#theres something about the devotion of the act that dick couldnt let go of

[melodyatlas]

long time no work on the list of prompts given by @profandomhopper i still love all of them sm, eventually i will get to all of them lmao <333

this one isnt gonna be a real fic cause i’ll get way too bogged down in making it so detailed and expansive bc i love love love reverse robins so much- but lets ramble on about this a little, yeah?

tim is only there the night dick’s parents die because he’s stalking bruce a little bit (look, he’s past the revenge part of his red hood era, but he and bruce still aren’t on good terms and there’s smthn about bruce taking jason to the fucking circus of all things that tim can’t just ignore. so hes there. for research.)

so tim is there solo, watching bruce, and he walks past a young dick grayson before the show, catching his eye. maybe its because he’s wearing a coat even though its still closer to summer weather than fall, maybe its the pretty, unnatural white streak in tims hair, or the long scars on his cheeks- whatever it is, dick can’t look away, and tim has always been /very/ good at knowing when he’s being watched

so tim notices dick right back, and is intrigued by this kid in full acrobatic get-up, and yeah, he could let the moment pass, keep walking, follow bruce and jason into the tent they just disappeared into- but he was raised in certain social circles, knows how to make small talk- and he was batmans partner, knows how to talk to kids and put them at ease in hard situations

so he stops and talks to the kid. finds out dick is nervous. not about the acts he’ll perform in show- no, hes been training for this for years- he’s as comfortable up on the bars and tightropes as he is on the ground- but about how big the crowd is, how he’s only just started joining his parents for real performances, and gotham is the biggest city theyve been to since he started.

tim gets dick to tell him about his favorite part of the act- a quadruple front flip- and he tells dick to try to imagine hes just practicing during the performance, don’t look or think past all the lights, just let the sound wash over him and focus on his own heartbeat. theres not going to be anyone else in the tent, just him and his parents.

he sets dick at ease, and before they part ways, dick tells him that he wont imagine theres no one else there, that instead he’ll imagine its just tim there. that he’ll do the flip for him. it earns him a ruffle of his hair as they part ways, and if tim makes sure his seat has a good view of both bruce and the aerial part of the show, then thats no one’s business but his.

none of them expected the tragedy of that night.

tim certainly didn’t expect bruce to take dick in- or even for dick to remember his interaction with tim that night, past all the trauma of losing his parents like that.

but dick does remember. and over the years he makes it a point to remind tim that /hes/ the first bat dick met. even if tim doesn’t consider himself a bat at all.

tims still quite estranged from most of them for the first few years that dick is with them, but as soon as dick picks the robin moniker and is on patrols, tim finds that he has a shadow quite often. no. shadow isnt the right word for it. shadows are silent, often overlooked. robin is not silent, and impossible to overlook- constantly butting into tim’s business as the red hood, even more annoying than jason was when he was trying to get tim to “see reason” about going back into the fold. jason was the one who ended up seeing reason there though, and eventually realized that the fractures between tim and bruce weren’t going to be fixed no matter how much meddling he did

jason could be convinced that while the bats cant kill, the red hood did actually need to. it was necessary to tim’s goal of controlling crime- but dick was never going to be convinced. and he was young enough and optimistic enough, that tim couldn’t keep having that argument with him like he did with jason. something about dick just made tim want to protect him. protect his world view.

so on the nights when robin trails after the red hood, he goes a little softer, and it fuels dick’s obsession with tim, knowing that the red hood wont kill in front of him, knowing he’s the only one of the bats to evoke that gentleness from tim after his resurrection

it becomes a Thing as dick gets older. he spends more time trailing after tim- he says its because tim wont kill in front of him, and he’s just doing his part to keep the deaths from piling up, but he and tim both know theres a deeper reason. that dick just likes to be around him. that /tim/ just likes when dicks around.

then dick almost dies, the court of owls trying to take him, maybe, and tim ends up slaughtering the perpetrators with no mercy.

tim does not go to see dick at the manor while hes recovering.

dick does not take kindly to this.

as soon as hes physically able to sneak out, he does, makes his way to tim’s main base of operations and confronts him about killing a bunch of people for him, and in the argument dick yells out a confession- that he loves tim. that he’s kind of always loved tim- since that first meeting way back when he was just a little kid.

tim says it was just a childhood infatuation dick held too long- that dick’ll get over it, that he would have already if he hadnt spent all these years following tim around

an “I don’t want to get over it” from dick, before he’s pressed up against tim

and tim- he should probably make dick stop. age gap aside, if bruce finds out about this itll reignite all their issues with one another. dick tries his best to make it hard to think about bruce or any potential consequences though, and soon enough tim does succumb to it

the red hood may have a certain reputation, but /tim/ has never been about working solo- he’s always been about human connection, and playing the part of red hood makes him forget that sometimes, so he falls into what it feels like with dick. but only as tim. he doesn’t let it affect the red hood. but dick doesn’t care, /tim/ is the part he wanted anyway, they can keep fighting about what tim does as red hood so long as dick and tim are together.

[foulserpent]

ned has the most fleshed out history of any of my OCs. i typed it out over the past couple of days, theres some stufff missing but its over 2000 words as is.

here is neds life story prior to the oblviion crisis

ned was born in a village near falinesti’s summer rooting site. his father died before ned was born, and ned was raised by his mother and various farmhands in the community.

his mother was a farmer (though she had a shady past he was always peripherally aware of but never privy to), and they raised hogs and chickens for milk/meat/eggs and would be part of falenesti’s supply chain every year. niviiran also lived nearby, and the two were close friends throughout their childhood and adolescence.

“nasty ned” was in fact his birth name and a name he continued to use, though going by the latter part. he was never able to find out why his mother named him that. the name came in handy, given that ned is transgender and already had a fairly “masculine” name. he was recognized as a boy since he was around 10, but his mother was unable to afford the hormone replacement potions until his later teens.

when ned was 16, he started taking jobs at falenesti, mostly as a bouncer at its taverns. he had been a bit of a nervous child before that and to this day isnt sure why he chose that line of work, but it toughened him up considerably.

when he was about 20, his friend niviiran was being heavily pressured into marrying off to secure her family’s inherited silk business. niviiran saw this as the only chance to escape her emotionally abusive parents, and proposed the notion of entering into a (false) marriage with ned until she could get away. he agreed, both desiring to help his friend and hoping to benefit from niviiran’s far wealthier parents.

during this time, he had his first Actual intimate relationship, but it only lasted about a week. he had picked up a girlfriend at his job, but being emotionally immature and a bit of a dick, he thought that he did not need to inform her that he was TECHNICALLY married, since the marriage was fake and him and niv both did not mind. she left when he found out.

this marriage fell apart within a year, largely as a result of ned panicking and letting it slip while drunk at a gathering with niv’s family. this caused a huge commotion mostly directed at him (and was worsened by his continued panicking), and culminated in niviiran’s brother beating him and attempting to run him over with a horse as he fled. his leg was badly crushed and was saved by his mother.

though their marriage was fake, niviiran and ned had a real falling out as a result of this. both obviously felt bad for the harm to the other, but niv was very angry at ned for having let it slip and putting her in the position of having to run away from her controlling parents rather than leave freely. ned at the time was surprised and hurt that she was so mad, having taken her friendship for granted, and responded in kind. they separated angrily and did not see each other again after that point, and the way he treated niv is one of his first and biggest regrets.

after his leg was mostly healed, he decided he wanted to leave valenwood, at least for a while. he had developed some skill as a bodyguard, and managed to get himself hired to guard a merchant caravan that looped through valenwood, elsweyr, and cyrodiil. this was the time where he really came into his own in mercenary type fields, learning to use swords/shields/armor and how to hold his own against much larger foes. he also learned how to cook at this time, and had his first boyfriend. this relationship was not serious and did not last past ned’s contract with the caravan, but was significant and fondly remembered.

he chose not to continue as a caravan guard, and became interested in mercenary work instead. he joined up with cyrodiil’s fighters guild, and spent the next decade or so working for them. late in this period, he was subcontracted out to mainland morrowind on a longterm job as a hired guard. during this time, he met and began a relationship with yaksha gra-dralas, a morag tong agent. their relationship lasted about three years until ned’s contract ended. it was somewhat serious, but neither felt it was working out well enough to continue (and neds ass was too small). they went their separate ways, and ned returned to cyrodiil.

ned continued working for the fighters guild for an indeterminite amount of years, culminating in the events of oblivions fighters guild questline occurring. when ned was demoted for the death of the guildmaster’s son that he had nothing to do with, he decided that the guild was going to shit and that he was leaving. he resigned, and spent a few years hiring himself out independently as a mercenary or whatever else was paying.

eternally bad at settling, he became unsatisfied and decided to move again. he moved to vvardenfell, where he would live for the next 30 years or so. during this time, he joined their chapter of the fighters guild, took many odd jobs, and became more radicalized against the empire than he had already been (which was a lot).

notably, in the latter half of his time there, he met the disowned son of a hlaalu nobleman named ondryn. he and ondryn were assigned together on a longterm fighters guild job out in the wilderness, and began a relationship that would last a decade. it was ned’s longest relationship, and also the first one that he seriously considered the possibility of being permanent and settling with. he had loved all his partners before this, but ondryn was very special to him and brought out something much more serious in him.

it was this relationship that would also lead to ned’s involvement with daedric cults. ondryn was dissident against the tribunal and a follower of azura, boethiah, and mephala. this was just casual everyday worship, but the two joined an active sect of boethiah worshippers (at least partially trying to impress each other). ned had never been religiously motivated and believed that gods were not owed worship any more than anyone else, but was drawn to the “good daedra” for their seemingly mutually beneficial relationship with mortals.

ned was never the most devoted of boethiah’s sect, but through skill and luck he continuously proved himself worthy, and eventually was challenged to and won a tournament of 10 bloods. he was granted a title as champion of boethiah, and bestowed with the artifact goldbrand.

for a while, he proved himself worthy by continuing to maintain his position and defeat any challenger who came his way. but at one point, he was successfully kidnapped along with a fellow boethiah worshipper to be sacrificed to molag bal. he managed to free himself of his binds and escape, and came back with reinforcements to slaughter the rest of molag bal’s faithful, but it was too late for his friend.

this was the first decidedly traumatic incident of his life, and marked the beginning of a slow downturn of his life and his mental health. he was wracked with guilt at having left his friend to die, and was beginning to realize he wasnt really cut out for the whole champion of boethiah thing, rightfully fearing that he had lost favor for this weakness. in a stupid move (that would turn out smart in the long run in bargaining for his soul back), he kept goldbrand but fled with ondryn from the cult, ghosting boethiah and just hoping it wouldnt come back to bite him.

the blight was also worsening in vvardenfell at this point, with things beginning to get pretty scary. ned had repeatedly expressed desire for him and ondryn to flee vvardenfell, but the latter saw all this as just another crisis that would pass with time, and ned accepted this. around the time of the beginning of morrowind’s events, ondryn fell sick after an encounter with one of the ash creatures from red mountain. when it became obvious and undeniable that it was corprus, ondryn resigned himself to dying and asked of ned to help him be properly cremated and interred in his family tomb. all of ondryn’s living relatives had disowned him, but he still desired to be buried in his rightful place.

agreeing to this was the hardest thing ned had ever done. ondryn said goodbye and took poison, and ned was left alone to burn and lay his body to rest. he almost couldnt bring himself to do it, but eventually succeeded. after it was done, ned remained in the tomb for a few days, catatonic and just waiting to see if he would show symptoms himself. when it became clear that he had not contracted corprus, he considered suicide but became disgusted with himself and decided against it.

he remained in vvardenfell for a short while after this, but when his beloved guar (“jelly”) passed away of old age (mercifully peacefully), he decided enough was enough, and returned to cyrodiil. he had a couple of brief encounters with a person who he would later learn was the nerevarine, and left only weeks before the defeat of dagoth ur.

upon returning to cyrodiil, he was in a rut. he had become near-broke, had newly acquired mental health issues, had a constant fear of boethiah sending prospective champions after him, and had nothing to do with himself. he settled into the imperial city waterfront as a squatter, and attempted to join the thieves guild, but failed the initiation. desperate, he began thieving on his own, sometimes doing jobs for others and sometimes just to have money to get by.

he took a very large risk in agreeing to steal and imperial watch captain’s heirloom sword, and was captured in the act. he resisted arrest and injured the captain, and the captain personally intervened to get him a much steeper sentence than he otherwise would have. he was put into the imperial city prison for a few weeks, before being transferred to the arena and being put to work as a gladiator.

this was essentially a death sentence, with no determined ending besides dying in the arena. he met shap-mota here, a bard who had been blamed for a string of brutal assaults in spite of being pretty unquestionably Not the culprit. the two of them had an intimate relationship throughout this time, and struck up a friendship, but they were under a painful and unusual situation and it could not really be called a romantic relationship.

for a time, ned was managing well. he managed to get some serious dirt on one of the guard captains and effectively blackmail him. he wasnt able to secure his freedom, but was able to force his hand into giving him his sword (goldbrand) back and giving him and shap a bit more leeway as prisoners. having goldbrand is likely the only reason he survived and won all his death matches, but his uncooperativeness and humiliation of a few of the guards gave them a massive grudge.

after about 5 months, shap narrowly won a match, but had been gravely injured in the process and collapsed. ned last saw him being dragged out from the arena, and never saw anything that would indicate shap being alive, and had to assume he died. things got really bad after that, with ned having no buffer against the ire of the guards and other prisoners. he lost his blackmailing opportunity (though was allowed to keep goldbrand, due to the crowd loving his signature flaming sword) and was given absolutely terrible treatment from his captors.

he became incredibly disgusted with being forced to kill other prisoners and enraged at challengers who fought willingly. as he rose in the ranks, he was kept going by not knowing what else to do and by a grim satisfaction at murdering people who willingly chose to be combatants. this was very traumatizing.

ned achieved champion rank, though he almost lost his final match. his opponent disarmed him and instead of killing him, gloated and slashed at him with goldbrand, ripping his abdomen open and giving him his biggest scars. ned managed to take him by surprise and kill his opponent before passing out from shock and blood loss.

he woke up a day later to find he had been released. evidently, no one expected him to live that long and it was decided he might as well be let go. ned already had trauma to deal with, but was suddenly experiencing very unusual and new symptoms (which was ptsd and an anxiety disorder) that he had no idea what to do with. he was also convinced that his challenger was there on boethiah’s behalf, though he cant be sure of that, and the fear of being killed and left to the daedra who probably owned his soul took hold of him again.

he had been given some prize money, and he collected himself and left. he moved into kvatch, and rented an attic from some dunmer in exchange for proofreading his stupid “opus” about him killing all the cliff racers or whatever.

ned spent a few years in a haze, kind of just drifting through life, getting into shit here and there. there was an “incident” involving the towns blacksmith at the general store, and he was not arrested but was considered to owe a favor to the town’s watch captain due to the chaotic results that few dare to speak of.

this favor was finally cashed in when kvatch was burnt down by mehrune’s dagons invasion force and they needed someone to try and close the gate, and lo and behold here comes ned “owes a favor” nasty and some argonian from out of town who just kind of wandered in.