#dicktimweek2021

So, basically. Dick was born under a Far Realm-infested star, specifically that of Thim’zee, he who watches from the shadows.

Tim thought he’d done pretty well for himself, getting a foothold in the Prime Material Plane by infesting a star! And then several millennia passed and he got super bored because omg it is really hard to spread chaos and unrest when your whole shtick is that you’re so sneaky that no one sees you coming until it’s too late. So he found himself a mortal to mold into his own (his “Chosen,” if you will), pretty psyched about that! Except that his pet mortal was born into a family of vistani and they were doing a really good job of just. Thwarting/blocking Tim’s influence at every turn! Obviously, they had to go.

His influence may be limited because of his sneaky nature, but Tim is very, very good at distracting people when they can’t risk being distracted. Like 60 feet in the air with no net and no one with feather fall prepared.

At last, he thought he was finally going to get unfettered access to his boy, but then this stupid paladin of Helm stepped in and took charge of him? Ugh, so annoying. Still, the paladin was so lawfully good that he never dreamed of using sneaky, underhanded tactics to keep the kid out of Tim’s clutches like the vistani. Finally, progress!

At the start it was really just friendly dream visits, being a sympathetic ear to listen to Dick’s problems. Unlike some Elder Evils, Tim is able to hide his madness-inducing features (just don’t look under his floor-length cloak), and he’s positively human-looking when he takes off his mask (doesn’t happen very often because it’s hard to be a scary eldritch horror when you’ve got a babyface).

Ever so slowly, Tim worked his magic and Dick began his slow slide from neutral good to chaotic evil. Bruce was ignorant of the whole thing, chalking up a lot of Dick’s apparent eccentricities to his vistani heritage. It also didn’t hurt that, as far as Bruce was aware, his ward was a very bendy College of Swords bard.

(Dick: Imma gonna wear bird-themed armor! :D Bruce: You do that, chum. Embrace your acrobat roots. Dick: Look, I *cough* found these really cool goggles that let me see in the dark! :D Bruce: Haha, you're so talented. Dick: This talisman I found is very important to me and my culture so I need to wear it. Bruce: I don't know enough to disagree with this! Jason: OH MY GOD)

Bruce’s squire was a lot more suspicious but Dick was just too charismatic (and Jason frequently sucked balls at his insight checks, possibly due to his unwittingly being cursed by his “brother”) and no one really suspected anything.

Until the Betrayal.

The Betrayal where Dick’s twin shortswords manifested right in the middle of Bruce’s chest, slicing his heart free. Where Dick used his mentor’s life blood to paint horrible sigils on the floor of a temple once dedicated to a long-forgotten deity, opening a gate to the depths of space and welcoming a fragment of horrible Evil onto their planet. Jason tried to stop him, but he was no match for Dick’s swords and magic, long tentacles of ethereal black rising out of the shadows to restrain him while the blades dealt the final blow. He saw a brief glimpse of a blank white mask and an inky cloak before he sank into nothing and life left him.