#i'm sorry i'm so slow

[sundrownsthehouse]

Can you read my mind? I've been watching you (Part I of III)

Find it here on AO3 (I much prefer the formatting there)

Pairing: Matty/George

Summary: Matty's bored. He decides to make it everyone's problem.

(AKA a fic about that unhinged video of Matty gagging on his own fingers.)

Words: ~2k

Rating: E

Matty was bored. 

Supremely, mind-numbingly bored. The kind of bored that had him antsy, doom scrolling through his socials, picking at his clothes, and bouncing his legs, unable to sit still— that had him searching for any kind of stimulation. It was the kind of bored that tended to drive him to irritate the fuck out of everyone else in his immediate vicinity. For all the years he’d spent touring the world, he had never quite figured out how to pass the time during a flight if he wasn’t throwing back Ativan like tic tiacs. 

Those were the days, he thought grimly. 

Shifting uncomfortably in the reclined leather seat, Matty craned his neck to peek at the others. From the dim glow of the track lights running down the center aisle of the plane he could just make out their sleeping forms bundled in thin, threadbare blankets. They’d been going non-stop, and their schedule was so tight that the red-eye was probably the only opportunity any of them would have to get some rest before they were whisked off to the next show. Luckily, Jamie had managed to book a long-hauler equipped with sleeper seats, not that it was doing Matty any good. He eyed Adam snoring peacefully into his pillow across the aisle with envy; if fucking only. Checking the time on his phone he sighed aloud, running a hand down his face. They had hours to go before they landed in Honolulu, and Matty simply could. Not. Sit. Still. 

He was on edge, and truthfully, rather miffed. George had rejected every advance he’d made in the last 48 hours, and it was driving him to distraction. 

This thing they had between them was still new, still undefined, but God, if it wasn’t all Matty could think about. It had started out innocently enough— a clumsy, tequila-induced fumble after a show a few weeks back— but from there quickly spiraled into the two of them sneaking around, unable to stop themselves from crashing into each other over and over (and over) again. Sex with George was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. There was something profound about it, something deeply intimate and dirty and right and— 

Matty exhaled shakily, vision softening as his mind wandered back to the hotel room in Chicago. The tactile memory of George’s massive hands all over his body— gripping his hair, stroking his sweat-slick skin, squeezing his cock— evoked a sharp flash of desire that surged through his chest and settled low in his groin. He bit the inside of his cheek remembering the way George had fucked him into the mattress, thrusting so deep inside him that he’d seen stars as tears of pleasure pricked at the corners of his eyes.

So he was a little infatuated; sue him. He couldn’t help it if now that he’d had a taste, he could never get enough. And as far as Matty was concerned, they had decades of catching up to do.

George was cautious; he didn’t want anyone to know just yet, and went to great lengths to cover their tracks, intent on remaining inconspicuous. Whatever this development in their relationship was, it would surely have an effect on the band. On the music. Maybe. They weren’t quite sure what it all meant yet, so he didn’t want to broach the subject with the others unless they had to— and that was just the kind of reasonable, level-headed logic that Matty couldn’t be arsed with. 

A small movement from the corner of Matty’s eye caught his attention. Two rows down and across the aisle, one of the blanketed heaps— the largest— shifted and turned on its side, searching in vain for a more comfortable position.

He really couldn’t help himself.

M: you up? 

Nestled back in his seat, he watched the blue light of George’s phone silently illuminate the ceiling of the plane. The reply came immediately:

G: no

Matty smirked. George was protective of his sleep, and a mardy fucker if you dared disturb him, but that was a chance he was willing to take— damn the consequences. He took another cursory glance around the cabin.

M: meet me in the bathroom?  G: why would i meet you in the bathroom?  M: everyone’s asleep…

Matty popped his head into the aisle to spy George sitting up, blanket shrugged off his chest, his fingers flying across the screen. 

G: you’re joking M: not G: are you mental?? M: obviously ;)

He thought he could make out the faint sound of George snorting over the steady thrum of the plane, but he couldn’t be sure. His phone vibrated. 

G: thanks but no thanks love x

Matty frowned. 

Not here. Not now. That was all George had to say to him for the last two days. They were booked tight with back-to-back shows, and when they weren’t traveling or performing they were inundated with endless press, leaving precious little downtime— which would’ve been just fine had George been capable of keeping his hands to himself.

Whether it was an innocently placed hand on the small of his back, an arm slung around his neck, or a teasing brush against the curve of his arse, George took every opportunity to rile Matty up, smirking with satisfaction whenever he managed to make him stutter or lose his train of thought. They’d always been physically affectionate, but it was undeniably different now; there was something like ownership in George’s touch, and it made Matty shiver. Not to mention the way that George looked at him when he thought no one would notice. Matty’s knees went weak each time he caught George’s heated gaze raking lazily over his body from across the room. He looked at Matty as though he were something indecent.

The unspoken tension between them had grown so unbearable that on more than one occasion, Matty had dragged him toward an empty closet or dressing room out of sheer desperation, only to be met with the same measured response:

Not here. Not now. Be patient.

Matty was sick of being patient. He wanted George to shove him up against the wall of the dodgy airplane bathroom already and fuck him until he couldn’t see straight. Dignity be damned. 

The drive to the airport was the final straw. In the dark back seat of the Sprinter Matty held his breath in silent shock as George’s hand crept up his inner thigh to slowly massage his cock through his jeans, like a horny fucking teenager. He had to bite his tongue (literally) to keep from making some horribly pathetic sound whilst George carried on a full conversation with Adam and Ross, the passing street lights illuminating the small smile ghosting his lips. It was torture. George was playing with him, seemed to be doing everything in his power to make Matty’s life hell, and to top it all off, he was enjoying it. 

For all his kumbaya, inner peace, yoga-loving-meditation bullshit, George was a control freak. It was in the way he would obsess over a piece of music until it was perfect, bending pitch and beat and melody to his whim until it pleased him. It was the subtle change in his demeanor when he was behind the kit in a live show, driving the pace of the entire performance, knowing that the fate of it all rests with him. And it was never more obvious than when they were tangled together, their bodies flushed with exertion as they gave in to twenty-odd years of repressed desire. George was sweet, kind, and deeply tender; he was also impatient, possessive, and exacting. He hid it well, but beneath his placid smile and gentle bearing, there was a quiet hunger in George that demanded to be fed. Matty found himself utterly intoxicated by the contradiction of it.

Though Matty reckoned that he at least gave as good as he got; figuring out how to provoke George had very recently become his latest obsession. Maybe it stemmed from the boyish competitiveness of their school years, some childhood dynamic they never really outgrew as men. In any case, knowing how to turn George on was its own kind of power. Besides, he’d never been too proud to beg.

M: please. need you. M: i’m desperate ok? M: i’ll be so quiet, no one will know   M: pleasepleaseplease

A minute passed. No response. 

Dejected, Matty peeked down the aisle and nearly jumped out of his skin. George was staring back at him, his expression carefully composed, dark eyes glittering with an unspoken warning in the low light. He merely shook his head once, subtly, but the message was loud and clear. No.

Gritting his teeth, Matty flung himself back in his seat like a petulant child. He checked the time again, running through the math in his head; they still had six hours to go before they landed in Hawaii. He was going to lose his mind on this aluminum death trap hurdling through the sky, and he was going to make it everyone’s problem.

With that thought a ridiculous idea crossed his mind. It was impulsive, completely outrageous, even for him— and that really was saying something— but the more Matty considered it, the more amusing it became. It was a little out of pocket, sure, but then again, that was sort of his brand these days, wasn’t it? He lifted his phone, opened his front-facing camera, and pressed record.

Peering at the screen, he reckoned that he didn’t look half-bad. Clearly tired and a little ragged, but in a sexy, disheveled sort of way. His hair was a nightmare, and he briefly tried to fix it before accepting that it was probably futile, giving up entirely. That wasn’t the point, anyway. Staring down the lens with heavy, hooded eyes, Matty let his mouth fall open gently as he brought his fingers to his lips, embracing the thrill of arousal that snaked up his spine from the boldness of what he was about to do. 

Before he could talk himself out of it he opened wider, guiding three of his fingers back, back, back until they filled his mouth to the middle knuckle, forcing him to breathe through his nose. He pressed down on his tongue ever so slightly, reveling in the feeling— it was probably the cigarettes, but he’d always had a bit of an oral fixation. The fullness made him think about George’s cock, thick and heavy, stretching him to his limit because George was big, and fuck if Matty didn’t love the way he made his jaw ache. He shuddered, eyes rolling back as he lost himself to the image of George standing over him, a tight fist in his hair, groaning at the silky heat of Matty’s mouth. Spurred on by the fantasy, Matty shoved his hand further until his eyes began to water, brow furrowing at the intrusion. 

When the tip of his middle finger brushed the back of his throat he gagged harshly, jerking in his seat; the sudden movement made him groan. He didn’t particularly care if anyone could hear it.

Chest heaving from the effort, Matty removed his wet fingers from mouth, saliva dragging across his chin. He stopped the video. Watched it back. Turned the sound off and added some heavy track with a slamming beat and a grungy guitar.

And hit post.

The plane shook as it passed through an air pocket. Matty gripped the armrests of his seat, uneasy, his heart hammering in his chest. It had little to do with the turbulence.

In the moment, the video seemed like a good idea; now, he wasn’t so sure. Could he get canceled for this? He wanted to scoff at the thought, but a tiny seed of doubt had taken hold in the back of his mind as the notifications continued to roll in at a relentless pace. Most of them were inconsequential. Only one actually mattered.

Seen by bedforddanes75

[shadowsif]

Hellow! Hi! I just found your beautiful story and im so invested to it! I wish to see and read more!!! Please continue creating beautiful story!!!

Hi and thank you 😭

I'm sorry everything is late. I'm just having real hard time reading my own stuff right now. Working on the story all by myself just takes awhile. I'll try to give you something next week, even if only on tumblr.

Life sucks.

[pink-tk-a-latte]

THE REQUEST!!!!!!! IN MY INBOX!!!!!!!!! JUMPING FOR JOY I WAS WAITING FOR THIS <3333333333

[sentfromwolves]

thank you so much for the tag @mjjune, I’m so sorry I’m only getting to it now. ; 0 ; 💖 I’m currently working on a longform cleavecross AU for my beloved boy, Acheron.

I’m going to go ahead and tag the usual suspects! @tananaphone @awritingcaitlin @legiomiam @pinespittinink @mr-writes @muddshadow (hi your tags are always literally the brightest parts of my days when i post ; 0 ;) @k--havok and anyone else who wants to participate!

💌Last Line Tag: Buried Your Heart in My Grave

The minutes warred by in painful silence, Onyx laboring to breathe, the boy unmoving in the corner. But sometimes, Onyx had found, you had to sit with a creature for hours before it began to trust you. His chest burned, heart throbbing madly in the Strays invisible grip. His vision spat static at the edges, blood still dripping and drying against the split skin of his lips.

But still he stayed there, knelt to the ground, palms up in a peace offering, for as long as it took. Still, Onyx was only human, and eventually, the world began to blacken around the edges. His gaze flashed and broke, black and white tearing his vision apart as his body jerked off-kilter, lurching forward.

A hand pressed to his chest, stopping him from collapsing to the floor. 

The vice grip on his heart disappeared. Onyx sucked in a harsh breath and then another, looking up at the Stray only to feel all the air vanish once more from his lungs. Because he was beautiful.

[randomloserlover]

cobs destroys mephone's objectsonas

[egophiliac]

I feel like F/P/S was still a pretty weird one, even by Lance's standards.

sorry for (in an ironic twist) not doing much Ride Kamens art now that it's actually started; I've been pretty slow going through it and I feel weird posting about things I'm not caught up on! though I'm. definitely gonna have to set aside some time to actually get through episode 13, after what they posted today. (w-what did they do to my Leon) (NOBODY TELL ME I HAVE TO FIND OUT ON MY OWN) (LEOOOOOOOON)

[xulips]

pancaek

[blackkatdraws2]

This little NPC is lost. The Narrator [Black] has come to guide her back to where she needs to be. [Blank Scripts AU]

I imagine Black would be a lot more tolerant toward his NPCs since they're basically just the Dungeons spawns, and by extension, his own creations.

[If you're familiar with manhwas / manhuas that features the dungeon / system genre, you'd be able to understand this AU a lot easier. The majority of my inspiration for worldbuilding came from those specific genres.]

[NOTE: 'Dungeon' is just another term for the Parable. Technically, Black owns a Dungeon and the Parable is just a small part of it. The Dungeon itself is much, much larger.]

For context, the comic below references this post about the Dungeon's children/guard dogs.

[They're more like the immune system since all they do is make sure the (body) is safe.]

[The reason the Narrator [Black] considers them his children is that the Dungeon is feeding off his energy and in turn shares the 'nutrients' to the monsters it produces, which transforms them into an image that resembles his power.]

And the old man below is Joseph!

Joseph is NOT AN NPC! He is a person who exists outside of the Dungeon!

[There are two separate 'worlds' for this AU. Inside the Dungeon (where most of the game-like stuff is happening) and the world outside (pretty much their normal world.)]

[There is a secret third world, and that's our world. Our reality.]

These characters are not actually important or anything, I just made them to make the AU feel more lively. To make a world that exists, you know?

When the Narrator [Black] first established himself in their world, he found a growing problem with homelessness. Not understanding human norms or why this has become a problem in the first place, he offers (tricks) them into working for him as janitors for the Dungeon and they accept for the money.

Most of them left after they got paid, but Joseph was one of the people who stayed. He doesn't have anywhere else to go and has no ambitions in life. He just wishes to live a peaceful life with food and a roof over his head.

Joseph defaults to referring to the Narrator [Black] with feminine terms due to his appearance despite his voice. The Narrator [Black] is not the type to care for such terms anyway so he doesn't care how other people refer to him as long as there's respect.

--------------

This post focuses more on the worldbuilding and background aspects of the AU! There are a lot more in store for the Blank Scripts AU, and I want to explore more on how the characters might interact with their surroundings and how this would work to make a world that makes sense.

It would be so cool if people made self-inserts or OCs for my AU actually. I'd love to see how you guys would work with my stuff. Play around with it like a barbie world for your little barbie dolls. Be canon compliant, be canon divergent, who cares, have fun.

[lokimobius]

LOKI S02E01 “Ouroboros”

[gotchibam]

Raboot ko-fi doodle for @lakefoundtheirexit!

I’m accepting pokemon ko-fi doodle requests here! ✨

[ghuleh-recs]

belated birthday kisses for the supremely kind, lovely, and talented @ghelullu ♡

[ship-it-sideways]

Hi hi I love your art and everything aaaaa Grumbo is so cute!! I'm mainly a scarian shipper but gosh I saw your Grumbo and it's just *chef's kiss* please draw more!!!! (mayhaps you can draw some scarian in the future 👉👈 /nf)

Thank you so much !!!!!! <3 I loveeee drawing desert duo generally but I wanted to draw something shippy-er so I spent a while doing this >:3c

[kathairoette]

Wishing all of you the best!

and by the way, I have something important to say a few days from now. Please look out for it!

[hellenhighwater]

I got to see Old Stories with my sister and my partner today! We've been following your progress for several months now, and I can't believe we got to go in person! Seeing Prometheus up close was particularly emotional for us; I hadn't been able to see him clutching his side so clearly until then. The whole thing was breathtaking.

Thank you so much for going! No matter how I try, I'm never fully able to convey how these pieces look in person. And thank you for reaching out!

[silverwhittlingknife]

How would you describe Tim's people skills? Especially when you compare them to Dick's?

Hi anon, this was a fun ask!! I picked out a few panels for each of them (comforting friends, a bit out of sync with friends, fighting with friends, and offering practical support to friends) just to get a quick look at their people skills in action, and then I rambled on about my thoughts on their strengths and their weaknesses.

(Caveat: I'm going to try to focus on my ideas about differences between the two of them, since we're comparing, but I do think they're socially more similar than not, so you might also want to check out @bitimdrake's post on Dick and Tim's similarities for the big picture!)

Short version: I think they've both got good people skills. Dick's are a bit better and more natural, whereas Tim's are more practiced and learned (in ways that sometimes show).

Let's start with Dick first, and then I'll get back to Tim.

Dick

Comforting friends in Titans Secret Files:

Dick: Will you go back in there and sit down? This is my house. You don't need to clean up after me! Donna: I know, I just... I just ... Dick: Hey, hey... what's the matter? Donna: Nothing. It's nothing. Dick (reaching out to supportively grip her shoulders): Donna, this is me here, remember?

A bit out of sync with friends (but still getting along well) in Titans 3:

Dick: The movie runs 98 minutes. So if we fast-forward past the coming attractions and watch only half the credits, I can still make it back to Blüdhaven in time to - Roy: Nightwing, chill. Team morale demands that you relax and enjoy yourself.

Fighting with friends in Titans 13:

Dick: We haven't used it much, Changeling. But that's gonna be different. Starting right now. Our performance against Tartarus and the HIVE was unacceptable. Each and every one of you should thank God you weren't killed. Kory: How dare you? How can you just stand there talking to us like we're a military detachment -

Giving support to relative strangers in Nightwing 87:

Neighbor 1: Oh, he - he's a true gentleman, you know? Always holds the door, or helps me up the stairs with my groceries if we both come in at the same time... Neighbor 2: ...used his motorcycle to jumpstart my car one morning and even got my brother-in-law a job with Wayne Enterprises when he got laid off... Neighbor 3: ...and he's very, very, very nice and doesn't talk down to me. Plus he lets me use his basketball.

Offering practical support (making dinner) in Prodigal:

Tim: I can't believe you can actually cook... Dick: I like to eat. Tim: So does Bruce - but he had to order Chinese last night. Dick: That's where I'm one up on him - I've lived on my own without an Alfred. Still miss him, though... He was good for a lot more than cooking and cleaning. Tim: Yeah. But at least we don't have to miss him on empty stomachs.

Strengths:

I think Dick's people skills are pretty simple: he has them! He's good at people! And I tend to think of Dick's people skills as so automatic they're mostly instinctive. It's not something he really has to think about because it's so ingrained in him. A combination of natural talent plus a childhood spent around sociable performers means Dick's just really highly attuned to the people around him.

And I don't think he's particularly obvious about it. So e.g. you could be having a conversation with Dick where he didn't seem like he was paying close attention, but if there was An Important Moment where you got anxious for a moment or let something important slip or let a bit of anger show through etc. - Dick will have picked up on it, even if it's unconsciously, and it'll stick with him and come back to him later.

And just generally - I think Dick has good instincts for who he can trust and who he shouldn't trust; when he's treading on conversational landmines he'll often pick up the unease even if he doesn't have the context to know why there's a problem; if he's trying to comfort and trusts his instincts he'll often do the right thing even if he can't justify in words why he felt like that was the right thing to do.

So I think for Dick, there's always the level of conscious awareness - the things he's aware he knows, if you will - and the level of unconscious awareness - things he senses, but maybe can't explain, or maybe doesn't want to know so he's suppressing the thoughts.

So he's good at leading, and he's good at comforting, and he's good at listening, and he's good at figuring out the right thing to say...

Like, he's good at all of it, so it's actually sort of difficult to elaborate because there's just not that much nuance? Given any particular interpersonal situation, Dick has an excellent chance of getting a quick read on some random guy he's just met and then getting the reaction he wants pretty fast, whether it's intimidating the guy or comforting him or getting him to cooperate or taunting him until he loses his temper, etc etc etc.

Obviously Dick's not a mind reader, and he can get things wrong, especially when he's in the throes of one of his own personal crises, but generally I think Dick's very very sure-footed with people, even with strangers.

Weaknesses:

This isn't a weakness precisely because Dick's usually doing it on purpose, but he'll sometimes have fights with his friends because they think he's acting overly professional/detached and he thinks they're not being professional enough. So e.g. in Titans 13, you can see Dick's set up the room almost like he's leading a business meeting, and he's the boss lecturing them, and they're reacting by getting mad at him. Part of this is basically a Traditional Bat Problem - Tim's friends also balk because they feel like Tim's keeping them at a distance - but Dick tends to lean especially hard on "I'm The Leader Here So Shut Up And Do What I Say" professionalism / distancing.

When things are going well, Dick's friends may grumble at his intense professionalism but basically appreciate it (this is basically how things go in their reunion in TT vol 2); when things are not going well, though, it becomes a point of tension. Generally, Dick gets extra-professional as a coping mechanism when under stress, as here in TT vol 2 12:

To the extent that Dick falters with social skills, it tends to be almost exclusively with people he knows well, not with strangers. Dick sometimes struggles with maintaining relationships, largely because he's often juggling multiple responsibilities; he'll sometimes get hyperfixated on something and deprioritize his more stable relationships (so e.g. when he gets fixated on trying to fix Blüdhaven and gets distracted from his relationship with Babs).

Somewhat relatedly, if things start going wrong in his own life, he tends to self-isolate out of shame and avoid everyone he thinks of as more put-together. So, for example, in the aftermath of Blockbuster, he's a self-destructive mess who's trying to dodge and/or drive away Clark and Roy and Tim (all people who care about him and would want to help), but Sophia Tevis and Rose are two messed-up young strangers in trouble and their obvious neediness trips his "urgency" meter, plus he may be a mess but they have no context to realize that so he doesn't feel so self-conscious, and he's able to be drive-by super-helpful to them and then dive right back into privately self-destructing.

Also not a weakness per se, but he tends to be a bit of an introvert in general - he and Wally are close, but they go long stretches of time without catching up; when he's spending time with friends, usually it's Donna / Wally / the Titans / Tim visiting Dick rather than the other way around; he's more likely to get cajoled into joining a team than the other way round - Wally talks him into rejoining the Titans and Roy talks him into joining the Outsiders. He likes people and likes spending time with friends, but he's usually not the one initiating a social gathering. He's self-aware about this; in Titans 9, he muses, "It's not the newness that's the problem. The problem is the old stuff. The ruts. You know someone long enough - well enough - and you fall into a rut with them... you completely take the relationship for granted..."

Relatedly, because Dick's pretty self-contained, he has a recurring problem where loved ones interpret him as distant or detached or indifferent even when he's still passionately attached - both Kory and Babs break up with Dick in part because they feel like he's not really that committed to them (also there are mmm Problematic Plotlines involved but I'm ignoring those for the purposes of this post), and in both cases IMO they're misreading him. He's deeply upset by both breakups and responds with big declarations of feeling and, uh, proposing marriage shortly afterward. (Okay, so he's not ALWAYS sure-footed sdfdsfs)

When Dick's getting something wrong, it's usually because he's upset and overcompensating - when things with Kory and Babs are tense, he tries to fix it with Big Gestures; when Vic's mad at him about spying, he missteps with an elaborate secret plan culminating in a big dramatic offering of a new body which Vic does want... but he's still understandably miffed at Dick for making a bunch of decisions behind his back instead of talking to him. Dick guesses right about something Vic will want, but because Dick when he's feeling guilty tends to slide into I-Am-The-Leader, I-Must-Fix-Everything-By-Myself, I-Am-Responsible-For-Everything mode, he forgets that the whole original problem is connected to not respecting Vic's autonomy / right to make decisions for himself, and that a better gesture would be asking Vic what he wants instead of once again making decisions on his behalf without consulting him. (I'm sympathetic to Dick's spying-on-Vic plan on account of how Vic did turn into an evil moon for a bit - comics are bonkers, you guys sdfdsfs - but I'm also very sympathetic to Vic feeling that he deserved fuller disclosure here.)

And you can see similar patterns in lower-key conflicts too: every time Dick gets accused of being just like Batman, it's usually because he's coming off as harsh or detached or uncaring (sometimes on purpose because he's pushing people away; sometimes just because Dick handles grief and fear by shutting down; sometimes because his the-buck-stops-here leadership style can come off as overly-detached), even though Dick actually cares SO SO MUCH, all the time, about everyone he knows.

But honestly... these weaknesses exist, but they're minor in comparison to his strengths?? Dick's a guy with a lot of very strong friendships for a reason. He's true as steel and once he cares about you, he cares about you forever. <3

OKAY! So that's Dick. Let's finally move on to...

Tim

Comforting friends in Joker's Last Laugh 3:

Tim: Babs? Is everything okay? (hugs her)

A bit out-of-sync with friends (but still getting along well) in Young Justice 7:

Cassie: A campout isn't a campout without a real fire. It's no fun at all. Tim: But the generator is far more efficient, Cassie. It's non-polluting, it poses no threat of forest fire, and it's... it's ... (taking in everybody else's expressions, sighing, reversing course) It's no fun at all. Impulse, can you...?

Fighting with friends in Adventure Comics 3 (stonewalling, avoidance, and lying!)

Conner: You weren't picking up. Tim: I didn't know it was you. Conner: I turned off my caller ID blocking. Tim: I was busy. I am busy. Conner: Too busy to talk to your best friend? Tim: Yes. No.

Giving emotional support to relative strangers in Robin 98 / 100 / 156:

Wesley: I just wanted to thank you. They tell us at the meetings that it's important to let people know how you feel. You did a lot for me - making me sober up. If you hadn't taken the time to notice - (Later) Tim: You're gonna stay strong, right? (Wesley: Right.) Tim: You're gonna stay sober, okay? (Wesley: Okay.) Tim: You're gonna do it 'cause - Wesley: 'Cause if I don't you'll come back and kick my butt all over campus. Tim: Uh huh.

(The redhaired guy was about to jump. Tim convinces him to sit down and talk first.) Tim: So, you're in college? Guy: Yeah, I'm a freshman. How'd you know? Tim: Just a hunch. I'm guessing you don't like it much. Guy: I always hated high school. Always felt like I was outside looking in, never part of any group or anything. I was on the diving team but even then I didn't feel like part of it. The only good thing was that was where I met Lori, my girlfriend.

Offering practical support (medical care and tea) in Batgirl 59:

Tim (treating her injury as she shares her traumatic past): Whoa. That's ... horrible. Cass: That's nothing. Stephanie and I used to laugh about - oh... uh... never mind. Wait, Tim. I... I'm so ... stupid, I don't - Tim: You're not stupid. Want some tea? Cass: I ... uh... yeah. Thank you.

Strengths:

Tim! I think Tim's also pretty decent at people - not as good as Dick, but hardly anyone is?

I tend to think of Dick as instinctively good at people, and Tim as more consciously good at people.

Tim spends a lot of time being intentionally watchful: observing, spying, psychoanalyzing people, paying careful attention to what they say, thinking about what makes them tick. (And Tim psychoanalyzes himself, too. Tim is studiously engaged in the study of Tim, and of Tim's friends, and of Tim's family. He's often playing a role, even when that role is "Tim Drake.")

So e.g. in Red Robin, at one point Tim has an elaborate domino-falling database where he's compiled a list of villains he wants to fight and how he wants to fight them, all leading up to a very careful takedown plan for Boomerang where he's thought through and anticipated Boomerang's every move ahead of time... and he's basically right! He gets it all right!

And this kind of intensely-studied logical chess-game of "he will do this for this reason, and then this for that reason, and the other people will respond in this way, like a series of dominos, and I've thought through all the possibilities" is Very Tim to me, and I feel like... this is just the sort of thing that Dick would never ever do?

And mostly Dick wouldn't do it because he wouldn't have to. When Dick's skeptical of James Gordon Jr., he goes to talk to the guy and feel him out, and he ethically feels obliged to give him the benefit of the doubt because there's no evidence against him, but he's got a bad feeling and doesn't trust him and secretly slaps a tracer on him because he's got an instinct he'll want it, and he's right: James Jr. is up to something, and that tracer is exactly the thing that Dick needs.

And similarly if Dick wanted to goad James Jr. into doing something, I think he'd go off and meet him and goad him into doing it, and he'd have an instinct for what to say to make that happen - I think the whole elaborate domino plan that Tim comes up with for Boomerang would feel unnecessarily complex to Dick. Not that Dick doesn't make complicated plans, because he absolutely does, but Dick doesn't usually overthink people.

Similarly, if Dick had been the little kid in Lonely Place of Dying, he'd have gotten worried and gone straight to Bruce and talked to him, not gotten worried and taken photos of Bruce from a distance and then come up with an elaborately overthought plan to go to New York and track down his estranged son and fix him that way. And, like. Kid!Tim's not entirely wrong! He's correctly picked up on a very real and very strong connection between Bruce and Dick even though he doesn't know either of them! And given how little actual information Tim has, this is actually an impressive plan (it's a bad plan, because Tim doesn't know about their fights, but it's an impressively solid plan given that his entire information basis is "watched them from a distance and collected news reports"). But this isn't how Dick thinks about people.

Backing up to a more general point: Tim values people skills really really really highly. I think "uses interpersonal skills to help and comfort other people" is one of Tim's highest values and arguably the highest value - he imprinted on Dick because he was kind, and then imprinted on Batman because he was comforting Dick. And he has six million After-School-Special-style plotlines where he tries to comfort / advise / rescue / etc. people in various stages of emotional distress and who are using bad coping mechanisms. His very first outing as Robin involves talking down a semi-suicidal shooter; the big finale of YJ has Tim talking Secret down from her rampage; he's very gentle when he's comforting his girlfriend after she confides in him about a maybe-attempted-rape; he talks down a suicidal college student in Robin; plus there's the entire concept of "Batman needs Robin" in the first place; not to mention his obsession with the importance of friends; and so forth.

So it's something that he's good at because it's something he values and works at. His people skills are conscious and learned. He does a fair bit of amateur psychoanalysis of other people's problems, and he's generally good at identifying the problems, even if he's not always great at fixing them. And he's often playing a role, or imitating other people, rather than being himself; he invests a lot of time constructing alternate identities; he's often more comfortable wearing a mask. (It is just so typical of Tim that his civilian friendship group is the DCU version of D&D players.)

So his practiced-people-skills work decently well, because he's diligent and he cares a lot, and he's better at people when he's older than when he's younger. And he's extremely good at things he's had a lot of practice with, like meeting new schoolmates, or making small talk, and he's friendly and he likes people, and he's good at learning scripts and following them, and he only tends to misstep when he's distracted or unusually anxious or when he's in a situation where normal social norms don't help. (Of course, since he's a vigilante and not an ordinary person, distracted / unusually anxious / weird situation are all things that happen more often than you might think!)

I also think Tim has a few caretaker instincts that have become automatic - generally he's hyperaware of when people are upset and usually tries to reach out or fix it, and even when he's trying to keep himself at a distance he'll slide into caretaking sometimes - so e.g. there's that moment in Batgirl with Cass when Tim's kinda upset with her for siding with Batman (and distancing himself from other people in general), so he's not intending to get close to her, but also what we see him doing is treating her wounds and then getting her tea. And meanwhile Cass actually wants to reach out, and she's intensely observing him and worrying and wanting to help, but what she actually does is... drink the tea. That Tim got her. While she stays firmly on her side of the couch.

(I tend to think of Cass as slightly similar to Tim but at the very very very beginning of her learn-to-people journey here? Like Tim, she cares!! A lot!! And she's successfully understood that Tim's upset, and she knows when she's put her foot in her mouth. But she's not sure what to do yet.)

Weaknesses:

Tactless! This is a tricky word because I think people sometimes hear 'tactless' and misunderstand it as 'generically rude,' but that's not quite the issue - Tim's quite polite most of the time; his problem is that his default mental monologue is very detached / psychoanalyzing / analytical, including about himself and things he's emotional about. He'll often be analyzing his own emotions even in the process of having them (I also talk about this a little here, though it's mostly a post about Dick and anger), and Tim's also constantly analyzing other people.

This means that if he doesn't edit his brain-to-mouth filter, he can come off as too detached or professional or calculating.

This is obviously similar to Dick's problem of coming off as too detached / professional - again, they're both Bats - but it's not quite the same thing, and I think this distinction is most obvious if you look at the places where they're doing it on purpose and picking fights:

Dick's most likely to pick fights by pulling rank: "I'm the boss, you all fucked up this mission and you better not do it again, shape up or shut up." This is a kind of distancing that's about Dick-the-impassive-boss and you-the-subordinate.

By contrast, Tim's more likely to pick fights via hostile psychoanalysis: "I notice you're being snide about Cass again, but we both know you're actually just mad that Bruce cares about her more than he cares about you." When he's miffed, both his inner monologue and the things he says tend toward 'uncharitable analysis of your emotional weaknesses,' and this is something he periodically directs at Bruce / Jason / Damian. This is a kind of distancing that's about Tim-the-hostile-analyst and you-the-unfortunate-target-of-analysis.

(Caveats: I don't think Tim's above trying to pull rank if he can, but he rarely has the opportunity; Dick's not above jabs at other people's weaknesses when he's very defensive and feeling attacked - junkie, elevator - but IMO he's more likely to pull rank, whereas Tim's jabs are more likely to be wrapped up in insulting psychoanalysis, so e.g. Jason's insecurity is his problem. The Jan Brady of the Batfamily.)

You can see related similar-sounding-but-different issues if you look at some of their respective breakups. So e.g. Dick has a breakup with Babs in which she thinks he doesn't care about her, and Tim has a breakup with Cassie in which she thinks he doesn't care about her. And these breakups are different for six million reasons (among other things, Dick and Babs have a pretty intense romance, whereas, uh, Tim and Cassie have had one date and IMO she's very right that they're better off as friends).

But you also get some useful character notes:

Babs is wrongly anxious that Dick's mostly in love with nostalgia for their past rather than the person she is now (he 100% does love the person she is now!) and she's being unfairly bitchy about Catalina, but she's also correctly noted that he's gotten into the habit of deprioritizing their relationship in favor of vigilante busywork & that he's been a bit pushy in swooping in protectively rather than letting her fight her own battles, so when she's accusing him of being a control freak it's not completely coming from thin air; Dick responds by getting hurt, upset, and direct (he gets furious and punches something, but then makes a big sweet sincere emotional speech to her about how much he cares and values her, albeit one that's so caught up in his own emotions like wanting to "protect" her that he's not slowing down enough to take in her insecurities).

Cassie has correctly realized that dating Tim is a bad coping mechanism and she really needs to just deal with her grief over Conner; when she starts crying, at first Tim moves to comfort her, but when she actually clarifies the breakup, an upset Tim responds by aggressively de-emotionalizing the conversation and pretending he's being totally logical and not emotional about it - he first wonders aloud if he's a bad detective for not seeing it coming and then attempts a bonkers guilt-trip suggestion that it's their duty to date in order to uhhh avoid turning evil in the bad future (sdfsfdsfdsfds sure tim nice try)

This isn't because Tim literally doesn't have feelings, because of course he does! But often, the more upset he is, the worse he gets at clearly expressing those feelings, and the more he intellectualizes them or avoids discussing them.

(Caveat: The trouble with any distinction is that it's easy to exaggerate it in ways that are oversimplified, and I want to emphasize that this doesn't reduce to "Dick always expresses emotions, Tim is never emotional," or anything like that. Dick has a bunch of complicated feelings about the intensity of his emotions because he values control and detachment and often is trying to be more detached (I talk more about this in the context of anger here and here); Tim often retreats to faux-analytical detachment when he's actually very emotional; and these are tendencies rather than one-note 24/7 truths - Dick is completely capable of intellectualizing away his emotions; Tim is completely capable of just getting straightforwardly and directly upset. But if you're looking for broad distinctions, I think it's fair to say that Dick's usually better at directly using his words and expressing his emotions, even if he sometimes feels self-conscious shame about it later, whereas Tim tends to self-sabotage and deflect and hide by producing intellectualized faux-logic instead of just being direct about what he wants or what he's feeling.)

An unrelated issue is that Tim also tends to get intrusive when he's anxious, and it gets worse the more he cares about you. Tim really really really wants to know what's going on and has an intense Need To Help, which generally works out for him - this is the entire reason he pushes his way into the Batfamily! - but it's easy to imagine Tim running into people who might not appreciate his busybody sneakiness; so e.g. secretly stalking your friend because he has a bruise, or running your friend's DNA, etc., is... stuff that all comes from how much Tim cares, but also it involves a very fuzzy relationship with other people's privacy, so Tim's friendships that stick around tend to be with people who find this kind of intense observation to be caring rather than pushy. Relatedly, Tim's version of "be protective" can overlap with "be condescending," which means he tends to get along best with confident people like Bruce, who could punt him into a wall and who thus finds Tim's 'disapproving medic' shtick endearing instead of insulting.

Tim also struggles to connect to people for whom he doesn't have an obvious "script" or who don't respond to his usual scripts. So e.g. offering Gar a "you don't like me but let's be friends" handshake worked; offering Cass a "let's be friends" handshake worked; offering the same thing to Damian did not go over so well; and I think this kind of "it usually works so this is my habit now?" thing is very Tim, and I don't think it's the sort of mistake that Dick would make.

More broadly, because Tim's people skills are conscious and learned - the effort sometimes shows! He stares at people. He secretly spies on them. He pokes around in their secrets. Dick can be paying close attention to you and seem like he's not, so that his awareness seems effortless and less intrusive. I think Tim's awareness tends to be a bit more effortful.

That said, though, I don't think that Tim's intensely-observing-you shtick is necessarily obvious except to people who are fairly socially-skilled themselves. When I write fanfic, I generally write from Dick's POV, and I tend to write Dick being hyperaware of when, say, Tim's observing him, or trying to figure out what's going on with him. But I think of that as more "Dick's good at reading Tim and really aware of being watched, so every attempt at subtlety stands out in neon lighting," and I think to someone who's less good at reading people than Dick is, Tim is a lot subtler.

And I think for e.g. someone like Cass, who really struggles with people skills, Tim seems impossibly and naturally good at interactions in the same way that to Tim, Dick seems incredibly good at it.

[gunsatthaphan]

"I'm not afraid."