EpicReader

Damian: …what did you just say, Drake?

Tim: You heard me. Back then you were this slimy little tadpole. No arms, no legs , just vibes. Dick scooped you up in a bucket because, well... Jason wanted a pet.

Damian (on the verge of tears): Then… then how did I end up like this?

Tim (sighing dramatically): We may have, uh… injected you with some of Bruce’s DNA. Science, mutation, yada yada.

Damian suddenly bolts toward Bruce’s room.

The sounds that followed were Damian’s muffled sobs and Bruce’s voice filling the room with words like,

“No, Tim’s talking nonsense! You’re my son , You’re definitely not from a sewer.

Dick (staring at Tim): He’s nine, Tim. Nine.

(Specifically fics with the most beautiful prose/writing ive seen so far, in this fandom)

1. Saudade by liodain - teen rated, superbat. Extremely emotionally charged, with a focus on grief, and strong imagery that i still think about, like, a year later

2. Honeymuscles by Kow2 - General audiences, Dick and Tim. Commentary on grief thats just so compelling. i seriously cannot recommend this author enough. The words and scenes and dialogue run so smoothly. Such original ideas and compositions. Everything is perfect. Everything.

3. Declensions by dustorange - teen rated, Dick Grayson centric. I know the entire point of this list is to honour good prose, but like. This goes beyond all that. Its lyrical. Covers heavy themes and conveys an almost brutal sense of realism. Absolutely visceral. Bone-shaking

4. Bullets fly (nobody's hurt) by myrime - general audiences, tim and bruce and alfred and the memory of jason. Brilliantly paced, with a clever plot that i really, really adore. Prose that's so graceful, it feels almost organic

5. Peachtoast by kow2 (..again) - seriously. Go read this author, its worth it

I think it would be HILARIOUS if there was some Great Prophecy retelling the arrival of a “son of magic” who is destined to be the most powerful magic user since Merlin… who will either end the world or save it… only for the ‘chosen one of magic’ to come along in the form of Bruce Wayne who categorically REFUSES to chose magic back.

It’s starts when after his birth In fact, a Wise Old Magic User tells Maria her baby is the chosen one… that the world will seek to destroy him before he destroys the world in turn… He must take the baby and raise him away in a monastery in safety… He raises his Staff From The Time of Merlin Itself Forged from The Stone Of Exaliber to show his powers and promptly gets tackled by the Wayne security team.

Martha like all mothers agrees her darling baby is special - but it still not a good idea to encourage crazy cultists, so she tells the hospital security they’ve had an escapee from the dementia unit next door and laughs about the whole thingwith Thomas later. It’s Gotham, the unexplainable happens all the time.

And so Bruce grows up knowing that sometimes Weird People Who Think They Can Use Magic Try To Induct You Into Your Cult, but you just say no and tell a trusted adult. It’s just a sad side effect of living in Gotham, this is why Thomas’ work to improve water treatment is so important.

Then Bruce’s parents die, and this is perfect! the chosen one always has dead parents - but Alfred is here now. Alfred who knows there’s a little more truth to what’s happening than Martha lead Bruce to believe, and so he asks just once if Bruce would like to go become an all powerful sorcerer and save the world. Little Bruce says, ‘No thanks I would rather become a marine biologist astronaut instead” and that’s that. And if he ends the world? Then, well, Alfred thinks the world rather had it coming.

Not that the rest of the magic society accepts that of course. Bruce grows up and everyone keeps expecting him to Embrace His Destiny… for his powers to manifest and require training expect he just… doesn’t. He stays Pointedly Normal, or well as normal as one can be while still traumatised by your parents murder.

They think he must have chosen the ‘world ending’ route. So they do on the offensive.

But by now Bruce and Alfred have been dealing with well meaning magic users trying to kill him/recruit him since he was a kid. These magicians are all expecting an Epic Magic Fight, they are NOT expecting a punch to the face and a Butler with a shot gun. Eventually Bruce gets so pissed at all these people interrupting his angsting trying to ‘call him to action’ he becomes Batman out of spite. They want him to save the world? Fine then, he’ll save the bloody world expect he’s doing it from GOTHAM and he’s not going to use a lick of magic while doing so.

Every time a magic user meets him they go ‘it’s you!! The chosen one!! Your potential!!” And every time Bruce just goes ‘Umm no thanks not interested’ like they are an unwanted proselytizer at his door. If they get too stubborn he just throws a smoke bomb or a batarang at them and they tend to quickly get the idea.

It’s also important to note however, that Bruce still stubbornly ‘refuses to believe in magic’.his mama said it was not real, and therefore not real it must be. Even when he joins the JL with magic users he STILL refuses to believe them (or at least admit to it). People flying? Well he has met Superman what about it. Magic sparks? So can any street magician have you heard of flash paper. Anything unexplainable? Well science is real good these days and also he has always been semi-recently dosed with some drug. Hallucinations are probably just a delayed side effect.

He has by now also subconsciously trained his own momentous world-ending magic ability into a ‘fuck off, magic does not exist’ barrier. Trying to use magic on him is like running into an overly clean glass door repeatedly. Embarrassing and likely to end with you having a broken nose.

If he just would learn ONE SPELL…

But nope.

He causes the magical community several breakdowns on the regular.

TW: dead body, resurrection (probs others it’s like 2 am so it’s time to get morbid in ur inbox :p)

I feel like if any of the bats tried to dip Tim in the Lazarus pits, something Tim has explicitly said multiple times that he doesn’t want to get dipped into then maybe young justice would have to intervene on Tim’s behalf.

Tim is obsessed with doing things perfectly and that includes things pertaining to himself. If he’s not coming back right then don’t you dare bring him back.

So i’m imaging Jason getting ready to dip Tim in the pits, after his obligatory mental breakdown about it, only for a blur to suddenly take Tim’s corpse away.

Then young justice has to deal with the fact that they have one of their best friend’s corpses with them that they’re just hiding from the bats. Probably having to use one of Tim’s contingencies to stay away from them while dealing with the emotion turmoil of everything that they’re doing.

Then there’s the question of just what exactly they’re going to do with Tim’s body. Do they keep playing keep away from the bats with Tim’s body until it fully decomposes. It would usually never work but maybe with Tim’s contingencies they could pull it off.

Or should they destroy the body so throughly that there’s nothing left to be dipped in the pit? Are they going to cremate their best friend knowing that they’re going to stop their friend from every coming back.

They would want Tim back and love him even if he ‘came back wrong’ but they have to respect Tim’s wishes. He would forgive them but they know that they would ruin Tim’s life if they ever put him through that.

Or maybe it’s a secret third option where they’re all scrambling to find a way to bring back Tim with no consequences. They’re all diving headfirst into cults, magical/cursed items, healing methods from the future that brought back the others or they’re reaching out to other planets and universes.

Nobody in young justice was mentally sane about other members. They’re all ride and die about each other.

Yay!!!! "Payment" for my therapy, lmao ^^

If YJ knew Jason was about to dip Tim in the creepy lime juice bath, they probably would intervene. I'd also imagine other Bats would as well.

You've listed 3 options for YJ post corpse-napping:

Keep away/hiding Tim's body until it decomposes (or until he comes back himself)

Destroying/cremating Tim's body

YJ finding an alternative solution to bring Tim back

I like the au/hc that Tim has a contingency in place in case he dies before he is supposed to. I don't mean this as Tim having plans for how to deal with his death (like his will), but as in Tim having a way to come back to life. It is, for obvious reasons, untested and not certain. Still, Tim might have a plan for that.

Therefore, YJ would either wait for Tim to come back or try to figure out another option just in case.

Either way, unless Tim explicitly told them DNR (with the R being revive/resurrect in this case), YJ is gonna get their bird back. The whole band will get back together for this cause (or at least provide support/aid where they can).

Hmmm.... What kind of meltdown are we talking about?

If you're meaning him being done after putting up with so much of the Bats' shit, yeah. I recommend the tags "Tim Drake is So Done" and "Angry Tim Drake." To name a few:

"Some Days" by faithms

"He's Done Caring" by AwkwardBlueFish

"The Fear of Falling Apart" by Sohotthateveryonedied

Or, one of my all-time favorites, "broken things are precious" by zipadeea

If you're meaning more of an autistic meltdown, there's a tag for "Autistic Tim Drake" on AO3. Some fics are:

"free (as a bird)" by hollow_city

"birds of a feather" series by ghostfaeries is both Damian and Tim having autism

Or ig something else: