silverwhittlingknife

[silverwhittlingknife]

“This time, we were in Monte Carlo. Watching Dick get his “inner Bond” out of his system.”

–Tim Drake on Richard Grayson (Robin #175 – Scattered Pieces)

#dick grayson #dick and tim's post-trauma world tour together my beloved #(bruce ditched them for cave meditation & they didn't want to wait so they immediately assigned themselves a Task) #(and then they went and traveled over the place chasing a criminal network because of course they did)

[silverwhittlingknife]

“Well…he’s trying. The “Dad” thing has never been his calling. This was Iggy’s island. Iggy turned out to be a millionaire industrialist with an island for sale. His subway wig-out made one heck of an ad. And my father knows a bargain when he sees one. Always eager to mix fatherhood and commerce, he booked the next flight out. Shoots me warm smiles in between huddles with his accountant–”

–Tim Drake on Jack Drake (Total Justice #1 – Tim)

#'always eager to mix fatherhood and commerce' fsfdsfs #anyway this is a great quote which still doesn't fully capture how hilarious this comic is #iggy is a guy who tried to blow up a subway and tim stopped him as robin #jack saw this on the news & immediately thought ''aha!! real estate opportunity. maybe i can buy his island cheap & build a casino'' #meanwhile tim spends the early part of the comic angsting about how he feels like he didn't fight iggy effectively enough #i love ''these two characters are seeing the same event from different povs'' stuff & this is. uh. certainly one possible example sdfs #tim drake

[silverwhittlingknife]

#laugh tag #<- this is normally the tag but i disavow this tag. i did not laugh. on every level except physical i am throwing things sdfsdfdsf

[silverwhittlingknife]

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

#story talk

[silverwhittlingknife]

Robin: I’ve got to go to them.

Barbara: Robin, you’ve already had one close call.

Robin: You said yourself that Nightwing took my “death” hard. And you’ve seen a change in him.  If he still thinks I’m dead I have to worry about what he’ll do. I have to go, Barbara.

–Tim Drake with Barbara Gordon (Robin #95 – Book of the Dead)

#tim drake #dick grayson #<333 #the whole joker's last laugh arc definitely has plenty of silly aspects #but the dick & babs & tim of it all is endlessly fascinating to me #i think of it as fundamentally a barbara story & secondarily a dick story & then tim as a distant third (but playing a key part) #most of all i think of it as about barbara reckoning with her desire for vengeance and control (both of which come from fear) #and what she'd be willing to sacrifice to get that vengeance #she starts out believing that she CAN'T have what she wants (the joker dead) #and then by the end of the arc she has the moment where she COULD have what she wants #dick starts the arc arguing with her and going all 'vengeance isn't what we do' - but then tim dies & he's off in an impulsive rage #and she could just let it happen!! she could!! #but she cares more about dick than she hates the joker. so she tells bruce and she tells tim and she lets tim go to stop him #and at the very end she's alone & the joker is still there. but it's a choice SHE made this time

[silverwhittlingknife]

World Gone MAD

AO3

Fandom: Batman, DCU

Featured Characters/Relationships: Dick & Tim

Wordcount: 5600

Summary:

Ask the GCPD about the Joker’s death and they’ll tell you he died of natural causes. Ask the Justice League and they’ll tell you that it’s a matter that has been resolved internally. Ask Batman and he won’t give you an answer because he’s Batman. The truth of the matter, however, is this: Dick Grayson beat the Joker to death.

[Or: A few months after the death of the Joker, Tim Drake comes to Haly’s Circus, looking for Dick Grayson.]

I am hyped to be finally sharing this fic with you all :) Inspired by this tumblr post by @mzminola, with special shoutout to the addition by @silverwhittlingknife, and tags from @avaraydrake.

I've also taken some liberties with the Justice League and how it operates. While ‘8 guys (gender neutral) who get together on the weekends and beat up aliens’ works for the comics, personally I think ‘self-governing group of powerful individuals’ is a much more interesting concept to work with. As such, I have expanded both the membership and scope of the Justice League (at least from what they were for this particular era of comics).

Excerpt:

Stepping into Haly’s Circus felt like stepping into the past. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle — people talking, hawkers shouting, the whir and buzz of the machines, music blasting over it all — Tim could almost pretend he was a boy again. For a moment, he closed his eyes. The summer air was thick and humid, smelling of sugar and sweat, mud and animals. For a moment he was 13, a boy with two living parents who had never been Robin, who was convinced that if he just found Dick Grayson, all of Gotham’s problems would be solved.

He’d been so naive then.

The moment ended. Tim blinked, reoriented himself in the golden light of the setting sun, and started to make his way to the ticket stand. This whole trip had been a return to his roots: stalking Dick Grayson across the country with nothing more than his wits and a bus schedule. He hadn’t been surprised when it had ended in the same place it had begun. But this wasn’t— it wasn’t the same thing. He wasn’t here to fix Gotham, to fix Batman. He was done with that. This was something different.

He bought a ticket and went in.

The circus was fun. Nobody died, or almost died, which was a nice change of pace from the last couple times Tim had gone. He spent most of the time tuning out the whispered conversation from the group of teenagers sitting in front of him, and playing “Where’s Dick?” Tim thought he might have spotted him as one of the clowns again until he came out on the trapeze, and then, well, then it was obvious.

Tim wished he’d brought his camera. Watching Dick fly, anyone could tell he belonged in the air.

—

The facts of the matter are as follows:

On March 22nd, 10:21 pm, the Joker’s location was determined to be Gotham Cathedral. A force-field of unknown origin surrounding the building prevented law enforcement from pursuing him.

At 11:48 pm, Nightwing entered the building. The force field remained up and law enforcement continued to surround the building.

Around roughly midnight, March 23rd, the forcefield dropped and law enforcement entered. According to official reports, inside were found the Joker’s dead body and two other jokerized villains. The two living villains were quickly apprehended and administered the antidote. The Joker’s death itself was ruled to be due to natural causes, likely linked to the terminal growth in his brain. 

Unofficial reports put between two and five vigilantes in the building at the time the police entered and that the Joker’s end appeared to be rather more violent in nature. When pressed, all agree that the official ruling of natural causes was correct. (If you get them drunk enough first, in a quiet enough location, then they might give you a different answer, but that always involves urban legends and rumors. The sorts of things that don’t hold up in the light of day.)

Access to classified Justice League files reveal the following additional details:

On March 16th, 9:30 am, the Joker was informed that a brain scan had revealed a terminal mass in his brain. Prognosis suggested he had less than a month to live. The Joker took in this information and decided he wanted to go out with a bang. Later investigation uncovered that the brain tumor was in fact a hoax created by a doctor out for revenge. As by that point, the Joker was already dead, from what were determined to be natural causes, the decision was made that this information would remain classified.

The Joker entered Gotham at an unknown time on March 22nd. Joker gas was released at Arkham Asylum at 4:42 pm on the same day. According to recovered comm records, Oracle sent Robin to investigate Arkham Asylum at roughly 10:30 pm. She lost contact with him at 10:48 pm, shortly after he entered the building, at which point she called in Huntress for backup. Robin was reported dead by Huntress at 11:21 pm.

In his confession, Nightwing stated that he overheard news of Robin’s death,  and then immediately stole Black Canary’s bike and raced to the Cathedral. (Black Canary corroborated this fact.) Upon arrival, he attacked and killed the Joker. Robin arrived shortly after, followed by Batman, Huntress, and Spoiler.

Robin’s confession gave the following sequence of events: Upon entering Arkham Asylum, he was attacked by various jokerized inmates. In the struggle, his uniform was torn, later leading his allies to believe him dead. He was captured and brought to the Joker who attacked him. He fought back and the Joker was killed in the struggle. Shortly afterwards, Nightwing arrived and decided to take the fall for him.

Batman and Huntress both testify to the following facts: They arrived to find Nightwing and Robin already there and the Joker dead. Batman ordered Huntress to attempt to revive the Joker through CPR. This failed and the Joker was declared dead upon the entrance of the authorities.

Oracle did not testify, but submitted audio logs from the night as evidence. Interference due to the barrier around the cathedral, damage to the comm devices, and standard issues with Gotham architecture rendered large chunks of it unusable.

Spoiler was unable to be reached for testimony.

— 

The truth of the matter is this: Every man has a breaking point. Even the best man will cross their line in the sand if pushed far enough. Sometimes you fail to do the right thing.

Nightwing walked into Gotham Cathedral that night and beat the Joker to death.

Continue reading on AO3!

#yessss this was so good #dick&tim #dick grayson #tim drake

[silverwhittlingknife]

studies

#he!!! #dick grayson

[silverwhittlingknife]

Dick: I’m not part of this anymore. This whole thing…I’m out. Tim: Yeah, right… Dick: From now on, it’d be better if you forgot you ever knew me. Tim: …Fat chance.

–Dick Grayson with Tim Drake (Nightwing #110 – Incorporation)

‘This began…these teams…right here…where Donna was murdered… And I only agreed to be a part of it again, to join a team…to fight by the side of others who choose this life… It wasn’t supposed to be personal. But it is. And I’m out.’

–Richard Grayson (Outsiders #25 – The Insiders Part Four)

#he is so sad ;_; #i love this whole period when dick's all 'caring about people who died is tearing me up inside so i'm NOT GONNA CARE ANYMORE' #''i'm gonna DETACH MYSELF'' #''i'm gonna STOP HAVING FEELINGS AND FRIENDSHIPS'' #''this will TOTALLY WORK'' #''other people's suffering is caused by me caring about them!!! if i stop they'll be okay!!'' #''they're not my friends anymore'' he tells kory. like he can make it happen by sheer force of will #dick cares SO MUCH & is so undone by grief that he gets harsh & pushes people away in self-defense #because he's blaming himself & so terrified he'll watch them die so he tries to shut down first instead #and guess who he learned that terrible coping mechanism from ;_; #dick grayson

[silverwhittlingknife]

“So tired… Seems like all I’ve done since I tracked down Batman’s real identity and asked to be Robin…is run, in one direction or the other. Makes me wonder what I’m missing, sometimes. But I’ve got work to do. Can’t think about other stuff right now.”

–Tim Drake (Robin #148 – Robin, Boy Wanted – One: Out Go The Lights)

#tim drake #this is so interesting #key to tim for me is that i feel like he's almost always running away from something #either he's using robin as escapism or he's escaping from being robin or he's escaping something else #but that's also sorta where a lot of the lying & secrets come from. there's this fundamental fear #i always think of that moment when steph calls him by his real name & he has a panic attack & runs away from her #bc she knows his real identity. that's it. that's literally all it is. but his inner monologue is like 'OH NO EVERYTHING COLLAPSING' #which is understandably baffling to steph because it's not like he actually thinks she's a threat to him in a practical sense #so there's no reasonable way for her to anticipate he's gonna freak out like this - it's not like she's going to blackmail him or anything! #but psychologically just the idea of not being able to compartmentalize / not having control over secrets is terrifying to him #or i think of that moment in lonely place of dying when dick's trying to grab him & he's trying to get free #and like. those are both people that TIM sought out!! he goes to the circus specifically looking for dick #he goes and seeks out steph in her neighborhood after they first meet because he wants to befriend her #but there's still that instinctive panicky evasiveness. you can't catch me. i can't let you

[silverwhittlingknife]

detective comics (1937) #725 // the great believers, rebecca makkai // hesitate to call, louise glück // batman: battle for the cowl (2009) #1 // titans (2008) #21 // the aftermath, caitlin conlon // superman/batman (2003) #76 // i built the walls myself, arch budzar // batman: battle for the cowl (2009) #1 // titans (2008) #15 // detective comics (1937) #874 // postcolonial love poem, natalie díaz // batman (1940) #687 // batman and robin (2009) #1 // i can tell it's aquarius season because my knuckles are splitting, caitlin conlon // superman/batman (2003) #76 // u.k. // batman and robin (2009) #2 // titans (2008) #23 // u.k. // batman (1940) #681 // coded signals, caitlin conlon // titans (2008) #15 // batman and robin (2009) #1 // against silence, frank bidart

dick + being batman

#i think i reblogged this before but it's still so great #dick grayson

[silverwhittlingknife]

Marie Howe, The Affliction

#ohhhhh #prev tags i am jumping up and down giddily!! <33 #i had never seen this quote before & i'm obsessed with it now #''and this was almost unbearable'' YESSSSSSS #literature #dick and tim

[silverwhittlingknife]

Realized I never uploaded this to Tumblr, which is funny since it's probably my most Tumblr-targeted vid.

Music: "Finishing the Hat" by Stephen Sondheim

Comment on AO3

#STILL SO GREAT #choice of song + choice of video. showstopping #also everything is so PRECISE #'dizzy from the height' with the giraffe!! #'studying a face' with the eyes!! #'a window' and he's looking through the square glass! #it's like a love letter to craftsmanship

[silverwhittlingknife]

chapter 3 in which Dick changes, and Bruce comes back. But what is there left to come back to?

#AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH #this is so good & so upsetting. #it's the slow drip-drip-drop of the manipulation & the way his pov of power ring is changing w/o him being consciously aware of it #and he's telling himself that he can never go back and the passage of time as he desensitizes himself until he almost doesn't notice #but underneath that callous outer shell that he's building for himself there's still a part of him that is still so upset by the violence #but of course it's coarsening & deadening & he IS getting desensitized because he has to in order to keep going #and so he pushes all those feelings underground where he won't touch them & he projects them onto bruce #and he's so sure he won't see bruce again so that's a safe place for all those vulnerabilities because he can just avoid them forever #(he thinks) #i am so glad this isn't the ending because it's such a good ending BUT ALSO NOOOOOOO i need to know if there's a happy ending #(hoping) (hoping against hope) (the atmosphere of DOOM is so suffocating & so sharp)

[silverwhittlingknife]

“My opinion. I used to love to give him my opinion. I was so pleased he’d take me into his confidence. But now I…well, what right do I have to tell him anything? I’m–”

–Richard Grayson on Tim Drake (Nightwing #97 – War Games: Act 2 Part 3 – Clarification)

#dick grayson #tim drake #;_;

[silverwhittlingknife]

#i love this giant sea-cat beyond words #laugh tag

[silverwhittlingknife]

an uncomfortable truth is that if batman and all the batkids were kidnapped and it was up to alfred to save only one while all the others would perish, alfred would push the button to save bruce with no hesitation before the villain was even done talking

and even more uncomfortable truth is that bruce would eventually forgive him this

#ooh interesting thought experiment #i do think there's a chance he might save damian #because mmm trying to think how to put this. alfred cares a lot about the waynes as a concept #that's not to mean that he doesn't also genuinely care about bruce & damian as people because he does!! #but alfred is the only guy standing who actually knew thomas and martha & he cares about The Continuation Of The Wayne Family a lot #to the extent that he's writing fanfic about bruce's hypothetical son all the way back in pre-crisis #and he's got an extremely intense sense of loyalty/legacy that he attaches to both bruce & damian #so i do think there's a decent chance that damian & carrying on the wayne legacy might win out #over alfred's intense loyalty to bruce #(he'd then uh. spend the rest of his life pressuring damian about his father's legacy probably. so it wouldn't be fun) #but yeah everybody else would be going down with no hesitation sdfdsfs #that said i don't think any of them would mind per se? of all the other kids i think dick is the closest to alfred #in that dick sometimes thinks of him as a kind of parent whereas i don't think the other kids do in the same way #and even so: dick's connection is fundamentally always to bruce first

[silverwhittlingknife]

Tim: You can’t keep beating yourself up like this. Dick: I killed the Joker, Tim. I can’t stop thinking about it. I thought I was more “in control” than that. But I lost it. Tim: It was made right, Dick. The Joker is alive and “not well” in a maximum security cell. Dick: It’s not right with me. I never thought I could be a killer. I’m wrong. There’s a part of me I never saw before. The rage. I never felt anger like that. I felt like it clawed me up inside.

–Richard Grayson with Tim Drake (Nightwing #64 – On a Christmas Evening)

#dick grayson #tim drake #i think about this conversation constantly