#reverse!robins

[msfcatlover]

I have been thinking so much about Jean-Paul Valley in my Reverse!Robins AU. Specifically, how he’d react to Steph’s return.

Because, listen: here is a man who had his autonomy stripped from him. Had his identity stripped from him. By the cult his father secretly raised him to serve, while letting Jean-Paul think he was having a normal childhood (and he did. That is one of the things I like about JPV as a character; in the original “Azrael: Fallen Angel” & “Knightfall” stories, he had a perfectly normal childhood… aside from the hypnotic brainwashing implanted while he slept.) This guy who was tricked into murdering several people, when he never, ever wanted that.

He gets saved by the Bats. And they help him. They really, genuinely help him, and sure, Duke & Damian are still teenagers (JPV’s like… 20-22 at this point in my mind,) but they’re also his anchors to reality. Damian, who also was raised to be a weapon by someone he should’ve been able to trust. Damian, who has experience with cults & rebuilding your identity after losing everything. Damian, who’s basically JPV’s “Brainwashed Cult Assassins Anonymous” sponsor. Duke, who also had a normal childhood. Duke, who knows Gotham like only a kid who was raised in its heart can. Duke, who agrees that this whole situation is certifiably fucked, but never hesitates to help Jean-Paul potentially recover a lost memory or find a new one, because it’s not just about who Jean-Paul was before the cult of St Dumas got their hands on him, it’s about remembering that he’s a living human being right now.

They take him in. They save him. They help him save himself. Bruce offers to pay for him to go back to college, for fuck’s sake!

They gave him his life back.

Jean-Paul can never, ever repay them. They tell him they don’t need it, but he wants to and he can’t. He feels so selfish to take & take without giving back, but how do you pay someone back for all that?

So his couch is always open to them, whenever they want. He’ll be their ally, their friend, their confessor, their confidant, their homework editor if need be. And when newer batkids join, well, Jean-Paul would’ve done his best anyway, but the fact he’s entrusted with Duke & Damian’s apprentices is just. It’s something else. And it’s hardly a hardship—the kids are a delight. Obnoxious, sure, and messy, and pushy, and constantly interrupting, and sometimes they break his stuff, and always they eat all his food, but Jean-Paul has more civilian friends now, and they tell him that’s just what kids are like.

What matters is that he loves them. He loves them because Duke & Damian love them, and then he loves them for being them.

And then. Stephanie. Dies. (Because Jean-Paul is broken, he’s a sinner, he can never make up for what he’s done, what he is, and he can never have nice things. Because Steph was sunshine & rage & stubbornness, because she joked that “We blondes have to stick together!” Because no one was there for her when it mattered most. This has to be punishment, right? He got too close, and Steph paid the price.) (His therapist says he’s being irrational again, but it doesn’t feel irrational. They say they need to adjust his medications. Jean-Paul knows better than to trust himself, but he can trust in Bruce to make sure the therapist is safe, so Jean-Paul doesn’t fight it. He’s not happy, but he doesn’t fight it. Because if he starts hallucinating again, he knows it won’t just be his father hovering over him, demanding to know why Azrael refused to avenge them. So yeah, sure, adjust the meds if you think it’s needed—he doesn’t miss Steph that badly. Yet.)

And then. Steph. Comes. Back.

She’s not dead. She’s not dead, but she’s different, she’s so very, very different. Damian says she fights like she spent time with the LoA, that same cult that raised Damian which he’s told Jean-Paul so much about over the years. Training like that takes time, but it’s been 6yrs, and she’s back, risen & gifted back to them! And she’s killing, but Jean-Paul’s killed before, and he’s been kidnapped by a cult before, and he thinks he knows how this goes. Death Mask isn’t Azrael, but he thinks it’s close enough.

And. And. And. He can save her. Because he knows what to do now, after nearly a decade in recovery. He can make up for his sins, he can bring her home again, and maybe, finally, he’ll have finally managed to pay them all back! He can give Steph her self back to make up for—(“You didn’t kill Stephanie,” his therapist reminds him, “you never laid a finger on her. Remember? You didn’t hurt her. It’s not your fault.” But it feels like it is, it feels like it, he can’t shake the idea that he did)—and he can give the Bats their sister back to make up for all that they’ve given him over all this time! A life for a life, and yes! This feels right!

He cooks up scenarios, imagines Steph reaching out in a moment of lucidity, or showing up injured on his doorstep guided by muscle memory, or running into her on the street or in a cafe and the look of alarm & recognition in her eyes as she—like he did, still does occasionally—knows that she knows him but can’t remember. He imagines the conversations they could have, all the different variations, and knows that it will take time, but patience is a virtue and Jean-Paul’s gotten rather good at it. He can be her anchor.

He just needs to figure out how to start.

(And meanwhile, Steph’s on the other side of Gotham like, “Why are my ears burning, and why do I feel like I’m staring down a tsunami-level wave of second-hand embarrassment right now?”)

[phoenix-kite]

Reverse Robins AU

These are all of the notes I have on the robins so far. It might not make sense but again it's just notes. They are all in order by adoption and I have yet to decide their ages. If you have any suggestions, please put them in the comments.

Damian - Robin name is Nighthawk (colors: black, dark green, and yellow) / JadeWing

Duke - colors: dark blue, dark green, and yellow / nighthawk -> nightingale -> blue veil

Cass - Nighthawk colors same as Duke but heavier on yellow / Cain -> Nightingale

Tim (switched order so Steph wasn’t the exact same) - black, green, and yellow / spoiler -> nighthawk -> batboy (?) -> spoiler

Steph - batgirl -> villain / head of league of assassins -> black bat -> (death of parents) orphan

Jason - dark blue jacket with yellow “N” and green pants (We Are Nighthawk) / Daybreak

Dick - black, light blue, green, and yellow (tries to fight crime after the death of his parents without a hero name until he is adopted by batman)

[c-r-g-r-y]

A very important question:

In a Reverse!Robins AU, what would the costume look like?

Specifically, would a 9 year old Dick Grayson see the Robin suit and think to himself, "Huh. That needs less pants."

[notholaenas]

paint the town red🩸(red hood tim)

(based on @mammutblog's red hood timmy design i haven't stopped thinking about since the first time i saw it)

print! | playlist | cosplay alert! | cosplay alert pt. 2

[batbabydamian]

reverse robins of my fav trio!

[reebmiester]

more reverse robins Damian and Dickie

[webshood]

Reverse Robin's so Tim can get Jason's trauma: boring, overdone, lazy work, disservice to both Tim and Jason as characters

Reverse Robin's so preadolescent Jason can terrorize kid Dick with photoshopped pictures of Slenderman: innovative, never done before, talented, show stopping

[dragonpyre]

Reverse Robin! Another piece for a gift exchange. This time for the awesome @cornflowerbluewrites

Part 2

Commission info ko-fi

[horsechestnut]

The dichotomy between Jason dying because he disobeyed Batman and Stephanie dying specifically because she was trying to follow his rules is so good, and yet so under utilized.

[illyxion]

Reverse Robin!AU where Jason and Dick try to sneak out, only for Damian to catch them. Meanwhile, Tim is just there for the entertainment.

Bonus

[inverted-typo]

My turn to reverse the boys

[msfcatlover]

(yeah, it’s reverse!robins)

Damian: “Richard. As you are getting older, there is something we need to discuss.”

Dick, age 15: “Uhhh, if this is The Talk, I already got it.”

Damian: “…It’s not, but that’s good to know.”

Damian: “No, you are rapidly approaching the age where most of us graduated from our childhood mantles and set out to forge our own independent identities. No one will take your current mantle away, of course, but it is likely people will expect you to be brainstorming where you want to go next in your life. If you have any plans, costume ideas, or names in mind. That sort of thing.”

Damian: “Any of us would be happy to help you workshop future identities if you would like to. I just need you to promise me one thing.”

Dick, leaning forwards in his chair: “What is it?”

Damian, with a haunted look in his eyes: “If Timothy says he has name suggestions, light them on fire and run.”

[phoenix-kite]

Reverse Robins AU (Another Poll but with Propaganda)

Blue Veil - Since Duke is switching with Jason, I thought that he should have name similar to the one Jason went by after the pit that was still unique to him. Potential nickname as Shawl-Boy (might be hard to understand though).

Red Hood - Apparently Jason stole this name from Joker and since Duke is a lot more connected to Joker than Jason was I think this would be a super cool idea. Also I just saw a comic where Damian called Jason Red Hoodie which was so cute (Damian switches with Dick in the fic so it would be the eldest calling his first sibling that).

Please give me any hero name suggestions or nickname suggestions you may have in the comments!!!

[goldengirlgalaxy]

Reverse Clone AU

So, I've seen a couple stories where Danny is Damian's clone. How about we reverse it?

Danny was born Damian Al Ghul, being raised to be an assassin since he could walk. However, he had a good heart, and eventually his mother overstepped around him (maybe she killed one of his favorite caretakers? Maybe he saw her killing someone with a loving family?), causing him to decide to leave the League next time they let him outside.

He was discovered by the Fentons, got adopted, and had his name changed from Damian Al Ghul into Daniel 'Danny' Fenton. Over the years, his time in the League slowly faded from memory, only remembering that one moment that drove him from them.

Talia, meanwhile, tried to create another baby, but found she didn't have any more DNA from Bruce. However, she did have plenty of Damian/Danny's DNA, so she decided to simply clone her son, making sure that this one would never get it in his head to run away. She decided to let the memory of her first son go, completely overriding it with the new Damian, as if he had been the first son and not merely some clone, forcing everyone in the League to keep the fact a secret.

So, things continue on, Danny becomes Phantom, Damian becomes Robin, so on and so forth. Eventually, one of the Batclan stumble upon Danny and take an interest in him once they realize he looks like Damian.

They actually don't think that he's a clone, because he's older than Damian and records show him having a history older than Damian, so they believe that Talia had another child, which Damian is already a little salty about, because it means that his status as the heir of the League and potentially his title as the only blood son of batman are completely meaningless.

Unfortunately, their investigations lead to the League figuring out where Danny is, at which point Talia drops by and decides to reveal in front of everyone that Danny is the original Damian and Damian is a clone meant to take his place.

The only one who takes it well is Danny, who tells everyone to get off his porch before he activates the home defense systems because he does not care for this drama.

[mammutblog]

red hood but its timmy drake

[hehether]

Dick always gets what he wants from his big bros 🗣

Reverse Robins AU!