Daphne's Blessing 🌿

• so we wander •

Having read a bunch of comics now (though lets be honest, not nearly enough and I'm still working through a lot of the young justice and red robin comics when it comes to Tim content) its really funny how Batman acts like Tim doesn't lies to him. Or that he can somehow tell when Tim is lying.

Tim lies all the time during his run as Robin. He lies to his friends, his parents, Bruce! He loves lying to Bruce! Hell, are we forgetting the fake uncle scheme! And yet in various stories, when Bruce needs one of the Robins to tell him something, he asks for Tim's word because the other's "lie." It doesn't make sense?

And then I got to thinking and I realize, when Bruce says Tim doesn't lie, what he really means is "Tim doesn't break his promises."

Even in the context of the panel above, Bruce isn't trying to extract information. He's trying to get his kids to stay out of the fight.

Tim is loyal to Bruce in a way no other Robin is. Dick and Jason left (Dick to find himself and less said about Jason the easier). Steph and Bruce have a sort-of relationship that never felt really close to me. Damian is a child with a burning desire to prove himself and no real understanding of his own limits. Plus -- for a good chunk of his run and really depending on his writer -- warring priorities. He wants to do right by both of his birthrights.

Tim found Bruce when he was sucidal. Tim found him when he was at his lowest and stayed. Tim found him in the timestream when everyone else thought Bruce was dead. Even now, with a new mantle as Red Robin, Tim has stayed! He’s not in another city. Yes he has his teams. But Tim is in Gotham. Tim works with Bruce. Tim is, first and foremost, an idealist boarding on a romantic with a deep belief in the power/symbolism of Batman & Robin. And that idealism means Tim is loyal to Batman.

So when Bruce says "Tim don't lie to me." What Tim hears is, "Give me your word and promise me." And I think that says a lot about their relationship.

| a little tomfoolery

Anyone got some toxic timkon fanfic recs? Any variation and TimKon are together in the end. Obsessive/possessive behavior is appreciated.

I genuinely love all flavors of superbats and will enjoy all of them in the same fic even though irl I would never date my brother in law/stepbrother because that level of familial integration can only lead to madness.

But at the same time…

Like at what point do the supers just go “well this new one just showed up and is about the same age as X bat so let’s just start saving for the wedding in advance.” While Bruce plays dumb and refuses to acknowledge the pattern in fear of simply imploding from the surrealism that is his life.

twenty years across the sea

Absolute CRACK BatFic Idea:

An AU where Tim knows Batman needs a Robin and discovers (somehow) that Bruce Wayne has a biological son and sets out on a quest to kidnap Damian into become the new Robin.

It’s like “Fine! Dick doesn’t want it and Jason’s dead. If Bruce Wayne needs a son to turn into Robin, I’m going to go get him one!”

Too competent, no awareness Tim Drake (very fandom Tim Drake I know but listen…. It’d be funny!) hacking into the League of Assassin computers (sneaks into the cave during Bruce’s solo patrols to connect his personal laptop to get access to the BatNet) so he can talk to Damian (small boi, very sweet, was never taught internet safety because who the fuck could be talking to him on the LoA’s intranet!) and get his location.

Tim waiting months, befriending Damian the whole time, until Talia takes Damian to one of the Leagues’ European safe houses, all the while promising Damian that he’s his friend and he wants to meet but his mom is too protective.

Tim: you can’t tell her. She’ll make us stop talking.

Damian: but what if I convince her we’re friends?

Tim: hmmm let’s wait until I can see you in person! That way we can convince her together!

Maybe they’re in Paris (it’s always Paris) when Tim meets and admits the reason he’s talking to Damian is because he knows his dad who sent him to bring him home (lie).

“I’m friends with his eldest son,” Tim says, you know… like a liar. (But he did snap a selfie with Dick for this exact purpose because oh holy contingencies Batman. “I can take you to your dad.”

And Damian is unsure and resists but than Tim points out Talia never tells Damian when he’ll get to see his dad. “And isn’t taking initiative something encourages by the LoA, Dami?”

Anyway, Tim gets Damian on that plane fast enough (and with Damian’s help and Tim’s tech savvy sneakily enough) to avoid the ninjas. Until it’s 8 hour later and Tim is knocking on the door (he’d tricked Dick into visiting for the weekend because he knows he’s going to need the older boy to smooth all this over) like “TA-DA! NEW SON ALERT!”

Cue fallout and Dick and Bruce quickly realizing they’ve got two new kids in the house because Talia is going to have to pry sweet baby, naive, adorably arrogant 6 year old Damian from Bruce’s cold dead fingers and also “Oh my god we need to fix this little stalker neighbor boy before he becomes a new rogue.”

(Side Note: this could so easily be a horror fic from limited POV like Damian’s :D where the audience doesn’t know who Damian is talking to while he’s being stalked and eventually kidnapped. Until the end it’s revealed to be Tim who’d have never hurt Damian and actually did bring him to Gotham to meet Bruce!)

Hey so actually I might be a little obsessed with how Tim is Dick’s only real brother.

Like hear me out. HEAR ME OUT!

Dick’s relationship with Jason is full of regret and guilt. They might be building something now but their past is full of inflicting rotting wounds (metaphorical and often literal) on each other. Dick started the pattern first when he rejected Jason as Robin. And later Jason raging against Dick after his return. Jason’s semi-valid villain crash out ending with Dick putting him in Arkham because Jason was a straight villain pre-rebirth. And even then it takes rebirth remixed canon to allow Jason some family bonding time. I say they have a handful of months — and even then how often did Dick visit! He didn’t start reconnecting with the BatFam until after the Killing Joke and Death in the Family — they got along before shit got worse.

Damian is Dick’s BABY! That is his firstborn! Dick might have had some adoption tendencies pre-crisis with Jason but they realized that shit with Dick’s (Second? Third?) time in the cowl. Dick saw this small murderous child and was like “I can do it better than Bruce” and did. And yes they might be settling into a brotherly role with Bruce stepping the fuck up.* But I promise you having witnessed siblings with a 10 year age gap — even when the parents are perfect and emotionally available — that older sibling quickly becomes a third parent. With Dick, he was the first second and third parent. No way Damian and Dick could ever just be brothers and I love that for them.

So that leaves Tim! The little baby brother he started calling little brother YEARS before Bruce ever adopted Tim.** Timmy, the freak who broke into his apartment to track him down and drag him back to Gotham. Timmy who Dick follows back to Gotham and — through his growing relationship with Tim — reconnects with his second family.

He spent his early 20s with Tim! He comes into his own as Nightwing with Tim as Robin. He literally grows into his adult self with Tim as his witness.

How many lows has Tim helped him pick up after? How many falls has Dick caught Tim after (metaphorically and literally)?

But that’s the sweet sappy shit.

Tim is the one brother Dick doesn’t have to be responsible with. He eats shitty pizza with Tim. He has movie nights and hang outs and poor-tasting inside jokes with Tim. They race each other across rooftops! They play fight in the streets. Dick booby traps his apartment so Tim can have fun breaking in.*** Dick complains about his messy love life to Tim while Tim mocks him!

THEY ARE BROTHERS YOUR HONOR!

With Jason there is too much pain. With Damian there is too much responsibility. With Tim, Dick gets to be his age and just hangout with his brother!

There is a reason Dick calls Tim his equal. Dick loves his brothers, he’ll always be there for them. But Tim is the one Dick doesn’t have to watch or monitor or hover over. Tim is his brother, not his regret or his child.

20 years in real time and 4 years of comic time put Tim and Dick through the ringer. No Man’s Land. Knightfall. The nuking of Bloodhaven. Contagion. Try to name a tragedy Tim and Dick haven’t witnessed and weathers side by side! But no matter how they fight or have to disappear for the mission, they always find each other and trust each other and believe in each other. Because they are truly brothers!

(So context… I’m very much reading the 90s and 2000s run. I’m like chronologically in 98. I’ve heard modern comics have dropped this FOR SOME FUCKING REASON (they forget Tim exists, I guess). But I refuse to believe that rebirth got rid of their brotherly bond. Just as Tim’s “friendship” with Kon-El transcends timelines so does Dick and Tim’s brotherly bond! They are family bonded through the fires of time and comic book bullshit!)

* How much this is true take with a grain of salt. I’m not reading modern yet. I’ve read some cause Damian just slaps and I love him. But there’s so much!

** Tim was adopted for like a year before being emancipated. WILD! What fatherless behavior!

*** What feral menaces! I love them!!! I just need to scream. Not important. Carry on. ^>^

I had a fun idea for a canon compliant Bruce & Tim ABO fic where Tim is presenting as an omega and he calls Bruce to take him back to the manor during the time Jack made him give up Robin.

Like Jack and Dana are in the other room but Tim wants to be with his pack alpha and that hasn’t been Jack in a long time.

And it’s painful because Jack isn’t the worst dad in the world. He’s been really trying lately, even before he found out about Robin, he’s been giving a real effort. But it doesn’t make up for all the years he was shitty and absent. He’s still got a temper and a tendency to threaten Tim with boarding school. And Bruce is who Tim feels safest with. He’s Batman but he’s also the guy who held him when his mom died and takes care of him after hard patrols. Who asks about his schoolwork and pets his hair when he’s tired during a stake out.

So he’s present as an omega and calls Bruce to take him home and Bruce shows up bc he’ll always do his best to never let one of his kids down again. And Bruce has already called Dick over (omega or beta I’m not sure) and Alfred is preparing the pack nest for Tim’s presentation. And he knocks on the door.

And Jack opens the door with a gun, demanding to know why Bruce is here while his son is in heat.

And Bruce has to tell this man who hates him, who feels emasculated by his very presence, that his presenting omega son didn’t feel safe enough in Jack’s home and called Bruce. And it’s made worse because Tim has his bags packed and he’s standing behind the two of them, swaying from the pain, and waiting for Jack to step aside so he can go be with his dad.

And Jack wants to rant and rave and force Tim back into his pack nest and cover his son in his scent and just get him to stay and be safe in his arms. But Tim is standing there waiting to leave and it is a reckoning. That even if Tim has agreed to let go of Robin to make him happy. Even if Tim says he loves him and calls him dad and pretends to follow his rules, Tim will never view him as a dad.

Maybe Jack will blame the coma. He’ll think it was the start of everything going wrong. Maybe he’ll remember, for just a moment, Timothy crying as they dropped him off at his boarding school — just 7 years old and so scared to be separated from his pack — begging them not to leave, clinging to his shirt asking why he didn’t love him enough to stay. But then his mind will reject it, not ready to face a reality where it was always this broken. And he will blame Bruce. He hates Bruce Wayne and everything this man represents as a threat to his family.

So he’ll move to raise the gun, to threaten Bruce Wayne, the prince of Gotham, off of his front porch, only for Dana to tap him on the shoulder and ask him to let Tim through. Because this isn’t about Jack and Bruce or even Jack and Tim. It’s about Tim. It’s about what his instincts need.

Jack will look at his son, really look at him and not the son he wished Tim was but the son Tim is. And he’ll see his son staring at Bruce with so much unmasked love and trust, a look he hasn’t seen since Tim was toddler in his arms. And he’ll step aside. Because for all his faults, Jack Drake loves his son. And it’s the single most selfless thing he’ll ever do as a parent.

And three weeks later, he’ll be dead.

In modern comics, why are artists drawing Damian to look like Tim/Dick? His hair is no longer spiked, his eyes aren’t green but blue, he’s paler. It’s weird right? Like Damian looks a lot like young Tim and I don’t get it? At least they keep Damian’s costume unique.