#kon: what if i was a horrible person

[mamawasatesttube]

i have to speak my truth. i think timkon clone baby aus fucking suck

[suzukiblu]

NaNoWriMo fic, day one: obligatory sugar daddy Tim/sugar baby Kon AU.

Tim Drake had absolutely no intentions of ever becoming anyone's sugar daddy when he met Superboy.

This would have worked out better for him if Superboy had ever had an actual legal identity or an actual legal guardian or just . . . literally anything whatsoever in life. Ever. At all.

Just a bank account, even.

"You're working for Cadmus," Tim says slowly. "Cadmus, as in the lab that stole Superman's body and cloned him without his consent. Cadmus, which you had to break out of so they couldn't put mind control code words in your head."

"Yeah," Superboy replies like that's not literally insane. Tim stares at him.

"Why?" he asks incredulously.

"Food and shelter?" Superboy shrugs. "And I mean, I dunno, where else am I gonna go?"

Tim is not okay with this situation.

"What did Superman say?" he says.

"Just to like, keep an eye on things," Superboy says with another shrug. "Make sure they're not up to anything shifty."

Tim stares at him.

"Superman," he says. "Told you to just . . . 'keep an eye on' the dubiously ethical cloning lab. The specific dubiously ethical cloning lab that tried to put mind control code words in your head. Specifically."

"Yeah," Superboy confirms.

Alright, Tim is actually even less okay with this situation than he thought, apparently. Like, impressively less.

"Okay," he says. It is absolutely no kind of okay in any way whatsoever, of course, but he doesn't want to put Superboy on the defensive. That'd make effectively interrogating him a lot harder, for one thing. Cooperative subjects are best in these situations. "What are they paying you?"

"I mean, like, they gave me my own room and they're feeding me and whatever, so I don't really need much money," Superboy says. "There's a discretionary fund I can use if I need to go on an undercover mission or anything like that? But I'm not really the undercover type anyway."

"Sure," Tim says. So . . . no way for Superboy to save up to move out and get an out-of-lab life, then. Great. That's not fucked-up or crazy or horrible at all. "Do you like it there?"

"It's okay," Superboy says, shrugging again. "Better than literally everybody in Hawaii yelling at me every time they see my face, yeah?"

Tim wants to set the world on fire, but he's trying really hard not to go supervillain before he's thirty and he'd hate to throw out all that hard work.

"They just let me do whatever, mostly," Superboy adds. "They don't really care as long as I'm around when they need me."

He'll go supervillain as soon as Bruce dies, Tim promises himself. Just–he'll give his share of the eulogy at the funeral and then he'll blow up three-fourths of Arkham and the entire GCPD while Commissioner Gordon is on his lunch break. He can time that out, that'll be easy. And then he'll go and personally murder the Joker with the very specific combination of a rusty crowbar and a shrapnel bomb, and then he'll just . . . well, he'll just go with the flow from there, he figures. Do whatever feels natural.

Seriously, the world as it is does not deserve to exist. It really just does not.

Tim figures he can probably convince the rest of Young Justice to tag along for the whole supervillain thing and hopefully Dick and Steph and Barbara too, and ideally also Alfred, in the unfortunately likely event that he outlives Bruce. He's got time to lay the groundwork with them all and all, and also everything really is awful and horrible and really does deserve to burn.

"Are they sending you to school or anything? Or tutoring you?" Tim asks with what little scraps of hope he has left. Higher education would be . . . well, something, at least. And actually it probably wouldn't hurt for Superboy to learn a bit more about genetic engineering from the same place he got genetically engineered, just in case anything goes wrong with his DNA again. Cadmus should at least be good for that much, right?

"Ew, no, thank fuck," Superboy says, making a face. "Like I said, they mostly let me do whatever until something needs punched."

So . . . no furthered education or learning any usable job skills or making real money or literally anything that could, again, lead to Superboy ever getting any kind of an actual out-of-lab life established.

Great.

Just great.

"I see," Tim says.

"It's a pretty sweet gig, considering," Superboy says, and grins brightly at him. It's a very nice grin. Normally being faced with that particular grin would make Tim need to beat down the highly unprofessional urge to kiss it.

Right now, though, he's a little bit more concerned with the fact that his teammate is just . . . living in and working for a fucking lab. As a matter of course. Just as a thing.

And Superman of all people thinks that's . . . fine, for some reason? Like, normal and ethical and okay? Somehow? In some way?

What the actual fuck, Tim thinks to himself.

"You said Superman told you to keep an eye on things?" he asks.

"Yeah," Superboy says, his grin widening. "He took me to his fortress and asked me to do it there. Showed me around a bit, too."

"That sounds really interesting," Tim says, wondering in vague disbelief if that means Superman had never taken Superboy to the Fortress of Solitude before. He must've, right? And just . . . inexplicably not shown Superboy around then.

Yeah. Sure.

"It was awesome!" Superboy says with more enthusiasm than Tim's seen from him since they met Nina Dowd's . . . endowments, seemingly forgetting the need to be "cool" for long enough to lean forward in his seat and outright beam at him. Tim is gonna need a minute to recover from the sight of that expression, probably. "It's seriously freaking freezing up there, but there's so much cool shit in the place. Like, from all over the universe, but from Krypton, even! The only thing I'd ever seen from Krypton before was kryptonite!"

Tim considers moving up his supervillain timeline after all. Like. Just possibly. Just a little.

Maybe he can convince Bruce to take an early retirement off-planet and just go from there.

What the hell is wrong with Superman?

"Oh, wow, really?" Tim says, simultaneously pretending he didn't already know what Superman has in his fortress and trying not to be screamingly obvious about the internal calculations he's running on figuring out how to weaponize red sunlight. Or like, maybe he could look into learning some magic. That's technically an option. Probably more time-consuming and harder to hide the process of, though. Still, it's on the table.

"Yeah. He showed me some of it. Told me some stories and stuff, even," Superboy says, and that excited grin turns just a little bit shy and soft and somehow even more distracting than usual. He ducks his head just a little, and then that soft grin is more like a soft smile, and Tim suffers. "And I, uh–and he gave me something, too."

"What did he give you?" Tim asks, praying to God that the answer is "an emergency contact number" or "an allowance that can cover a semi-decent Metropolis apartment" or "an offer to live literally anywhere but Cadmus, including in the thirtieth century or on a hostile alien planet or inside an active volcano". He's technically an atheist, so the praying thing is probably moot, but times of desperation are times of desperation.

"A name," Superboy says, and his smile widens helplessly. "Like, you know, a real one."

Tim might hate Superman, he thinks. That might actually be a thing now.

Yeah, he's definitely going supervillain after Bruce dies and doesn't need an emotional support sidekick anymore. Better start stocking up on the kryptonite.

"That's great," he says with a very carefully not-forced smile of his own instead of anything more along the lines of "wait, you've been alive and active as a superhero for all this time and no one ever actually named you?!" Superboy would probably take it the wrong way, not in the least because that genuinely never actually occurred to him as being a thing before. Like–he really did just assume Superboy was keeping a lid on whatever his real name was for personal reasons or Superman reasons or something. "Are you allowed to tell me it, or is that a no-go?"

"Oh, yeah," Superboy says with a sheepish laugh, rubbing at his arm. "It's like, a Kryptonian name? Not like a secret identity one. It's, uh, Kon-El."

Of course it's not even a damn secret identity, Tim thinks in absolute frustration and abject loathing. Of course not! Why would it be?! Fuck forbid!

"I like it," he says, because he lies to Batman and therefore there is no fucking way that he's going to let Superboy–Kon–see any sign whatsoever of the metaphorical 9.9 on the Richter scale that is currently happening in his psyche. "It suits you."

"You think?" Kon grins all the wider. Tim can't even calm down enough to want to kiss him, except in the sense that he always wants to kiss him.

"I do," he says, and smiles at him again.

Kon smiles back.

Tim hates everything. All the things. There is nothing that Tim doesn't hate right now, except maybe Alfred's snickerdoodles because he might be having a nervous breakdown but he's not, like, criminally insane or whatever.

Yet.

"Yeah, it's kinda cool," Kon says, straightening up in his seat and then leaning back, clearing his throat and slipping his sunglasses back on like they're not in a literal cave right now. Tim doesn't call him on it, because he has a supervillain timeline to work out and that's much more important.

Also because the teammate he has an inadvisable crush on is in a much, much shittier situation than he ever realized and he has to reconcile that with his worldview and also his opinion of Superman. Tim doesn't especially idolize the man except in the sense of knowing he's one of the greatest heroes on Earth and a very, very good man that Bruce thinks incredibly highly of, one of the best men on the League and maybe even on the planet, but . . .

But if he's such a good man, then why the hell is Kon living in a lab that tried to mind-control him and why has he only just seen the Fortress of Solitude for the first time?

Why didn't he have a real name?

"So do we call you Kon or Kon-El now?" Tim asks, which is a bit of a senseless question but also at least a bit of a distraction. He wants to say this whole situation is a horrible idea, who the FUCK convinced you this situation was a good idea?!, but there is no possible way that Kon would respond well to that. Ever.

Also, Kon had a point. Where else is he gonna go?

Clearly not the Fortress of Solitude.

Seriously, would it be that hard for Superman to give him a room there? At least a place to stay sometimes, so he wasn't exclusively relying on the mind-control cloning lab for food and shelter and basic comforts?

"I think just Kon?" Kon says, frowning consideringly. "'El' is like Superman's last name, I guess? So I think just Kon."

"Makes sense," Tim says, internally seething. Superman gave him the "El" name but not a secret identity? A name from a dead civilization with a bit of sentimental value, maybe, but nothing usable on this planet? Fuck, you'd think Kon didn't already know his secre–

. . . Kon doesn't know Superman's secret identity, does he.

Tim had thought he was lying, when he'd said that stuff about Superman not having one, before. Thought it was supposed to be a cover or a misdirection or something. But Kon actually thinks that, doesn't he. And Superman has just . . . kept letting him think that.

Becoming a supervillain actually might be an underreaction, in retrospect.

"Just Kon sounds less formal anyway," Tim says instead of so just in theory, do you think tactile telekinesis could trigger a heart attack or stroke in a full-blooded Kryptonian, if you could REALLY concentrate on doing it? like not FATALLY, just dehabilitatingly?, because he still has some groundwork to do before they get that far into potential supervillainy. There's steps to the plan. The steps need to be followed. They're very important steps. "You don't want Bart full-naming you every time he's looking for the remote."

"Like he'd even bother, it's faster for him to turn the living room upside-down than actually ask anyway," Kon says with a laugh, dropping his head back on his neck. Tim has some thoughts about climbing into his lap and figuring out if the TTK makes him hickey-proof, and then buries them. Not appropriate. Not professional. Just not.

. . . technically, if Kon wanted a hickey, he could just let his TTK down and ask for–

Tim buries his thoughts deeper.

Much, much deeper.

"Point," he says. "So what time does Cadmus expect you back?"

"Dude, it's a job, not a boarding school," Kon says, giving him an amused look. "I don't have a curfew."

Tim, technically, hasn't followed his own curfew any way but accidentally once in his entire life, but for god's sake, is Cadmus even pretending to be raising a teenager or are they really just being that flagrant about ignoring all the child labor laws they so clearly do not give a fuck about? Like, there must be something illegal about this. There has to be.

If there's not, Tim will be adding "burn down Project Cadmus" to his list of supervillain plans to set up in advance. In red pen. Underlined.

Twice.

God, why is the world like this. Why are people like this?

"I guess that'd be convenient," Tim says, internally ranking various methods of combustion. "Though I guess it depends on the cafeteria hours, too."

"It's whatever, I can always eat later," Kon replies with a shrug. "I think I've still got a couple protein bars in my room anyway."

"Just protein bars?" Tim asks, mentally upping the amount of explosives he was considering going with. Cadmus is going to be a crater by the time he's done with it. "Don't you need more calories than that?"

". . . well, sort of," Kon says, folding his arms and looking very briefly embarrassed. "Superman doesn't have to eat, apparently, but, uh, guess I'm not Kryptonian enough for that. Actually I kinda need to eat more than normal humans, it's weird. Like. A lot more."

"I'm ordering pizza," Tim says, upping his mental explosives count again. "What do you want on it?"

"We're the only ones here," Kon says, looking puzzled.

"More pizza for us, then," Tim says.

[brucewaynehater101]

Brainrotting again

Ever read "A Thirteen Year Old's Fake ID" by OneoftheUnknown on ao3 ???

*cracks knuckles*

Lets take this idea and run away with it

Unreliable Narration, I choose you!

. · • ★ • · .

Tim—simply put—loves too much

Loves his parents too much to expose their neglect

Too much to do something as scandalous as get caught photographing Batman and Robin

Tim loves the Batman and Robins he's dreamed up too much to not follow him at night, not photograph them, not become Batman's Leash after Jason's passing so as to preserve the hope they symbolize, preserve the childhood hero he's loved for so long

Tim loves his parents too much to be caught being affiliated with Batman, even to the Dark Knight

Timothy Drake never becomes Robin after all . . .

Alvin does!

Alvin works desperately to drag Batman out of the pit of despair he is trapped within and spreading, works to become the most efficent co-worker, and works to build the paper trail that disproves any possibility of fraud

Wigs, contacts, makeup, civilian wear, hobby and even personality that differ dramatically from Drake and Draper are the cherries on top

. · • ★ • · .

Drake is perfect for his family name, and Draper is the idealized Robin who's light preserves the Night and Justice that is Batman

Yes, it is a pain concocting a personality which is the perfect Robin yet detestable enough to go unmourned, such a personality born of an upbringing that would stand up to scrutiny is such an impossible task for anybody not a Drake

Tim is confident he's done it. Once Alvin's no longer entrusted with the burden of Batman's Robin Leash, a Young Justice member, and a hero all around, nobody will gave a damn if he vanishes

[Jason's attack on Titan Towers, Damian's murder attempts, the constant calling of Replacement, his Sweet Sixteen, Dick taking away Robin and ruining his reputation in the hero community, nobody believing that Bruce is alive

Bart and Kon's deaths, the cloning he attempted in his G R I E F which will only serve to soil Draper's name further once it leaks at the press of a button]

All of that, all of that were utterly perfect moments, perfect to lash out in ways that would make Alvin detested more and more

The clock was ticking.

He is a leach of a cast over a long healed limb

. · • ★ • · .

Alvin hates Damian and Jason and Dick to the ends of the Earth. The first two tried to kill him, the third took away the Robin he wrongly thought belonged to him and he stole Red Robin just to be petty

He left a note saying he's only proving them wrong in Bruce being dead just to spite them

Alfred is the only person he is respectful at all too

He doesn't get paid enough

Alvin tried to ignore that giggling fighting to be made at the thought of Batman's accomplice having to suffer through all this

This feeling that's been there since his sixteenth

. · • ★ • · .

Hating the Bats? That's Alvin's job. Timothy knows it's irrational

Jason dug himself out of his grave and was trained in the very same cult as Damian. Batman picked his murderer over Jason

They're traumatized in ways he can't even summarize. The family's they should trust have done horrible jobs at helping the heal, going as far as to exacerbate their issues

It's not just wrong, but inhumane to wish they were Perfect Victims

Alvin is only half right whenever he demands—yuck! have some manners—apologies

. · • ★ • · .

Awful as it sounds, BruceQuest couldn't have come at a more perfect time, a hero on his high horse, insisting against his betters on running away to prove them wrong, a rebellious stint below his age

So what if he died with the League of Assassins after proving Bruce alive and bringing him back?

Everything is right with the Bats again

. · • ★ • · .

Tim hates the Bats more than anything

He knows it's irrational. Declaring in his heart that he hates is for older adults. He can't help it

When Batman disappeared and his family was scrambling to pick up the pieces, he set eyes upon Bruce's side

Who would take up the CEO mantle? Who could be trusted with the family name that swayed Gotham's civilians and Dark Knights?

In the end, with Alvin declared a madman, they could only rely on Timothy Drake, set to inherit Drake Industries following his parent's death and Uncle's adoption of him

Not that the family would ever know it. Not that they needed to know it

It became easier wrangling being a vigilante and CEO, as well as two identities when one of them was dead

Not that he stopped being a vigilante. They're just never gonna show up on the field

But try as he might, he couldn't put the Batfamily quite back together as Alvin wanted

Bruce won't let him step down from being a CEO

. · • ★ • · .

Brucie insisted on a dinner between family and CEO

It makes sense. None as well. Nothing is suspicious of Tim Drake minus his youth

"You have another brother? Where is he?" He hadn't heard of another adoption yet

"He died asshole." Draper? Why would they still speak of him like one of their own?

But then again, he died

He wasn't Jason Todd dead, but rather a "Don't Speak Ill of the Dead" dead

. · • ★ • · .

It's kind of funny how Brucie—no, Batman—seemed to not tell the family how Tim requested to resign multiple times.

But the family was traumatized by his own hand. They needed something to stand against, to become a cohesive family unit. Bonds forged from pressure are a powerful, powerful thing

He can testify I'm so sorry Kon and Bart and Cassie and—

. · • ★ • · .

If Tim were a civilian through and through, he'd say it's fucked how Batman still employs manipulation to make sure family progress stays up

Then again, he has to find some kind of way

It's Batman

. · • ★ • · .

Tim miscalculated

Tim miscalculated sooo, so fucking much

. · • ★ • · .

Nothing but good things to say about the departed Alvin in interviews

A shrine—a shrine!!—in memory of Alvin

Talks and discussing he gathers on his computers regarding the family includes talks about how horribly they mistreated Alvin comparing him to Damian and Jason?!

Alvin had a working and antagonistic relationship with the heros. Timothy Drake was purely professional. Tim Drake's relationships are exclusively parasocial and delusional

And he's trapped the Bats in parasocial relationships with a boy not even real

. · • ★ • · .

Tim wants to be sick

He calls in sick

'Suck it Batman'

. · • ★ • · .

Only after dying is Alvin getting the love Timothy Drake is above wanting for

It doesn't make any sense

. · • ★ • · .

Tim Drake wants to step down from Wayne Enterprises all together, to cut all contact—being a CEO has been such a strain, with Bruce refusing my nephew's several requests to step down—and have his Fake Uncle move them away from Gotham for both of their own mental health

Somewhere he won't fear the Bat's finding him

Bruce refusing his requests are the perfect excuses to go as far as to cut contact with the world—

Tim Drake knows his heart belongs to Gotham

. · • ★ • · .

Tim Drake hates the Waynes and Batfamily to the ends of the earth

There are exceptions. Steph and Barbara, Cass and Duke, and—

. · • ★ • · .

Jack and Janet love archeology too much

Tim, his own family

Dead or Alive

Thus is the way of Drake

Have I ever read "A Thirteen Year Old's Fake ID"? Perhaps.

In all jest, I am so so glad you liked it. To see something inspired off something I wrote is so heartwarming.

Ngl, I like that your version bashes on Bruce a bit more than mine did.

I like to think that Tim, in these AUs, would be pissed about a shrine to Alvin. Part of him would be so angry that they built a shrine to a person they didn't even know. They didn't know Alvin was just a fake identity. They didn't care enough to find out. Yet, they want to make a physical demonstration of their guilt and call it a mourner's monument?

Two more points I like about your AU are the ways Tim separates himself from "Alvin" and how he built Alvin's personality specifically to be a slightly disliked coworker. It's distressing and disheartening (in the best ways) to think of a younger Tim desperately trying not to hate the Bats for what they did to Alvin. It wasn't him, it wasn't Tim, so it shouldn't matter, right? He can still love them?

An older Tim knows better.

[ynbabe]

Male! Reader x Batfam- P.t 1

Just silly lil incorrect quotes based on a WIP

Y/N after being forced to babysit the Wayne's, to Dick: You're my husband.

Dick, smirking at the others: Yeah I am.

Y/N, to Damian: You're my child.

Damian, begrudgingly: Yes.

Y/N, to Jason: You're my bitch.

Jason: Yeah I am- wait, what?

Y/N, to Steph, Cass and Duke: My besties.

The trio: Naturally.

Y/N, to Tim: HA, GAY!

Tim 'totally doesn't have a crush' Drake: Fuck you.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Dick, thought he was the babysitter: What’s the point of all of this?

Bruce: I need to go off-planet and also revenge for the Batmobile.

Jason, who stole it for a joyride: The best revenge is FORGIVENESS.

Tim, pointing to Y/n sipping a margarita at 7 in the morning with sparkly pink sunglasses: Well, there’s no chance of that.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Dick with Y/n at a PTM with all his other siblings: That kid shouldn't be allowed to treat Tim that way.

Y/n: Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Dick: Yeah, let’s give him a piece of our minds--

Y/n: Let’s stab him!!!!!

Dick:

Y/n: Damian, get a knife real quick.

Dick: NO-

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Bruce, at his old age of 52: You're a lying piece of shit!

Y/n, 29 but technically 2000 years old: Oh yeah? You're the idiot that thinks you can get away with everything you do, WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!

Y/n: I'm leaving and I'm taking Dick with me!

Y/N: AND THE KIDS

Alfred, used to Bruce and his Immortal friends bs, gathering cards: And that's quite enough Monopoly for today.

Dick, being tugged by both Bruce and Y/n: I DON'T EVEN LIVE HERE! ALFIE, HELP!

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Y/n, getting the tour to babysit: Man, they look like a real handful. How do you deal with them?

Bruce, watching Dick screaming, Damian trying to set a sleeping Jason on fire, and Steph choking on air: I don't know either.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Y/n: The floor is lava!

Dick: *helps Y/N onto the counter*

Jason and Damian: *pushing each other off the sofa*

Tim: *lays on the floor*

Y/n: ...Are you okay?

Tim: No.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Goon 1, talking about Redhood: I heard he's horrible.

Goon 2: Yeah, dude probably has an iceberg for a heart.

*Meanwhile, in the Cave*

Y/N: Hold still!

Jason: I had an itch!

Y/N, putting stickers on Jason's mask: I don't care, you're going to mess me up.

Jason: *Rolls his eyes but lets Y/N continue while he's smiling behind his mask.*

Y/N, margarita in hand: *Puts a gold star on Jason's redhood helmet* there. Perfect, just like you.

Jason, tearing up: Thank you.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Y/n: BE A BETTER PERSON!

Dick: WHY?!

Y/n: BECAUSE SOMEONE NEEDS TO HAVE MORALS IN THIS RELATIONSHIP, AND IT SURE AS FUCK AIN'T GONNA BE ME, SWEETHEART!

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

*Dick and Y/n on a mission*

Dick, snickering to himself: Y/n needs help. Guess I have to get to the top myself

Y/n, without thinking: You’re incapable of topping anything you’re a fucking bottom

Dick: *immediately trips over nothing*

Tim, on comms support: … guys?

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Steph: I love this new strawberry-flavoured shampoo I got!

Y/n: Flavored?

Steph: Scented! I mean scented.

Steph: But yeah, it tastes like strawberries too!

Y/n, calling poison control: No you did not! STEPH!

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

[Jason, Tim, Steph, Cass, Duke and Damian doing something dangerous]

Y/n [judging while drinking a margarita] Look at those morons. Where are their parents?

Y/n: ...

Y/n: Oh shit! I'm their parent!

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Tim, about his crush on Kon: I need life advice

Y/n, sipping a Margarita and eating cookie dough: You came to the right person

[vinelark]

ALL timkon recs I BEG

hello hi! here are some of my favs! it got long so putting some under the cut

💄 Lipstick on the glass by @cairoscene read for timkon being soft and goofy and disgustingly in love, set in vague future college-y years with amazing core four dynamics too. cair is one of the funniest people to ever exist and we are so blessed that they decided to write some timkon. (also read for my own greatest contribution to literature, the fictional “jerry the void nexus” meme)

🎢 been a number and a name by @wynterstars i had SO MUCH FUN reading this one, a 90s comics-divergent AU where robin and superboy become friends—and crushes—when superboy is pretty new on the scene. feat. lex luthor being terrible, tim staging a rescue operation that at one point involves platform shoes and a blonde wig, spice girls references, and fantastic action sequences. it’s also a series, with an installment focusing on kon & clark, and a currently updating longfic sequel with SO MANY timkon identity shenanigans (my beloved) and kon feelings (also my beloved).

📸 the surveillance series by @smilebackwards i feel like i rec this all the time but it’s because it’s THAT GOOD. a tim-centric AU where tim joins the family late, but is still involved in bat business without the bats realizing. there’s some fun timkon identity shenanigans at the top, and some of my all-time favorite tim characterization (ruthless! lonely! brilliant!) plus a great tim & bruce arc, too.

🦉 Detours by miyaji_08 this is part 2 of a series and i def recommend reading the whole thing! a reverse robins + joker jr au that has lots of trauma and lots of healing, and in part 2 there’s timkon identity shenanigans that’s simultaneously enemies to lovers + And They Were Roommates. tim sure does run a gauntlet of horrors in this series, but it has so much healing and also one of my fav reverse robins concepts i’ve read so far.

📱 unfurl by @burins tim and kon might be dating, and there’s no kryptonian sex ed handy. bruce, being bruce, makes it his business, which means talking to clark and Realizing some things about his own feelings. superbat are billed first here, but i think timkon steal the show—i laughed out loud like five different times reading this. hilarious and sweet on all sides. (and if you like this, check out their timkon road trip fic!)

🌾 A Saturday Evening by malcyon in which tim visits the kent farm for family dinner with kon, feat. very sweet established relationship timkon and fun superfamily dynamics, and it touches on tim’s past grief over kon’s death (and complicated feelings post-undeath).

🤼‍♂️ Sore Loser by @hearteyeshayley kon learns that tim always let him win while sparring, and has to process that. this was such a fun exploration of tim’s prowess as a fighter—one who regularly has to go up against superpowered friends and foes alike—and also tim as a person who is always doing mental calculations about the people around him (in an endearing way). kon, too, got his time to shine and grow, and the ending was so smart and sweet.

🔮 Ascension by Violet_Witch an AU longfic where tim is a witchling and kon is a fallen angel who has (oops) just lost his wings. tim sets out to help get kon’s wings back, and there’s a ticking clock because angel wings are dangerous in the wrong hands—and tim has a big, horrible secret that’s about to come due. the plot/worldbuilding of this was WILDLY cool, and there was a big ol misunderstanding in the middle that had me clawing my face off (in a good way).

🌌 straight on ’til morning by merils kon vs. the terrifying ordeal of growing up, feat. sweet friends-to-lovers timkon and really thoughtful exploration of some of kon’s canon past relationships and their abusive dynamics. i haven’t finished this one yet but it’s been rec’d multiple times and i’m excited to dive back in (and it's recently complete!)—and what i have read so far gave me an amazing sequence of kon and dick interacting and dick’s big brother mode activating in an instant, which is something i now desperately need more of.

📧 aaaand would it even be a reclist by me if i didn’t include send to all by @cairoscene the absolute moment i find myself feeling down i go reread this and boom. i am instantly laughing again. timkon are just one part of a bat grab-bag here but they are so so funny and cute and in-character. maybe one day i’ll compile the timkon-centric sequel that exists in my head but for now i’ll just go reread this for the zillionth time.

okay yeah!! i’m probably missing so many good fics here because i constantly have like a zillion tabs open that i plan to read someday. also i reserve the right to reblog later like OH I FORGOT— but in the meanwhile, happy timkon reading!

[gffa]

I would read so many issues of these two being horrible gremlins to each other while they mocked each other as they fought together (and then mocked each other while they kissed) their way across an entire series of batshit fights. "Really? Then what was, 'Bruce... oh, please, Bruce, get up! I miss you so much, Bruce.'?" "Oh, and that's better than, 'Clark, that huuu--'" I love banter and I love dumb boys and I love characters who would fight the entire world for each other and I love characters who see the other as the person that just being there made them able to keep getting back up and I love characters who viciously mock each other to their face because they're awful boys and I love characters who you never doubt care deeply about the other. Stop being cowards, DC! Let Tim and Kon be unhinged about each other again!

[stealingyourbones]

Hey Bones, I saw your thing about a Bat family member becoming a ghost and it reminded me of a very heart breaking au a friend and I came up with a while back that I don't remember if I submitted or not. Either way, be prepared to have your heart broken.

Tim is dead. He's been dead for a while actually. But No one seems to have noticed. He looks and feels just as solid as he did before he died, even if he's got a lower body temperature and doesn't seem to get hurt on patrol beyond bumps and bruises. Never anything that would land him in med Bay, never anything that would make his family check on him.

No one has noticed the way he doesn't eat anymore, or the fact he doesn't sleep. He's extended his patrol hours and cut back on time at Wayne Enterprises. He's pretty sure not even Alfred noticed. He knows the Kryptonians aren't worried about him not having a heart beat and they have no reason to tell anyone. They know he has a special device that can hide him from their senses and tests it on Kon a lot to make him focus on spacial awareness beyond his hearing. He used it a lot before he died. They just think he hasn't turned it off in a while.

Tim remembers how he died. Not fully, but there are pieces. He remembers he was fighting someone on a bridge and he didn't call for back up because he thought he could handle it. He doesn't remember who he thought he could handle. He remembers something stinging his arm. A bug? No a bug couldn't bite through Kevlar, it was a needle. Then everything started going dark and he was stumbling back. His back hit something hard and he tiped over it. He thought he could land on the other side. He remembers wondering why his suit felt so damp and heavy as the world went black around him.

Tim's body is still at the bottom of the bay where it will likely stay forever with so, so many other bodies. It makes Tim wonder, why him? Why not everyone else who ended up down there? Why not everyone who has died in Gothem? Did he come back like Jason did, is it something to do with being a vigilante? Tim checks his own pulse again while he's alone. Yep. Still dead. He continues on his patrol and tries to shove those thoughts away.

So what if Tim's dead? He's still here and he still has work to do. His family is full of detectives. If they can't figure out that something as important as death has happened to one of their own? Well then Tim thinks they need to pay more attention. He ignores the pain that curls in the back of his mind at that thought.

It's been 6 months. Why hasn't anyone noticed? Tim can't help but wonder if they ever will.

Howdy its me @bonebrokebuddy answering. I'm Twone's (twin bones) twin who is helping answer asks because this fucker has like, over 100 of them in her ask box and I help her with making prompt ideas frequently so she trusts me to not horribly fuck up her account.

This is my first answer for her I've written because I had my screen on low brightness and on darkmode, so your profile jump scared the shit out of me when I scrolled past it. Therefore im answering this one first.

Anywho, from my chronic inability to write angst here goes: Tim died, came back and none of the Bats seemed to care. So what? It's not like his best friends hadn't done the same thing. And he was tired and sick of the Bats thinking his entire life revolved around them.

So he packed up his bags and headed to Kansas.

The Bats might not be worried but neither was Kon or Bart. They're actually thrilled after getting over their initial grief that Tim now has also personally experienced death and came back. The funeral was a rather small, breif, and quiet afar. Kon made sure to help locate Tim's corpse and Bart helped with the eulogy (surprisingly heartfelt and moved them all to tears.)

Sure, they're sad that Tim died but he's right in front of them, it's a little more difficult to morn when you've been laughing at said dead guy who got stuck halfway through phasing out of the wall. And now Tim can keep track with them!

Kon is a little pissed that Tim can now go intangible and escape his TTK so he can't take away Tim's coffee anymore. But it's kinda worth it. The first time he took Rob on his favorite flight path, he's never wanted anything else than to hear Tim's breathless laugh and see his frighteningly perfect smile again. They now often go on flights together, high above the clouds with no-one else but them for thousands of miles around. (it almost felt like a date)

Bart knew this would happen one day. He was from the future, of course he knew that Tim Drake, formerly Red Robin, died at age 19 and changed his alias to The Grey Ghost. It doesn't mean that Bart doesn't morn the passing of his friend. Tim means a lot to him and the brief guilt that he did not stop Tim's death also quickly passes. He can finally show Tim that hiding space in the walls that no one else can get to without phasing through the wall! One other thing. Bart is unsure if Kon has noticed yet, which he knows Kon isn't the most observant of the old young justice crew but he has to have noticed it by now. Ever since Tim left Gotham he's developed an insane appetite despite claiming that he didn't need to eat while in Gotham and also being dead so why does he need to eat? (Unknown to Bart, Kansas doesn't have as much ambient ectoplasm as Gotham and Tim is starting to experience the withdraw symptoms. If the trio don't realize how to fix Tim's worsening symptoms soon, Tim might actually die for good this time.)

[devine-fem]

why don't you like jayjon? Genuinely asking btw and I'm neutral btw I don't really ship superheroes kids, so yeah

Alright, firstly I have always come across damijon shippers that ship them as kids because their purest connection peaked when they were young so you kind of permanently keep Jon and Damian as kid in your head because of what DC did to them.

We ship them in a ‘wholesome crush on your best friend, twisting inside you over time that you snub out till you reach your adulthood and have the maturity to deal with it’ type of way. The beauty of Damijon is not the fact that it’s Bat x Super. I honestly don’t care for this dynamic ergo not shipping superbat and not liking Timkon at all. The beauty of Damijon is that they could become something with a friendship to back it up, then continue to push each other’s characters forward while being in a relationship if the writer cared enough. It’s a plus that they care for each other so much and have the personalities to really balance each other out.

I enjoy ships like Daminika, Dami x Colin and other Jon ships as well. I just only post damijon and talk about them. It’s only Jonj*y I have issues with. It’s not about ‘getting in the way of my ship’ nothing can ever get in the way of me enjoying damijon and fandom is just gonna have to deal with that. We all come here for enjoyment because we should supposedly enjoy DC for DC and find community in that, enjoy our ideas and takes on it and one person is not going to perceive or enjoy something the same way but we are so damn MEAN to each other. Damijon gets a lot of heat, mostly because twitter damijon stans are annoying and horrible and damijon antis are just as bad.

So the problem I have with Jonj*y is just deep rooted.

Firstly, I hate the way it came about. The last thing Jon’s character needed was to be in a relationship period but then for it to be a queer relationship used as a tool to garner sales? There’s nothing in the world I dislike more than queer baiting. The last thing we needed from DC was to pull something like this and as a queer person it just really gets under my skin - as it should anyone, to be honest.

Even regardless of that Jonj*y is the relationship equivalent of stale bread. They have no chemistry, Jay has no character besides catoring to Jon’s sexuality, and even if they were to explore him there’s no point because objectively they’ve tarnished Jon Kent way too much to be wasting comic ink on Jay.

I don’t like aged up Jon Kent as a whole, it’s not like I want him to stay a kid forever - obviously not. The fun of a comic book character is their growth! Jon over time should have never been able to get to the age he is now when other comic book characters struggle to get near that age in decades. I MEAN HE’S NEARLY OLDER THAN KON RIGHT NOW. Bendis did what he did to Jon because he ain’t even like him.

There are real serious issues with Jon Kent’s age up than him getting with Damian. I know how to seperate my ship/fanon from canon. I can go on and on about the problems with it without mentioning Damian once.

I had to put “JonJ*y apologist DNI” in my bio because the stans kept coming to my page and spewing BS 24/7 so I thought it was my absolute right to make sure they knew this page was not for them.

If you enjoy the ship at all then you will not like me because I have almost every single active Jonj*y poster blocked because I have fought with them at least once because they wanted to be stupid and spew nonsense on Jon Kent when you can tell they haven’t read a damn comic besides SSOKE and it really shows.

If you enjoy it, just block me. It’s only a matter of time before we fight anyway, so don’t waste your breath because the whole time you could be trying to open your mouth, you could open a comic book instead, how about that?

Thanks for the asks though, LOL.

P.2

[warrenwaskilledbyadeer]

I'm reasonably certain this has already been said before but personally, I don't think it was the best choice for DC to put Tim with Bernard specifically

I'll admit I haven't read any of them together, but I just know that Bernard used to be Tim's biggest bully at school and it just feels weird to me

But what feels even weirder is aging up Jon for no reason and then creating a new character just to be his boyfriend

And y'know what the funniest part is??? There was an incredibly simple solution to this dilemma that wouldn't have felt weird in the slightest

One of the biggest ships in DC has ALWAYS been Tim/Kon, so like.... why not just make it canon and then Jon can still be Damian's bestie and Tim doesn't have to be with someone who used to treat him horribly

If they wanted bi rep in the two highest profile superhero families, which they did, Conner and Tim getting together after all this time of people wanting that just seems like it makes so much more sense

Due to some immature behavior I am now editing this post to clarify that I don't ship Timkon nor do I like that ship actually, but it can't be denied that it is one of the most popular ships in DC and that many many many people love it and that would've been the easiest way to add in this bi rep that would have made literally no one mad, including me

Also Bernard was not invented last year (or was it two years ago when he and Tim got together, I don't remember tbh), Bernard bullied Tim in his original 90s run as Robin and was reintroduced and reinvented when he and Tim got together recently

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes. Please look at tags and warnings on ao3 before reading.

DC

fill in the blanks by mindshelter

"You?” Tim blurts. Holy shit. “You’re Kon?”

A nod. “Are you in any pain?” he asks again.

Kon’s skin is sun-kissed, cheekbones dusted with a fine smattering of freckles; he is, without exaggeration, the prettiest person Tim has ever seen. “No, I’m—great,” he says, fidgeting. “Do you, uh, come here often?”

Kon raises a brow. “To the medbay?” he intones. “Definitely more often than I’d prefer."

Fault Line by sElkieNight60 (+ podfic)

Part 1 of Tectonics

"You’re invulnerable…” he whispers, but it’s clear that fact falters in his mind.

Confusion writes its way into the lines on Conner’s face and Clark takes a step back as though physically pushed.

“You’re not invulnerable.”

It is a statement, dull like stone.

“N-no, sir.”

— 🦸 —

OR: Conner's not as invincible as Clark thought. Suddenly, he's a lot more human.

Danny Phantom x DC

The Business of Family by Spaced_Ace

Jazz remembered the way their parents loomed in the living room as they’d laid out that verdict. Ever-present weapons gleaming, standing in such a way that they blocked access to both the front and back entrances. Their eyes had been what struck her the most of that horrible tableau. What made her stomach fill with jagged stones and drenched her back in a frigid sweat. The way they looked at her little brother, their gazes cold and hollow and -

Hungry.

(Things are not well in Amity Park.

With the GIW getting more and more aggressive and their parents becoming ever more suspicious of Danny each day that passes, Jazz knows that they're running out of time. It's not safe, and their options are painfully limited. Out of sheer dumb luck or a little intervention from Clockwork, she manages to discover a distant relative that just might be their salvation.

If asked Oswald Cobblepot would say that it's just good business. Adopting a few kids had done wonders for Bruce Wayne's reputation, why not his? It's not like he can't afford to put them somewhere out of the way if they get to be a problem. It's just business. Nothing more.

(His soft heart says otherwise))

The Witcher

Words of Love by ForestWren

"I should warn you,” Jaskier said between kisses in the soft darkness of the shed, “That I know some… very interesting people. You may want to avoid meeting them.”

“I’ve dealt with the Redenian court for decades. Your friends can’t be worse than that.”

Five times Radovid meets Jaskier's friends and family, plus one time they are alone.

Star Wars x The Mandalorian

Master Skywalker: The Absolute Worst by PrinceJakeFireCake

"Din got to his feet. He patted Boba on the shoulder affectionately.

“You should watch the recording of Skywalker fighting the death troopers,” he said, then pressed a kiss to Boba’s cheek and told Grogu to stop eating his blocks.

Boba watched the recording. He was pretty sure he would never be the same again. He was positive that he never wanted to meet Skywalker ever again.”

Boba Fett falls for Luke Skywalker. It isn’t the funnest thing he’s ever done.

Original Works

Call Me Menace by wingedcat13

You, Synovus, are a respectably terrifying supervillain. Your main rivals, a pair of superheroes named Legionnaire and Athena, are actually respectable as heroes. You hate having to stoop to kidnapping their child - but you hate more what the kid's behavior implies.

if it don't hurt now (just wait a while) by quandaries_and_contradictions

Part 27 of mage in a wolf pack

When the hunters first take him, Jaime knows everything will be okay.

He’s scared, of course. He wants his mom and dad and little sister. But he knows it’s going to be okay — because the wolves who protect his town will come for him. Lada’s mother and father and papa won’t let the hunters get away with this. All he has to do is hold on until they get here.

Months later, he's not so sure.

Stranger Things

No One Rides For Free by weird_witchcraft

"Are you okay Harrington?” Eddie asks gently, “Need me to get anyone?”

“No one to get,” replies Steve, so soft Eddie barely catches it. “You think I want anyone seeing me like this?”

Eddie Munson stumbles across Steve Harrington crying next to a bush at Tina's party and makes it his mission to cheer him up.

Clone Wars

mirci't be uja by ihathbenobiwankenobied for whitchry9

Obi-Wan is usually good at keeping track of his blood sugar levels–because he has to be–but this time, it’s out of his control.

(Or, a diabetic Obi-Wan is thrown for a loop after crashing on an unknown planet. Stim does his best to keep his General alive)

[crazycatgirl420]

Gotham's Black Rose

Dpxdc fanfic Sam is Bruce Wayne's daughter, adopted by the Manson family. Everlasting Trio, toddler Ellie. Pharoah Tucker, Witch Sam, Space Ancient Danny, and Cujo too.

"How do you feel now?" Mrs. Foley asked, leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom.

Chapter 3: Revelation

Sam removed the tinfoil from her hair. Purple, with a smattering of black, but her hair was mainly a bright vivid purple now. Her purple contacts were back, and last night she even got her nose pierced.

"Better," Sam said. "I feel more like me now,"

"That's good," Mrs. Foley said. "Remember to clean up, dinner will be done soon and Tucker finished whatever he was doing for you,"

Hacking into the Justice League's database of DNA records, to cross-reference her DNA too. It's the largest DNA database in the world. If her biological parents were Heroes or Villians or otherwise employed by such a person then explaining the chaos that was her life would be easier. If not, then she wasn't sure if she wanted to meet them. Her life was messy and complicated and dangerous, bringing someone unprepared into her life would be an unnecessary risk.

"Thanks Mrs. Foley," Sam said. "I'll be down soon,"

-

The test finished running while they were eating. Sam and Tucker left the table, nervous and excited in equal measure.

"I can't look," Sam said, closing her eyes at the door to Tucker's office.

Tucker took her hand and pulled her in.

"No fucking way," Tucker said, pushing Sam into a rolling stool and spinning her around to face a monitor. "You're gonna wanna see this," Sam leaned back into Tucker's chest, covering her eyes with her hands.

Tucker clicked away on the keyboard, his arms loose around her shoulders.

"It's someone horrible isn't it? Like an intergalactic Tyrant or someone who hates kids or maybe someone who hates nature or magic-"

"It's Bruce Wayne,"

-

When an outsider ran a DNA test using the Justice League's database, Hero identities were locked away on a separate server and only those with Civilian identities connected to the Justice League could be found.

It was one of B's many contingencies against enemy hackers. Tim was waiting in the monitor room for Kon to finish his appointment with Canary, when a screen flashed. Tim watched as the Civilian files were shuffled through by the outsider, as the DNA sequence searched for a match. He watched as it stopped on the file of Bruce Wayne and confirmed a parental match.

Finding out who B's new mystery child is was easy. He synced to the hacker's computer, turned on the camera, and there they were. This hacker had an impressive setup, he even had audio.

"I'm a Wayne?" The purple hair girl asked, staring at the screen. "I think I'm gonna be sick,"

"Oh yeah, that's gotta be some cosmic irony or something," the hacker, leaning over the young woman's shoulder said. "An anti-capitalist and her multi-billioniare capitalist father,"

She elbowed him in the gut.

"Any idea who my mother is?"

"Nope, seems only Wayne was on this database. Your mother is probably one of the many supermodels Wayne took to bed so frequently,"

"My whole identity is a lie," the woman said. "If I decide to meet him I probably wouldn't even be an outcast anymore..."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"I don't know." She sighed. "What if I am only an activist because the ones who raised me aren't? What if I only befriended you and Danny because they didn't approve of you? What if I'm actually an entirely different person than I thought I was and I become some shallow backstabbing arrogant snob as soon as Bruce Wayne says he's proud of me for something?"

"If you don't want to meet him, you don't have too,"

"We're moving to Gotham. He's gonna be everywhere,"

"He doesn't have to know Sam," the man said. "If you're not ready we won't tell him,"

Tim pulled up the records of the woman, the unknown Wayne child, and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Samantha Manson, Seventeen years old, born October 13th at Gotham Private Hospital and adopted a week later from the same hospital by the Manson couple, raised in Amity Park Illinois, an average B student and an activist for nearly any cause she found. From school food to animal rights to nature preservation and restoration to illegal pride parades. She bought an apartment in Gotham near Gotham University, for her and her boyfriends Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, and Danny's daughter Eliza.

Bruce had a completely civilian daughter. The batchat was going to freak out.

[boyfridged]

i don't think i ever explained in detail why i'm so deadset on kon's primary name being kon and not conner, so here it is: kon getting his kryptonian name first despite the fact that he has no kryptonian dna is so salient because of 1. what it means in terms of clark's affirmation of his legacy 2. their familial connection being a chosen one, and 3. a bit sadly, the fact that kon finds closure and connection in culture that is already long gone, reminding the reader of his isolation. before getting this name (superboy #59) kon goes exclusively by superboy and is often referred to as "kid." this is what people call him even when he gets enrolled in school, the name on the register and all. kon came to life as a public figure. as a superhero. he has no civilian identity at this point. his core personality is developed in this dimension, and later in relation to his association with clark's alien legacy. and it might sound sorrowful, but this is also who he is; this is what he ultimately finds comfort in, what makes his family. it's bitter-sweet, it's complicated, it's nuanced and interesting. so any civilian identity that he adopts later should logically be his secondary identity. there's absolutely no reason for him to consider "conner" his actual name and not a monicker he uses for secret identity purposes, unless you want to lean into the horrible retcons that make "kon" to be a slur. i don't think he would mind it, per se– but i do believe that kon as we know him in superboy (94) wouldn't ever consider it to be his "true" self. and this is the hill i will die on.

[suzukiblu]

Blink! Or stutter

"Hmmm," Lois says. "Sounds like a pretty deep drop, then."

"I definitely wouldn't be talking about my maternal feelings for Kon while he was feral if I thought he was actually hearing any of them," Clara admits. "That seems . . . unwise. And unfair."

"Maybe," Lois says. "Pretty sure you're gonna have to talk to him about them after this, though. I wasn't kidding about Twitter. The thing where you just very publically dropped in out of nowhere on the cranky and destructively feral nineteen year-old in pre-rut that everyone knows was genetically programmed to be a compatible mate for you while in pre-heat and then just took him up to the nearest convenient rooftop to nurse him is very literally trending right now. It is several kinds of trending, in fact."

"Of course it is," Clara groans, shaking her head as she makes a face. "For god's sake, what, people think I'd rut the kid on a roof in broad daylight while surrounded by cameras with telescopic lenses? Really?"

"Possibly it's more that they're hoping you would," Lois says dryly.

"I'd at least take him to my nest, Jesus," Clara grumbles, clearly disgruntled. "Even if I were actually a horrible enough person to take advantage of his programming that way, I'd have that much decency about it."

"Well, at least most of Metropolis knows that, but the world at large unfortunately does not," Lois says. "So yeah, honey, you're going to have to talk to Kon about those maternal feelings you've been having and about what he wants you to say when every single person in the world asks you to define your relationship with the three year-old clone based on your own DNA who looks like he fell out of a Playgirl centerfold and landed face-first in your S-shield."

"I suppose so," Clara sighs. "I just don't want to upset or embarrass him with any of this. Has there been any talk about him chirping?"

"Chirping?" Lois sounds surprised. "I haven't seen anything about that, no. When did he do that?"

"The moment he scented me," Clara says. "He stopped right in the middle of smashing up the block and just immediately chirped at me and–well, then he flew up and hugged me, actually. Like he was excited to see me, it seemed like. And then he started nuzzling my chest and chirped some more, and, well . . ."

"Oh," Lois says. "Yeah, no damn wonder you got milked up for the kid, then. Especially with your heat coming on."

"Pretty sure it was unavoidable, yeah," Clara says. "You should've seen his face light up when he saw me, it was unbearably adorable. I think the only thing that could get me to get milked up more efficiently than this situation did would be Kon or Jon just outright asking me to."

"Arguably, this was Kon asking you to," Lois says. "Chirping for you, hugging you, and nuzzling your chest? That isn't all that subtle a request, coming from someone who's currently nonverbal."

". . . oh," Clara says, blinking slowly. "Huh. Do you think so?"

"Honey, you've known the kid basically his entire life," Lois says. "Has he ever checked you out or made any kind of a move or even just smelled like he wanted to mount you? Ever?"

"No," Clara says, her voice a little slow now too. "He hasn't."

"Not even today, when he saw you while in feral drop and pre-rut?" Lois asks. "Not even a little?"

"It didn't even occur to me, to be honest," Clara murmurs. "That he might've reacted that way, I mean."

"Of course it didn't, you're his mom," Lois replies reasonably. "So who knows, maybe he'll be disappointed if you don't seal the deal on this adoption too."

[dc-polls]

"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament

Entry Index

The submission form is officially closed and all the entry posts are drafted, so over the next week expect eight individual posts (without polls) to go up per day. Feel free to add on any propaganda for others to find in reblogs or comments. When we start the tournament, polls will link out to these entry posts for reference. Edit: Find the bracket HERE!

The list:

Justice League Doom Patrol Inflation Art

Supergirl gets romanced by her horse

Superboy gets the personality of Hitler

Sentient Music Note Saves The Day With The Power of… Gay Love?

Superman's Sentient Excised Tumor with Daddy Issues

Wet and Wild

Superman marries Supergirl

What if Space Jam but instead of fun, it's with Batman and it's horribly depressing?

3 Year Old Lian Harper Breaks Vandal Savage's Thumb

Black Mask Wears…er….

Jimmy Olsen Fucked Talia al Ghul

Submission Witheld Due to Copywrite

Can the real pol manning please step up?

Domestic Abuse Ghost Possession

Batman's dad tries to ruin his life

Mal Duncan gets punched in the dick by an Angel

Islamophobia Run Amuck (Joker Becomes Iranian Ambassador)

Superboy Has Two Daddies

Batman gives a guy ALS

So I Married a Protean and No One Told Me

This angel centaur is a genderfluid lesbian

Black Manta kills Aquaman's biological son, Aquaman tries to kill his adopted son

Wally Mobius Manhattan West

Animal Man discovers the Fourth Wall

Superman and Big Barda do a porno

My Favorite Same-Sex Couple in DC Comics is Technically Bestiality and Metaphorically Incest

Snowflame, The Supervillain Powered by Cocaine

Halloween Costume… of Death!

Superboy-Prime Punches Time

Jason Todd: Tentacle Monster (Tentatodd)

"Not Exactly Romeo": Gorilla Mommy Issues and Other Tales

Subway Puritans

Catwoman and the Penguin Cure COVID And Run Away Together

Shvaughn/Sean

Zachary Zatara Has Dead Twins

Baseball Game to Save Two Worlds

Schrödinger's Pregnancy

Green Arrow hunts humans for sport

Sexual Assault Is A Superpower, Apparently

Bob Haney Doesn't Know Who Wonder Girl Was Supposed to Be

Kon-El Got Enslaved By Furries (And It Led To Pearl Harbor 2!)

The Flash Meets Fidel Castro

Metron and Swamp Thing go for a ride

Hallucinagenic Party Balloons (for your own good)

Rock Turns Man Gay

The Earth-Saving Alien Dick

Alien Invasion and the Time-Travelling Boomerang

Lex Luthor Stole 40 Cakes (And That's Terrible)

[mamawasatesttube]

do u have thoughts on tim’s autism & how he masks/doesn’t mask around ppl he’s close with? personally i think bart is his vibrating weighted blanket. this ask was brought to you by me yesterday at a concert rocking in place so violently people thought i was on molly peace and love

lord i know i DO have such thoughts but most of them infuriatingly just out of reach at the moment. (<- brain nerfed by a migraine today and also for the past like 2 weeks at this point. augh) lets see what i do got.

in general? tim drake KING of masking. his masks have masks. i dont think he really does it consciously either; i think he grows up just kinda repressing facets of himself depending on his audience and assumes everyone does that. (i don't think he ever gets a formal autism diagnosis or anything as a kid, either. even if a teacher or someone clocked him and mentioned it to his parents i don't think they'd get him any sort of child psych eval. not in the "oh theyre horrible neglectful awful abusive one dimensional figures" way, but in the "sometimes parents take the idea of their kid having any mental health or neurodivergency issues as a personal insult and then sweep them under the rug bc it is easier than addressing any of said behaviors in themselve as well" way. hopefully i am explaining this ok. and you get what i mean. its not like we know much abt janet to begin with but i just dont think jack drake the republican is particularly supportive of nd kids. this is a tangent. anyway)

so to tim i don't think he ever really consciously considers it as masking. it's more of him internally clocking and cataloguing people who are okay to express certain thoughts and behaviors around, in a whole complex categorization system in his mind. very few people get to the category of "fully free expression is allowed" in his head; even his closest friends take yeeaaars to get there. like i don't think that happens until postcanon (postcrisis no flashpoint edition).

bart is def good at being a vibrating blanket. kon is really good at being a weighted blanket (ttk makes his ability to squish people godly). cassie is someone who Gets him really well and makes it easier to communicate even when he's struggling to do so. but even when he trusts them with his life i do think he has trouble actually reaching out or letting them know if he's, like, feeling overstimulated or anything. this is in large part bc he isn't really aware that not every single person has this complicated categorization system of "what can i and can't i act like in front of this person" system going on in their minds at all times.

[isfjmel-phleg]

Most of the comics I'm familiar with veer away from going into any particular depth about their protagonists' religious beliefs, if any. This is a deliberate choice; you can reach a wider audience by avoiding getting too specific about potentially polarizing topics. For instance in Impulse, Max introduces Bart to the concept of religion and encourages him to figure out his own personal views, but this is as far as the issue is ever addressed.

So I was surprised to find that The Ray 1994 not only features a protagonist who has explicitly been brought up religious (Catholic) but also occasionally addresses his faith in everyday life. Is it always a great or accurate portrayal? Well...no. But all the same, I would like to examine the role of religion in Ray's story and how it impacts his character and the narrative.

It is established that the Terrill family, which includes both of Ray's parents and his uncle (by implication) are Catholic. When Ray is forced to live through a version of his father's memories in the role of his father, his mother is seen in the hospital after giving birth, surrounded by a priest and two nuns. They're also present at the funeral staged to convince Nadine Terrill that her infant son died.

(The Ray 1994 #0)

Exactly how devout the family is is unclear, but we do get references to prayer from Happy...

...as well as his confidence that the situations leading to his getting his powers are divinely orchestrated.

(The Ray 1994 #9)

We see less of Nadine's specific faith, but we do know that she refused to have her child aborted when her husband pressured her to, a stand very likely influenced by her Catholic worldview.

And Thomas Terrill raised Ray in the Catholic faith and had him tutored/homeschooled by nuns, the ones seen in the panel above. Unfortunately, the portrayal of Sister Mary Rose and Sister Rosemary (...as you can tell by those names, yikes) is highly caricatured. They're stereotypes rather than believable representations--one of them is exaggeratedly stern and always holding a ruler, for instance, but actually the most egregious thing might be that they're for some reason in league with a guy who has a weird candle-based cult? This is never explained or even brought up again after the first series (which is less sympathetic to Ray's religious background than the second series, I think--the two series had different writers).

So Ray has been tutored by nuns who have somehow strayed into this weird cult and therefore cannot be regarded as reliable in what they have taught him of his faith. This is going to affect his understanding of God, of Christianity.

As does the nature of his upbringing. The narrative doesn't get into what it would be like to be Catholic for someone who grew up not allowed to leave his house in daylight. He can't go to mass. He can't go to confession. He's never been to church at all. Although it's probable that his parish would have some kind of ministry to shut-ins, he would be mostly isolated from his religious community. Has he even been confirmed? We don't know.

We do know that he struggles with guilt, though, and that he associates this with God--not resentfully, but something like a very distant father figure who is constantly disapproving of him. An impression that's not unlike his actual father.

(The Ray 1994 #1)

This is discussed when Ray thinks he has killed Kon. He recalls how Sister Mary Rose taught him to pray and how in that moment God felt real and present to him, but now that he believes he has done something horrible, he feels distanced from God and unable to pray at all. The religion that she portrayed to him is one associated with guilt.

(The Ray 1994 #2)

But it turns out that Kon isn't actually dead, and Ray believes that God has given him a second chance.

And in his understanding, this is transactional, so he believes he owes it to God to save lives in return for that second chance.

There hasn't been much concept of mercy and forgiveness (which are actually crucial to his faith!) in what Ray has been taught. Whenever he experiences some kind of guilt or shame, he returns to the headspace of his childhood/youth with Sister Mary Rose.

(The Ray 1994 #3)

When he first activates his powers, he regards it as a sort of religious experience. Note the cross-like imagery in the panel in which we first see him.

(The Ray 1992 #1)

Later, he describes the light as having "baptized me." For him, this would be an association with rebirth, with liberation from sin. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it,

Having received in Baptism the Word, "the true light that enlightens every man," the person baptized has been "enlightened," he becomes a "son of light," indeed, he becomes "light" himself [...]

And what Ray experiences is a sort of literalized version of that.

(The Ray 1994 #0)

When Ray time-traveled and is involved in his father's acquiring his powers, we see that for Happy, this experience is described in religious terms, especially related to baptism, also. Happy, who is a professional writer, is much more flowery about it, but the sentiment is the same.

(The Ray 1994 #10)

But the difference between father and son is that Ray's understanding of religion, however skewed in other ways, has given him a mindset of humility, while Happy upon empowerment goes straight to hubris.

This issue is titled "The God Complex," something that Happy has clearly developed as he sets out to attack a Japanese fleet in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. He believes himself authorized to kill these men, even as he prays for them and asks for God's mercy on himself.

Which is rather hypocritical and falls flat as it's reinforced that he thinks of himself as God.

Ray has to intervene and tell him point-blank that he isn't.

Ray seems to believe that his powers do not make him divine but were a fortunate gift that does not entitle him to "dictate morality."

But his father (actually video game villain Death Masque in disguise) repeats this sentiment to him after Ray is struggling with his failure to save every life on a plane whose crash he prevented.

(The Ray Annual #1)

The most overt way in which we see Ray practice his faith is through prayer--something that he learned to do as a child and that was freely available to him even at home, and he does a lot of praying while trying to stop that plane.

Including the Lord's Prayer/Our Father, although as a Catholic, he should be saying "trespasses" and "those who trespass against us" rather than "debts" and "our debtors." Note that he is cut off before he can get to "but deliver us from evil."

Ray's religious views have affected Death Masque, the video game villain he programmed--Death Masque uses religious terminology ("I have no use for idol worship," "I will have no other gods before me," etc.) and has a god complex, probably as a reflection of Happy since Death Masque is initially created as Ray's vehicle for dealing with his dad issues.

Vandal Savage influences Ray's beliefs for the worse by offering him blasphemous advice--telling Ray to baptize himself in his anger and assuring him that he has the powers of a god.

(The Ray 1994 #19)

After going to work for Savage, Ray's faith comes up less often, and he seems to get more out of touch with it as he is led astray by various devil-figures. These include Savage himself, which even Ray acknowledges (he admits in #16 that in joining with Savage he has "made a deal with the devil"), and the demon Neron.

When Neron, in disguise as a woman, offers to make a deal with Ray in exchange for his soul, Ray's response is to laugh at the idea and insist that "you can't actually take somebody's soul." Even when he finds out he's talking to a demon rather than a human, he finds the idea ridiculous and seems hazy on what the concept of a soul is at all--quite a lack of catechesis.

(The Ray 1994 #19)

He initially agrees to the deal but on his way to complete the mission Neron gives him, his conscience resurfaces and he realizes that he's making a mistake.

Later, after he tries to talk over what happened with his mother without actually telling her what happens, Nadine will tell him, "Do what you have to do to solve your problem--but never sell your soul."

And as he gets further embroiled in the situation (part of a crossover event), he prays for a chance to redeem himself.

(Underworld Unleashed #3)

Redemption will be a theme in the final arc of the series, which follows a possible future timeline in which an adult Ray turns evil as a result of his involvement with Savage--metaphorically selling his soul to greed and corruption and power-lust. As he lies dying, murdered by one of his many enemies, a voice enters his head, offering him a chance to redeem himself--"It won't save your life--but maybe--you can save your soul."

(The Ray 1994 #25)

The voice is someone on another planet asking for help, and there's a long story that ensues from there, but the short version is that this chance turns out to be another deal with a metaphorical devil, but he ultimately gives the planet a chance at a better existence by absorbing the villain's energy into himself, and when he is returned to his own time to complete his death, he is able to do so and be at peace.

Back in his own time, he averts the future of his turning to evil by making better choices--saving the life of his still undeserving and ungrateful father, trying to rescue his brother, realizing that his priorities have gotten out of order and breaking off ties to Savage, and reconciling with his mother. None of this is portrayed in overtly religious terms, but the point is his need to do what is moral rather than what is selfish.

In conclusion, Ray is in a worse state when out of touch with his faith--whether through a distorted version filled with guilt or when he disregards his morals. Prayer is seen as a positive thing, showing a willingness to self-reflect and rely on a higher power. The dangers of hubris are illustrated. The powers of a being of light are viewed in a religious perspective, and Ray is even equated to an angel a couple of times (when he arrives in 1941, his father initially mistakes him for Gabriel, and on another occasion, his mother regards him as an angel looking out for her), but beings of light, it's made clear, are not gods but gifted servants. Redemption is an ultimate theme, and Ray is at his best when he is self-sacrificial. The narrative is not hostile to Christianity.

However, it's clear that the series isn't written by a Catholic (Christopher Priest, who wrote the 1994 series, is a Baptist), and even though I too am a Baptist with no firsthand experience of Catholicism, I can see that the portrayal is much less authentic than it could/should have been.

Which is a pity. Stories in which Ray explores his faith in greater depth would have been interesting. It would be enlightening for him to learn more about the mercy and forgiveness aspects of Christianity/Catholicism as an antidote to the distorted version full of guilt that he grew up with. And what would it be like for him to, say, go to mass in a church for the first time? Or go to confession (and find it a great relief)? How would his status as a being of light interact with the concept of "the Light of the world"? Etc. etc.

Ray's being a Catholic is an underexplored aspect of his character, and it's unfortunate that it never got the further development that it deserved.