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unfinishedslurs · 2 months ago

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every robin gets a freebie

reverse robins in the aftermath of the death of filipe garzonas

A CD was in the mail within the next week, blank but for a note that slipped out when the envelope was opened. You should really trust in your birds more often, B. Learn from your mistakes for once.

Jason felt bile in his throat. It was body cam footage, blurry and half obscured, of Robin and Garzonas on the roof. Footage that still clearly showed Garzonas taking a too-far step back, Robin lunging to reach him, and then…

But that’s not what happened, Jason doesn’t say. His tongue feels swollen and thick in his mouth.

Batman takes off the cowl solemnly. “Jaylad,” he says. “Jason. I’m so sorry for doubting you. I never should have…”

He can’t be here anymore. He can’t be in this cave, can’t stand Bruce looking at him like that, can’t stand to even be in the vicinity of the Robin uniform he no longer deserves.

He bolts for the exit.

“Jason!” he hears Bruce call, but he doesn’t stop. He can’t. Not even when he nearly runs into Alfred, not when Damian tries to grasp his arm, not when Duke asks him what’s wrong or when Tim yelps in surprise and drops his cane jumping out of the way. He just runs, out the manor door and into the night.

For a split second the figure on the roof is overlaid with Gloria. Beautiful, resigned Gloria, who was so scared of what Felipe would do to her that she would do anything to stop it.

Then he blinks, and he’s on the rooftop with the Spoiler.

“Relax,” Spoiler says, “I’m not gonna jump. I'm only three steps into my five-step plan for world dominance. Can’t leave that unfinished. Imagine the paperwork.”

“I dunno.” Jason’s hands are shaking. “You seem like the kinda freak who would enjoy that.”

Spoiler lowers her mask, and Stephanie Brown smiles at him.

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“You know.” His voice wavers. “You know. You know what I did. How did you…why did you…what was the reason?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes!”

“Call it tradition then, I guess.” Steph sounds almost amused. “Robin’s flock together.”

“But you don’t like me.”

“Who told you that?”

No one, but she doesn’t exactly go out of her way to talk to Jason. He just kind of assumed.

Tim’s awkward around him. Sometimes they’re fine, like when he wandered into the library where Jason was and asked if he wanted to get ice cream together. Other times he wouldn’t see him for three weeks. Jason tries not to think about the nights Tim has had dreams that left him cackling loud enough to wake Jason up the couple times he’s stayed the night at the Nest, or the things he heard Tim shout about little birds and broken nests when he was fear gassed.

It kind of sucks, being your brother's biggest trigger.

(Those three weeks may be a case of mutual avoidance, but Jason will never admit it.)

When he doesn’t say anything, Steph sighs. “How much do you know about when I was Robin?”

“Uh,” he says, caught off guard, “not much, I guess?” He knows that it was because something was going on with Tim. That’s about it, really. He asked once, when he was still new to Robin and the Manor. He didn’t ask again after he saw the look on Tim’s face.

“Bruce didn’t really want me. Damian didn’t think I was worthy of the mantle, and took every chance he could to remind me. Tim was pissed at me for it. None of them wanted me there, and I tried so hard to prove them wrong. To be the Robin I knew I could be.”

That…can’t be right. The few times he had asked about Stephanie Brown, Tim had nothing but good words to say. Bruce and Damian spent so much time wallowing in their regrets it was insane. For her to say nobody wanted her there, when her absence was a shadow that followed them constantly around Wayne Manor, was baffling.

Steph looks down at the helmet in her hands. “All I wanted was their approval, and it made me stupid. I overestimated myself. That’s how you get killed in this game, kid. Don’t get too cocky for your britches, and all that.”

Jason is shaking again by the time they get to the Nest. He hesitates at the window, sending a pleading look to Spoiler that she completely ignores ushering him in.

Tim spins around in his tricked out gaming chair, frown pulling oddly against the wide scars on his cheeks. He flicks his comm off. “Steph?” Then his eyes found Jason. “Jason! Thank God, we were starting to get worried about you. Duke told everyone to give you space, but…”

His mouth is too dry to say anything in response, so he just shrugs. Tim tilts his head, examining him, before looking at Spoiler questioningly.

She takes off her mask again, lowering her hood and shaking out her hair. “We need some help,” she explains, and nudges Jason forward.

He stays stubbornly in his place, head tilted towards the floor. Steph sighs. “If you don’t tell him,” she says, “I will.”

He whips his head around. “You promised!”

“My name is literally The Spoiler.” She bares her teeth at him. “I get that you’re nervous, kid, but I do not have time for this.”

“For what?” Tim says. God, Tim’s going to be like a dog with a bone with this. He’s never met a mystery he didn’t want to solve. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I killed Filipe!” He blurts out and freezes, moving immediately to hide behind Spoiler. She doesn’t let him, grabbing his shoulder and holding him firmly to the spot.

Tim gapes at him. “You…” he trails off, slowly turning to Steph, who holds his gaze steadily. “The footage?”

“I have connections.”

“Of course you do.” He rubs a hand over his face. “How are we playing this?

What?

“We keep going along with what’s been presented to him,” Spoiler responds without hesitation. “B’s paranoid, but he’s also the king of denial. There’s no doctoring on the tape itself, he won’t look any deeper.”

“And Damian?”

“Like he gives a shit.”

“True,” he admits. “Duke wouldn’t care enough to check either way, so that just leaves Cass.”

Steph swears. “Fuck, Cass. Do you think she’ll say something?”

“Yes. Ugh, yes she will. Fuck.”

“Think you can talk some sense into her?”

“Maybe.” He squints at Jason. “I’ll probably play up the ‘ridden by guilt’ and ‘will never happen again’ angle. He definitely reads it.”

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Jason finally says, lungs fighting for air. “I—I killed someone!”

“Not according to Bruce, you didn’t.” Tim tells him.

“You want me to lie?”

“Yes.”

He looks at Steph imploringly, begging her to explain, but she doesn’t even look at him. “Chill out, kid,” she says, “We all get a freebie.”

“Damian got more than a freebie,” Tim points out.

“He’d tell you it was his right as the blood son.”

“Stop joking!” He shouts, chest heaving for air. “Just—stop it! Why aren’t you telling Bruce? Why are you making plans to lie to him? What’s wrong with you?”

Tim exchanges a heavy look at Steph, before reaching his hand out to Jason. Jason takes it, trembling.

“Plenty of vigilantes have to make hard choices when it comes to stopping people the law can’t touch,” he tells Jason gently. “I work with people who all choose different things. When it comes to people like Garzonas, who will keep doing it over and over with no remorse…it’s not a method I recommend, but sometimes there’s only one way to stop them. If Robin made that choice, I wouldn’t blame him.”

He can’t stop the tears from welling in his eyes, because this is Tim Drake saying it. Damian was the first Robin, yeah, and Steph left her undeniable mark with her cheer and wit, but Tim wore the mantle twice. He made it into something new, something a bit brighter in the dark nights. Then, after Steph, he made it into a memory. Bright yellow for her hair. Red for Superboy. Even after they both came back Jason wore their colors, because Robin was persistence, and spirit, and clever words followed by hard punches, and bravery and a million other things, but it was also hope and love and remembrance for the lost.

He wouldn’t forget that. “Why are you so okay with this?”

“You know I’ve had to make that choice too.”

Jason almost laughs, but refrains. He’s heard the stories. “Never sounded like much of a choice.”

“It was.” His eyes snap to Tim’s at the sudden edge to his voice, and Tim meets his eyes carefully. “I was fully aware of what I was doing. It’s not something I’ll ever do again, but it was my choice, and I won’t have that taken from me.”

“I don’t think I can be Robin anymore.”

“Well, we all have to give it up sometimes.”

“Are we really doing this?” Tim asks, after he thinks Jason has fallen asleep.

Jokes on him, Jason doesn’t think he’s gonna sleep ever again.

“Are you seriously getting cold feet now? I thought you loved lying to Bruce.”

“I don’t love lying to Bruce, it’s just—“

“‘—necessary sometimes,’” she finishes. “Whatever. Like you don’t love the thrill of it.”

Tim doesn’t bother denying it. “This isn’t just lying to B, Steph. This is—are we really going to cover up a murder?”

The room drops ten degrees.

“If you’re not going to back me on this, we can go somewhere else. Don’t want you getting your hands dirty or anything,” she sneers.

“You know I’ve always got your back,” Tim says. Jason thinks back to what Spoiler told him earlier about her time as Robin, and wonders if that might not be as irrefutable a truth as he’d always thought it was. “I’m worried about Jason.”

“You wouldn’t need to be if you would just help him out—“

“You saw him. The kid looks like a ghost. He looks like I did. Don’t—no, Steph, I’m serious. I’m worried about him. At least I didn’t have to hide that I killed the Joker. You think keeping this bottled up will be good for him? It’s going to kill him.”

“The alternative is telling Batman that his precious Robin killed someone. You remember how that went last time?”

There’s a long pause, and then he hears Tim hiss an exhalation behind clenched teeth. “Don’t bring that into this. Jason’s not me.”

“That’s the fucking problem. You were his golden boy—“

“Seriously? You think I was the golden boy?”

“I’m hardly his favorite,” Tim scoffs. “Jason is.”

There’s a shocked silence. Then Stephanie scoffs. “You can’t seriously be jealous.“

“I’m trying to tell you it’ll be different from me. Have you seen him with Jason?” He waits, but Steph doesn’t answer. “He laughs. He laughs, he smiles, he’s fucking…happy. Jason makes him happy. I never did that. None of us ever—“

“Jesus, Tim,” Steph says roughly. “You made him plenty happy. Damian, Cass, Duke, you all make him laugh—“

“Not like Jason does.”

“You willing to risk the kid on that?”

A beat, and Tim sighs. “No. But it’s different now. Jason has us. All of us. It wouldn’t be like last time.”

“Jason’s not me.” He pauses, almost like he’s debating what he’ll say next, before he says, “He’s not you, either.”

Steph stays silent for so long Jason wonders if she climbed out the window and left.

Finally, she exhales. “He’s not you, and he’s not me,” she agrees, “but Bruce is always going to be Bruce.”

They sit in silence for a long moment. Finally Steph speaks up. “Are you really jealous of him?”

“No, Steph. Jesus.”

“You’re such a liar.” It’s affectionate this time, though, clearly poking fun.

Tim sighs, heavier than the teasing warrants. “It’s not him. It’s not him, and it’s not you, I just…I was never able to give up Robin on my own terms. I never…I never got to feel like I was putting it down. It never stopped feeling like—“

Stephanie doesn’t say anything. Eventually, one of the chairs slides back, and Jason hears a cane clacking on the ground. A cabinet opens. “Did you want coffee?”

“What happened to those awful sodas you were addicted to?”

“I assumed you wouldn’t want one,” Tim responds, voice dry. There’s no indication of their discussion in either of their tones. “Considering the first thing you ever did in this apartment was go through all my stuff and make fun of my taste.”

“Fuck it. I’m feeling abominable tonight, I should have something to fit the mood.”

“Shut up.” The fridge opens and shuts, and there’s a quiet thunk like a hand catching something out of midair. Then two drinks crack open.

“God, I forgot how awful these were.”

(some undetermined amount of time later)

Bruce: Dick you can’t kill Tony Zucco. Batman and Robin do not kill.

Dick: Steph said Robin gets a freebie >:(

Bruce:

Bruce: STEPHANIE-

#OKAY SO I HAD A TON OF THOUGHTS ON THE LINEUP OF THESE CHARACTERS AND THIS UNIVERSE AND I AM GOING TO PUT THEM HERE #duke joined batman first at 16 as signal- he's more of a barbara figure than anything else really bc he operates seperately from batman #but still works with him. (instead of we are robin it is we are batman. not as catchy 😔)#but he doesn't take the place of oracle and when bruce goes missing later he's the one who becomes batman. rip duke sorry man 🙏#damian as nightwing obvs #tim as the second robin then the fourth when steph dies to black mask while he's grounded #stephanie brown as the red hood #at least a stand in for him- she goes back to her identity as spoiler #while tim is operating as robin again. after her death he gets kidnapped by the joker becomes jj and shoots him #he's left disabled by the electrocution and torture and can't go out into the field so he becomes oracle #cass is batgirl rn and will still become black bat #and bruce is. u know. bruce #it was always my plan for this fic for jason to be overwhelmed with the guilt and come clean to bruce but because he has a much wider #support system and bruce has now had multiple children who have killed and so it doesn't go WELL but it doesn't go as badly as it would #in canon. bruce tells him he'll always love him but batman and robin cannot kill and jason agrees and thus moves on from robin #i make this sound calm. it would not be calm. but in my mind he's right about this batman and robin SHOULDN'T kill #bruce is also incredibly pissed at Tim and Steph for trying to get Jason to lie about killing a man #Noooot their best look even if their hearts were in the right place #i <3 mess + drama and bitterness #batfam fanfic #jason todd #stephanie brown #tim drake #reverse robins #also i'm not trying to cheapen dick's reasoning for naming himself robin. in my mind the og dick's love for his parents is so strong #it transcends time and space and makes it so that robin is ALWAYS a symbol of love and hope #and so i want to keep that spirit even when he isn't the first robin. later when he joins he will make the title his own #with his own extremely personal meaning behind it #in universe tho damian went out on the first day of spring to symbolize new beginnings #and the papers started calling him robin for the first bird of spring

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room217prayer · 2 months ago

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Tamlin's week - Day 2 (Dark Spring)

Day two of @tamlinweek and wow! I can't believe I'm actually able to post something for this day too! It's only with the Dark Spring Prompt (I wanted to do both, but the time was not on my side) and a victory is again a victory!

I hope you'll enjoy this short story! ♥

Important Tags/Info: Mentions of violence. I just hope to have actually given this a sense of mystery and faerie-ish feels to it.

I won't say now who is the protagonist buuuut... I think you can guess it! (Plus there are mentions of two Tamlin's ships... uhuh...)

(The dividers are made by @olenvasynyt and I love them very much so, thank you for giving us the permission to use them! ♥)

(and again, sorry for any errors! Time was, again, not on my side, but I hope it'll still be enjoyable!)

Three Steps into the Roots

They said you shouldn’t enter the forest: it’ll devour you, if you dare to do so.

Mother and especially father always warned you of its dangers.

Of the beasts and monster infesting it, not made by only flesh, no.

Their bodies were made of branches, earth, vines with thorns so sharp they would slash and tear apart your body.

Leaving behind only the deep red of your blood, turned into rotting petals with your body lost forever into the roots of its deeps.

“If it’ll see you... it will never let you get out alive”

Mother voice always warned you, the fear in her eyes so shiny, like a clear sky. If only for her, you would have listened to her warnings.

You wouldn’t have let curiosity devour you, making you leave the comfort of your bed, hiding from the all-seeing eyes of your home to escape its embrace – to follow.

No, you would have stayed, not thinking much of the deep forest that divided the lands, the infestation made horror.

The story to haunt children and adults alike made only a fairytale in your life.

No one escaped from it, only the smell of blood remained, with the echo of the screams.

You too, would have been too afraid to even think of stepping inside it, mimicking the expressions and voice of reason of your family.

Until one day you would have forgotten it.

But the first step inside was made thanks to your father.

Where your mother was so clear in her fears – her warnings a kiss on your forehead – you never saw anything deeper, if not something akin to regret.

A feeble curiosity, killed by her sincerity.

What brought the cat back was the look in your father’s eyes, how in the night the stars of longing – hatred you thought once – was deeper, maybe just as the roots of the forest he looked from afar the horizon.

His warnings were cold, immovable as the mountains and what you thought was an imaginary shooting star was not so. Something was caught in them every time he saw you. Every time the forest was called in your mind, on his own.

The second step onto the branches was made, again, thanks to him.

The monsters sometimes dared to push beyond the confine of their home, trying to devour more land.

Fire could not truly kill them, nor its branches and trunks.

They shivered and grew quiet in fury.

Where Fall hit, Summer tried to sing to it, to give water as comfort – to see if something would calm it, make it whole again. Or so you heard its Sun say so.

Even Day and Dawn were the ever watchful, trying to undo and heal whatever damages was made in the lands – to its own leaves, where the thorns were so thick no light could muster inside.

Winter would sometimes sit on its border and talk, the rigid cold never hit and the beasts never howled in pain.

Silence – alive – would respond back.

Nothing more.

Then there was the gentle Flame. You saw how there was a want to embrace the Forest as a whole in the glowing eye, who cried in doing so.

You heard prayers to be let inside. To be devoured, welcomed in its embrace – deep in its belly.

It felt like talking to stone.

A mask, because the whole forest trembled, as if it almost wanted to so do, but always refused the light its request.

When Night then fell, flying over it, the howls and roars of the winds – a scream of rage and pain – would shake it.

You saw it then – the moment the full moon was clear in the starry sky – the forest like a mouth opened his jaw and devoured him.

No scream was heard, but the forest grew calm, unlike your heart that rushed with all the blood of the chilling scream you heard in your mind.

Mouth closed, was your father devoured and lost too?

The third step was inevitable then.

The forest saw you and it welcomed you in its deep.

Vines and thorns slithered around you, like snakes ready to bite – but they only guided you deeper, into the heart of the roots.

Were you going up or down? You didn’t know, you only followed its call.

The wings of your curiosity close around your body.

Were you there to kill? To save? Or to...?

Before you could decide you were in the deepest part – a home of starlight as if the night sky had found its home in the hearth of its core.

In its embrace you found them.

The treasure of the forest held tightly into your father’s arms.

There was no blood, everything was frozen – as if their breath were suspended – a painting of the Night holding Spring.

Wasn’t it such an insidious wonder?

You let out a rush of air, the smell of roses teased your senses and then...

Then its ward opened its eyes.

You were devoured by emerald.

And the second day is done! I hope you liked it!

I don't usually write in second person, but this one came out like this, and it felt right, so I hope you didn't dislike it! ♥

And yes, the protagonist of this story is... Nyx! And yes, there are both allusions of Tamsand and Tamcien. ♥

Dark spring was something I wanted to explore and even if I couldn't do it in a deeper way, I'm happy with what I made! ♥

Happy second day of Tamlin's week to everyone! I'm enjoying it so much - in both participating and in seeing and reading all the works made! ♥

See you (hopefully again) for another Tamlin's week day! ♥

(And thank you to all who liked the first chapter and story of the first day! ♥)

#tamlin #tamlinweek #tamlin week 2025 #tamlinweek2025 #tamsand #tamcien #Only mentions and allusions! Something more will - hopefully - come sooner! ♥#I hope the second person wasn't a let down and that there aren't a lot of errors! I will come back one day to adjust everything!#Yes the header is the “darker” one dsfsdfs I thought it would fit the prompt uu♥#Dark Spring and Tamlin go so well togetheeeer! I wanted to make it more dark and omnious buuut... Time wasn't on my side ahaha #Maybe another time who knows...#my writing? Yes!

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