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[silverwhittlingknife]

Robin: I’ve got to go to them.

Barbara: Robin, you’ve already had one close call.

Robin: You said yourself that Nightwing took my “death” hard. And you’ve seen a change in him.  If he still thinks I’m dead I have to worry about what he’ll do. I have to go, Barbara.

–Tim Drake with Barbara Gordon (Robin #95 – Book of the Dead)

[silverwhittlingknife]

World Gone MAD

AO3

Fandom: Batman, DCU

Featured Characters/Relationships: Dick & Tim

Wordcount: 5600

Summary:

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

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

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

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

Excerpt:

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

He’d been so naive then.

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

He bought a ticket and went in.

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

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

—

The facts of the matter are as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spoiler was unable to be reached for testimony.

— 

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

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

Continue reading on AO3!

[silverwhittlingknife]

studies

[silverwhittlingknife]

Dick: I’m not part of this anymore. This whole thing…I’m out. Tim: Yeah, right… Dick: From now on, it’d be better if you forgot you ever knew me. Tim: …Fat chance.

–Dick Grayson with Tim Drake (Nightwing #110 – Incorporation)

‘This began…these teams…right here…where Donna was murdered… And I only agreed to be a part of it again, to join a team…to fight by the side of others who choose this life… It wasn’t supposed to be personal. But it is. And I’m out.’

–Richard Grayson (Outsiders #25 – The Insiders Part Four)

[silverwhittlingknife]

“So tired… Seems like all I’ve done since I tracked down Batman’s real identity and asked to be Robin…is run, in one direction or the other. Makes me wonder what I’m missing, sometimes. But I’ve got work to do. Can’t think about other stuff right now.”

–Tim Drake (Robin #148 – Robin, Boy Wanted – One: Out Go The Lights)

[silverwhittlingknife]

detective comics (1937) #725 // the great believers, rebecca makkai // hesitate to call, louise glück // batman: battle for the cowl (2009) #1 // titans (2008) #21 // the aftermath, caitlin conlon // superman/batman (2003) #76 // i built the walls myself, arch budzar // batman: battle for the cowl (2009) #1 // titans (2008) #15 // detective comics (1937) #874 // postcolonial love poem, natalie díaz // batman (1940) #687 // batman and robin (2009) #1 // i can tell it's aquarius season because my knuckles are splitting, caitlin conlon // superman/batman (2003) #76 // u.k. // batman and robin (2009) #2 // titans (2008) #23 // u.k. // batman (1940) #681 // coded signals, caitlin conlon // titans (2008) #15 // batman and robin (2009) #1 // against silence, frank bidart

dick + being batman

[silverwhittlingknife]

Marie Howe, The Affliction

[silverwhittlingknife]

Realized I never uploaded this to Tumblr, which is funny since it's probably my most Tumblr-targeted vid.

Music: "Finishing the Hat" by Stephen Sondheim

Comment on AO3

[silverwhittlingknife]

chapter 3 in which Dick changes, and Bruce comes back. But what is there left to come back to?

[silverwhittlingknife]

“My opinion. I used to love to give him my opinion. I was so pleased he’d take me into his confidence. But now I…well, what right do I have to tell him anything? I’m–”

–Richard Grayson on Tim Drake (Nightwing #97 – War Games: Act 2 Part 3 – Clarification)

[silverwhittlingknife]

[silverwhittlingknife]

an uncomfortable truth is that if batman and all the batkids were kidnapped and it was up to alfred to save only one while all the others would perish, alfred would push the button to save bruce with no hesitation before the villain was even done talking

and even more uncomfortable truth is that bruce would eventually forgive him this

[silverwhittlingknife]

Tim: You can’t keep beating yourself up like this. Dick: I killed the Joker, Tim. I can’t stop thinking about it. I thought I was more “in control” than that. But I lost it. Tim: It was made right, Dick. The Joker is alive and “not well” in a maximum security cell. Dick: It’s not right with me. I never thought I could be a killer. I’m wrong. There’s a part of me I never saw before. The rage. I never felt anger like that. I felt like it clawed me up inside.

–Richard Grayson with Tim Drake (Nightwing #64 – On a Christmas Evening)

[silverwhittlingknife]

Robin: Well, you got something hardly any of us ever get. A second shot. You used your first experience with Two-Face as a guide to shutting him down. Batman (Dick): I wish it made me feel better. Funny thing is…just as I’m getting good at this…I know I’m going to have to give it up.

–Richard Grayson with Tim Drake (Detective Comics #680 – A Twice Told Tale)

[silverwhittlingknife]

The Bats Are Fighting (Distaff Edition)

some conflicts I enjoy:

Babs is pretty hostile/judgy toward Helena at first & is bitterly upset and hurt when Helena starts wearing a Bat costume - apparently a Batgirl costume - without asking her. Later on, Bruce chases Helena out of the costume, and Babs gives Cass the Batgirl costume with her explicit blessing. Helena and Cass never have a rivalry over this exactly, but I don't think they ever really get along, either

Babs and Helena eventually make up when Babs lets Helena join the Birds of Prey but it's rocky in the beginning - Babs dislikes Helena's methods and doesn't entirely trust her; Helena resents being kept on the outside

Steph is super-impressed by Cass and tries to get her to like her and they eventually get close, but Cass has a pretty low opinion of Steph-as-a-vigilante and doesn't hesitate to boss her around or knock her out, and she's super-hurt by Steph lying to her about what's going on during War Games (probably not unrelated: Cass is the only Bat to blame Steph instead of Bruce after Steph dies)

Babs and Cass get very close but also have tensions because Babs wants Cass to have the 'normal' life that Babs thinks she should've tried harder to have when she was younger, and Cass isn't entirely comfortable with this pressure, plus - this one I think is a bit more well-known - Babs spends a lot of time tutoring Cass and looking after her (awww), BUT ALSO in a tense moment she gets really nasty and harsh about Cass's reluctance to learn to read and calls her "stupid"

Dinah finds Steph REALLY annoying and wants her to stop tagging around after her... until she finds out about Steph's miserable home life, and then she appears like an avenging angel and kicks Steph's dad and his cronies out of the house

Babs decides to work with a guy who tortured Dinah because she thinks he's capable of redemption and Dinah is NOT HAPPY about it

Just generally, Steph and Helena are very much outsiders who don't get brought into the "core" Batfam and who aren't trusted with info like Bruce's secret identity. By contrast, Babs is an insider almost from Day 1 - she may have conflicts with Bruce, but she's also got his absolute trust - and Dinah is as insider as it gets, with a mom who was also Black Canary and a stint on the JLA

other general characterization notes that cause Conflict (TM):

Babs is pretty much a classic Bat - she's got a ton of control issues and she's an instinctively secretive workaholic

Helena is an adult who will kill people if she damn well feels it's necessary and she doesn't appreciate being lectured about it

Steph is a defensive teenage outsider with a bucketload of family problems - deadbeat evil dad! addict mom! - and when she's upset she's got a reckless self-destructive streak

Cass is very much like Bruce in that 1) she is wildly super mega good at fighting, 2) she's an instinctive loner who's comically bad at people AND YET she can nevertheless effortlessly manage to head off to a foreign country for a weekend and have a passionately-felt mutual love affair with some random criminal or something, and then that person dies & she goes home like nothing happened, 3) she cares about other people but completely sucks at communication & when in doubt will just go silent & take off or refuse to have conversations, 4) because she hates talking sometimes she'll just knock you out or hit you so that she won't have to do it, 5) she will spend an entire year planning to have a fight to the death with someone for Reasons and tell no one about it because why would she tell someone

anyway they're all terrible <3

[silverwhittlingknife]

there is nothing quite like stepping into a new fandom to confront you facefirst with the forceful knowledge that most other people want something very different than you do

[silverwhittlingknife]

DICK DOES FLIPS N’ SHIT (#3)

You know, the panel after this one…I was going to try it out. But if you guys take a gander at it: 

Like, I know that gravity is optional for Dick Grayson and everything, but I CAN’T ANIMATE THIS WHEN I DON’T KNOW WHICH WAY GRAVITY EVEN GOES. And…how does he go from striking a stripper pose to doing a front flip, what, what WHAT?

ANWHOOOO…

Hope you guys enjoy this one, it got a bit confusing at the end there buuut I think it came out well. ~4.5 hours of work. 

Lastly, I wasnt able to queue up a bunch of these this weekend so unfortunately, don’t expect another for a week, at LEAST. If I do post one it will not be nearly this involved. Sorry!