along with Danny and Jazz.

[crow-aeris]

okay, so here's the seer!tim au i promised:

Tim, freezes on the rooftop, camera in hand as the pressure of a Vision creeps against his temples. He quickly sits down next to the HVAC unit, quietly lamenting the loss of some potentially beautiful pictures before closing his eyes.

His Visions weren't easy to deal with, and would always leave him with terrible headaches- especially if he didn't have his little ball with him. Sometimes, if he wasn't careful, the Vision would overlap with his current sight, creating a vertigo-like sensation that would NOT be good next to a freaking ledge.

So, he sits down like a good kid and breathes. Tim covers his eyes further with his forearm and gently accepts the Vision.

Does he know where the Visions come from? Nope! And neither does his parents, but Tim's still grateful he gets to have it, since-

No, focus. He has to focus. If he doesn't focus, then the Vision would remain as an overlay for up to an hour, and it would make getting down from a three story rooftop extremely difficult.

So, he focuses.

The world seemed to fall away as the sounds of the current gotham faded away to gotham, but different.

Vision-Tim opens his eyes and slips into their room. The decor was the same as Current-Tim's, and the placement of the trash was similar, though the discrepancies could be waved off as natural movements and shifting as time passed. When Vision-Tim looked at the date, Current-Tim shoved it to the back of his mind to review later.

But then, Vision-Tim looks at their laptop screen, and Tim- Both Tims- felt their breath hitch in shock, and the Vision is abruptly cut off as Current-Tim feels a hand against his shoulder.

He rips his arm from his face, ignoring how his brain SCREAMED at the sudden movement, and he looks up to see Robin- the second robin, his robin- staring down at him with a worried expression, batman hovering on the next roof over.

"Hey kid, you okay?" Robin- Jason- asks, "You're crying... do you want to talk about it?"

Tim freezes like a deer in headlights, two agonizingly long seconds filled with silence stretched between them when, in one fluid and sudden move, Tim darted away.

Jason called after him, but they weren't fast enough. Tim easily drowns in the shadows and disappears, leaving behind the confused duo and a air of quiet mystery.

But, five days later, even AFTER Tim had tried to warn the bats about Jason's impending death... They didn't listen, and the future played out like clockwork.

So, what could he do?

Well, Tim did what he does best, and takes matters into his own hands. He receives his visions, sometimes looking for them himself using his scrying ball, and deposits the information directly into the laps of the GCPD and the Bats like a cat of sorts.

on one of the nights, when he's calling on a burner phone to try and warn people of Batman's path, he says, "Rumor has it: Batman will be carving through the East End tonight. Stay home, and remain quiet."

And then, people start referring to him as Rumor, and it wasnt hurting anyone, so Tim never intervened and the name just... caught on.

Little did he know, Rumor was now on a certain Oracle's radar...

[piedpiperart]

Raccoon Tim Drake from my fic Can We Keep Him

[nana-mizu-shiki]

Huh. Who'd of thought it was that easy to figure out Batman's secret identity, weird.

Tim losing his memory with very little information present:

Damian hadn't been aware Kryptonians, half or otherwise, could pass out in surprise.

Interesting.

Ok, I might have been rooting for the thruple root but this is hilarious. I also never heard of Guy before this but I don't care cus' this was Hella cute.

Anyway here's the link to the series because I was craving meta-immortal Tim and this was amazing. (’v’*)♪ Absolutely beautiful. p(^^)q

X.

Series: Dead Robins Club

Creator: Niveara

Words: 34,339

Works: 7

Complete: No

[thoughtsaboutbats]

When Tim first started seeing the harsh lines that form the boxes that now followed him around daily, he thought he was going crazy. They weren’t the first thing to make him think that of course, if they were the only sign he’d just think he needed to see an optometrist. No, the first thing to make him question his sanity was his conviction that Bruce was alive despite the literal corpse they had buried, just because of one painting that kinda looked like him.

The second sign was when he realized none of this was real. That one he had pushed hard against. Obviously the world was real, he was real, how else could he even be questioning his existence. He’s pretty sure that’s what Descartes was going on about (that’s the guy that said I think therefore I am, right? Tim wasn’t so sure. Philosophy wasn’t his thing).

This revelation had worried him so much he almost gave up his search for Bruce, and he had even been looking into antipsychotics when Ra’s ninjas found him in Paris. He didn’t tell them he thought their entire universe was fake of course, it wouldn’t do for Ra’s to know he was losing it, but he did lay out his evidence for Bruce being alive and lost in time, and they seemed convinced enough that it was possible, so he kept going. At least now he knew he wasn’t completely out of touch with reality. Probably. He didn’t think there was a reason Ra’s would have his people help Tim search for evidence that was all in his head but you never know with Ra’s.

The boxes had started appearing sometime between when Tim first encountered the ninjas and when he finally accepted their help. They were thin, practically non existent lines hovering in the air in seemingly random places. Sometimes they were big and distant, even going so far as looking like a strange line in the sky. Sometimes they were so close to him, they looked like someone was putting a frame around his face, or the person he was talking to’s.

He knew, instinctively that they were the reality of his fake world. The boxes he saw were the way people outside his reality saw what was happening. How they made it happen? He definitely didn’t have enough brain space to process that without actually going crazy. But he knew he wasn’t real, no one and nothing he knew was real. They were characters, playing their parts in the narrative.

Or he was going crazy.

But when he stumbled to his feet in that desert, blood pouring out of the hole in his abdomen where he had been stabbed through just a moment ago, surrounded by the corpses of the assassins he had befriended, Pru desperately trying to suck in air around the blood pour down her throat, he really didn’t care if he was crazy or not. They were hours out from the city at this point, and he had no clue where any nearer settlements were, let alone how to get to them without setting off any of the explosives buried in the sands. There was no hope of getting to the medical care they needed. Unless Tim wasn’t crazy, and he was actually seeing their hotel room, just a few short feet away though one of the boxes.

The decision to try to step through the box was easy. After some rudimentary first aid to slow the blood flow from both of their injuries, Tim pulled Pru up, looped her arm over his neck and dragged them both through the there-not there box.

What he saw as he traveled between boxes, between panels, was something he couldn’t describe properly if he tried. The closest he could get would be it was live stepping into a perfectly white room, no shadows anywhere, no way to tell where the floor became the wall. Except that one side of the room was full of windows that each showed snapshots of his life. He could see, just above his head, close enough he could reach into it if he tried, the moment that Widower had stabbed him. The words the widower had said in that moment floated there in neat little bubbles.

The other side of the room though, hurt to look at. Attempting to even look at it long enough to describe was like looking at the sun, except it was his brain that was overwhelmed rather than the photoreceptors of his eyes. He knew though, that that was where reality lay, and that trying to go over there would almost certainly destroy him.

Tim didn’t stop to stare at any of this though. His goal was to get Pru and himself into their hotel room and get help. In just a few short strides he was there. The angle this panel was at wasn’t nearly as convenient to step through as the first, as it was a downward shot of the room that left him with no choice but to basically jump down from the ceiling. He managed the jump without breaking a leg or dropping Pru though, and they both fell back onto the bed. He heard the door open and someone exclaim at the sight of them just before he passed out from blood loss.

[thatshadowgastwhore]

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

[autistic-human]

My art for @arrowheadedbitch AU’s

I wonder who is having a better time

Or

[timmydraker]

Tim always has his neck covered.

In photos taken by paparazzi or news articles he’ll be wearing a turtle neck, scarf or the occasional choker.

Around the manor he wears similar things but it’s more often he wears a thick band around his throat. It might be a velvet choker or a sort of sweat and like accessory. Sometimes, if it’s hot or he feels safe and confident, he will wear a thick strip of ribbon that he’ll tie in a bow at the back.

Tim’s Robin suit was altered to make sure his neck was covered after Bruce figured out he was wearing the bands during patrol and began to worry about it being a chance for him to be choked. If it’s not, he has an undershirt that’s thin and goes up to his chin.

He doesn’t eat in public very often and it leads some people to think he had some kind of issue with swallowing or maybe some kind of defect or hole in his throat.

Obviously everyone is curious, from the public to his own parents.

But Tim is a master of getting people to look away.

It’s when Jason comes back to Gotham as Red Hood and attacks Titan Tower than the reason behind is revealed.

Various non-fatal injuries are given to Tim, who of course, figures that is because Red Hood didn’t want to kill him so much as make it so he couldn’t be Robin, but it’s not all that important when other wounds are added and the slice has cut his turtle neck open.

Blood and his hand rushing up to cover his throat is the only cover for what’s under the fabric until he’s in the medical room at the Cave.

Tim is out by the time rescue comes and doesn’t wake for a while.

Which gives his family enough time to go through the grief of witnessing the horror on his neck.

There, between slight tan markings and surrounded by dried blood and a small cut, is a mouth.

It looks like a scar at first, but with some prodding the lines of the ‘scar’ split open and it’s revealed to be two pursed lips that concealed disturbing needle teeth, a nasty forked tongue limp within the unnatural mouth. It’s like something out of a horror movie, as wide as half of Tim’s neck and somehow replacing the usual parts of a throat and neck.

Alfred stands back in shock, same with Leslie, and the two look at each other in confusion.

Wordlessly, Leslie covers up the monstrous mouth with some spare bandages and the two continue to work.

Bruce, who had been nervously watching with a pacing Dick through the window of the makeshift med at in the Cave, feels dread in his stomach at the sight.

Part of it is admittedly because he feels he let a being like Tim be Robin, but it’s more so that the sweet boy with a too quick snark and brain had seemingly been hiding his Meta like ability from everyone. His parents weren’t aware of why Tim hid his throat, which means he wasn’t born with it or it developed later on.

Dick, who loves with his entire heart, can’t help himself from feeling disturbed by his youngers inhuman feature.

Yet they pull it together and with mutual understanding, decide they will find a way to figure this out and adjust to this new reality.

So, when Tim wakes up and immediately checks his throat is covered, Bruce gives him an unused look of being sorry and holds his hand.

“I… we had no choice, your neck was bleeding but-“ he takes a breath and his expression changes to determination, “I understand why you hid your, um…”

Tim in a quiet voice as he forces himself not to freak out mutters, “mutation.”

Bruce smiled at his intellectual son, “Mutation. Dick said you might be worried I would make you leave and I swear to you, Tim, both as Batman and Bruce Wayne, that you will never be made to leave this place. This is your home, that will not change.”

It takes a moment for Tim to fully process what had been said to him and he begins to shake, tears threatening to fall as he brings a hand to cover his throat.

“Are you-are you scared of it?”

Of me?

Bruce feels guilt form in his stomach and moved without thinking, pulling his heavily injured child into his arms and kissing his head, “Never, not now and not ever. I admit I was… unsure of how to react at first, but I know you Tim.”

Tim begins to sob then, clinging to Bruce and forgetting all the pain and panic he woke up with to feel the embrace of his mentor.

It’s enough to make Dick’s penitence snap and he moves into the room and joins their hug, squeezing them both tightly as possible.

When they pull back, Tim sees them both glance at his throat and sucks in a deep breath.

Dick raises a hand to his free one and says, “you don’t have to show us if you don’t want to.” But Tim shakes his head and pulls the bandage off carefully.

“I don’t want to hide anymore, not if I don’t have to.”

There, below his chin, is the mouth.

Now that he is awake, the mouth is more active. Its tongue lolls out for a moment, licking over the sharp teeth before flicking and slinking back inside.

When Tim speaks again the mouth doesn’t move, though it does seemingly smile, “It doesn’t talk, that’s kind of the only reason I still have the one on my face. I need to eat with this one though and it can be anything, organic or not.”

Dick looks on with wonder, pushing away his nerves to support his brother.

Bruce looks like he’s itching to do test or ask questions, and Tim smiles gratefully at him and does his best to supply what he does know, “It started to form when I was three but didn’t open until I was six and by then I found I couldn’t eat with my main mouth. It was when I found myself chewing on my fork and the metal broke and I ate it safely I realised I can eat all material.”

Smiling shyly, Tim searches the back of his head and says, “Steal taste the best.”

When Dick snorts a laugh and Bruce raises a curious eyebrow, Tim looks around and finds a spare pencil beside him on the side table.

The two watch as Tim’s entire head falls backwards for his gaunt mouth to open, looking almost like he’s been half decapitated.

The younger shoots out, wraps around the pencil, and then crushes its with strength and teeth until he swallows it down and his head falls back into place.

Bruce breaks and starts asking questions while Dick pokes at his brothers neck.

[stickytrashsuitcaseuniversity]

Fic: The Cave Files: Babysitting Author: IzzyMRDB (Current) Words: 898 (Current) Chapters: 1/1

[ditzyredrobin]

Tim’s parents knew about his ability to see the future from a young age. He would sometimes just stop and stand eerily still while playing with his blocks and then spout something he should know nothing about.

First it was the death of his goldfish which his parents were able to just blow off as a one off sort of deal. It was getting up their in age so you know. Not impossible.

Then it was the death of his aunt involving black ice two weeks before it happened. And then it just kept happening. A death, a birth, and then it was Drake Industries related. While playing with his trains, he mentioned a good DI investment.

Eventually they found out they could bribe him into more tips. Good investments, bad investments, stocks, etc.

It was okay, though, they took him out for ice cream once and bought him a stuffed duck he named Mr Waddles. It made his parents happy and they spent time with him so he didn’t mind the headache or mental strain.

[absolutely-esme]

Hungry Monster Tim au part 4

part 1

Part 2

Part 3

First off, I have decided that one facet of Tim's hunger-based supernatural nature is being able to eat various things that humans probably shouldn't. This does not bypass the risks associated with him over eating, so he still has to be careful. He's never going to have an issue with food poisoning, not that this matters all that much, given that most toxins one encounters in Gotham are applied in other ways.

...

I have decided that Tim's friends from Young Justice know more about Tim's supernatural nature than almost anybody else.

These are the friends he hung out with for his crazy adventures outside the Bats' scrutiny. Lots of crazy stuff happened, and he did lots of crazy stuff and used his crazy powers.

Some of them have tried to convince Tim to eat various weird things to see what would happen (sometimes he did, if he was reasonably confident it wouldn't throw his metabolism out of wack).

At least two members of the team have a long-standing bet about what, precisely, Tim inherited his supernatural weirdness from and whether or not they will encounter it.

No adults will ever hear of Tim's supernatural weirdness from them. They ain't snitches. Tim is their weird, scrungly cryptid guy. Mind your business.

The Supercycle may or may not know more details than other members of Young Justice.

Young Justice know Tim primarily as a scrungly, half-feral mess who is perpetually tired and grouchy but cares a lot, and who will absolutely pick a fight with any fucked up magic thing that isn't his friend. They have seen him do some absurd things as challenges.

To them, Tim is mostly Regular Tim with occasional shifts into Feral Cryptid Tim. They know of Emotional Support Tim, but just think of it as another weird thing Tim does sometimes. It tends to weird them out more than Feral Cryptid Tim, honestly.

Klarion is a bit less of a serious threat and a bit more the guy that they rib about "the incident." Klarion still messes with them, but makes a point not to stand too close to Tim.

If Tim still has a bad timeline evil future self, it's not Gun Batman.

[profounddestinyrebel]

What if Tim had a meta twin sister? Her and Tim fake her death because she's a meta and with Tim planning on becoming Robin, they don't want her to be discovered. They come up with a fake id Caroline, and Tim later labels her as an informant to have a reason to keep in contact.

Her power is being literally imperceptible, as in she can't be noticed. She could walk up to Batman and steal a batarang without being caught. Yes, this is overpowered but the downside is this: it's difficult to turn off. So when she first developed the ability, she went for weeks without touch and people even acknowledging her. She gets more attuned to her powers but that means that weeks have turned to days instead.

The only person who can see her is Tim, and even then it's only because they worked for it and because of his own power. Yes, in this Tim is a meta! He has the ability to switch bodies with his sister, and only his sister. He helps her learn control by switching their bodies and then having her try to turn it on and off. Switching bodies allows her to turn it off easier and has the side effect of making Tim mostly immune to her power.

Tim keeps her a complete secret from everyone. The rest of the world only knows her as Tim's twin sister that died as a child from an accident. Even once they realize Bruce probably would have accepted her, (and probably adopted her too with his taking Duke in as evidence) she at least doesn't want the fanfare and awkwardness that would ensue when they all realize that she isn't dead.

The reveal would have to be suitably dramatic. Tim could be trapped with no way out. He swaps with Caroline and she turns it on, vanishing to everyone else. She then, in Tim's body, walks out of the trap and calls Tim for another swap once she's safe.

Or, the key to stopping some apocalypse level event is in the middle of a heavily guarded fortress and their heavy hitters are otherwise occupied. Tim calls Caroline to fill her in, swaps them, and she vanishes and grabs the key/info and meets back with the Bats who are freaking out at Tim vanishing without saying anything.

Both of these could also leave the Bats with the impression that Tim is the one with the vanishing ability and still with no knowledge of Caroline's existence.