Prefacing this with I haven't read the comics I just dip in and out like the canon is a pool and I'm trying to climb onto a pool floatie.
So y'all remember that weird fucked up mind game test Bruce pulled on Tim in the beginning of their bullshit? The real fucked up mindgame that made Tim quit being robin for a bit, before coming back and being all "I know I'm not gonna get an apology." And Bruce was all "good."?
What if Tim realized it for what it was.
Tim realizes the test is a test and decides to get back at Bruce in his own game.
Bruce wants to act like he doesn't care about him in an effort to protect himself from grief if another kid ends up dying? That's fine.
Bruce resorting to psychological mind games to drive Tim away from seeking any support??
Not cool.
Tim realizes, and pulls a Hamlet.
He likes Dick, doesn't want the man to go through what Bruce is about to, and goes to Bludhaven to directly tell Dick not to believe ANYTHING Batman says for a month if it relates to Tim, that he's gonna teach the old man a lesson.
Dicks like "uhhhhhhh okay? U know we can just tell him whatever he's done is wrong, right?"
And Tim's just "nah, I'm past that point. See u in like three weeks to a month. This conversation didn't happen."
He leaves a copy of Hamlet in his locker in the bat cave, the only clue he's gonna drop until all is said and done, and gets to work.
Pretends that Bruce's mind fuck has driven him mad, pretends that he's sneaking off to chase down leads, pretends to talk to people that aren't there, visits the joker just to learn how to mimic his laugh, (side bar, joker has no idea why the new robin is visiting him and disabling the cameras, or why the kid just copies what he says and when he laughs, but after like two weeks of it he may be slightly uncomfortable around the kid no lie) uses makeup to make his eye bags look worse and trashes his own house (his parents are gonna be so pissed but he's already angrier than they could ever hope to be, so they can suck it), acts so unhinged Bruce calls it off and tries to tell him the truth, only for Tim to pretend like he doesn't believe him and steal the robin uniform and run away, and then goes and sneaks away from his own house (he knew he was being watched) to a warehouse he predetermined with a conspiracy theory board and string in his room (he needs to make sure Bruce knows where Tim wants him to go) and the conspiracy theory is just an amalgamation of the bullshit Joker spews (again, joker is really confused by this strange child hero and very slightly unsettled, what the fuck Batman where the fuck did u get this robin, maybe return him to the robin store? This one's defunct), makes sure it's abandoned, and blows it to hell with the robin uniform inside
He knows Bruce will be too jarred, to lost in the major trauma buttons Tim is pushing with the warehouse explosion, to do a proper analysis. He KNOWS Bruce will want it done as quickly as possible, and try to bury Tim as quickly as he can. He knows his parents won't get any phone calls for at least a month.
Then he goes to ground for a week.
Walks back into the cave after that week, corners a grieving and broken Bruce, and asks him how he likes mind games now.
After all, it was just a TEST. There was no need to skip basic steps like DNA analysis, that's just SLOPPY Bruce.
Dick, who had been warned by Tim early on and kinda knew the kid was gonna pull a fast one of Bruce, had NO IDEA it was gonna be this depraved, and is very highly Shook. Nor did he realize Bruce had tried a mind game first, and is...disappointed but not surprised, really.
But holy shit Tim Bruce started at a 9 and you escalated to a goddamn 25.
Bruce, realizing that they may both be a bit fucked up, acquiesces to therapy. For all of them. Holy shit for all of them, because that was NOT a normal teenage response and he is beginning to sense some distinctly villainous red flags from this kid.
Next time the joker breaks out he flat out refuses to believe that Tim is a Robin, and joker is the one that starts the whole Cuckoo thing, and asks Batman if he's gonna send the kid to Arkham early or if this is a weird intervention program he's trying.
Then he tries to murder like fifty people cuz he's the motherfucking JOKER.
Jason's comeback plans switch tracks when he realizes the Joker is actually a little scared of the new Robin.
He manages to ask the kid about what's going on there. Tim says something like "some things just can't go unpunished." Jason asks if Tim wants to team up to kill the Joker. Tim asks if Jason really wants to grant him that mercy. Jason is intrigued.
By the end of the conversation, Jason has decided that he can find other ways of sticking it to Batman and will be stealing this Robin for himself. Upon realizing that Red Hood is Jason back from the dead, which hopefully means he doesn't have to manage Batman's grief for him any more, Tim is down for it.
Jason gives him so much positive reinforcement and doesn't find his willingness to escalate against people who cross the line "concerning."
Tim is thriving. Jason loves his new little brother. Red Hood and Li'l Red are taking the Gotham underworld by storm. The Joker is suffering.
The Bats are scrambling to fix this before it becomes a Doomsday scenario.
Their attempts to draw Tim back to their side are failing because being Hood's little bro is actually a much better experience than being a Bat. Hood is channeling all the desire to be part of a family again that he'd been suppressing into this relationship. Tim grew up starved for love, and now he's experiencing abundance.
Jason praises good work. He spends time with Tim, even outside of work. He doesn't hesitate to claim Tim as his family or tell him how proud he is. He even cooks for them both and eats meals together. Tim hadn't realized that was an actual thing people did outside of formal events.
Jason also thinks Tim responding to Bruce's mindfuck by mindfucking him right back was appropriate and brilliant. He appreciated the literary parallels in Tim's Hamlet plot.
Jason also agrees that Bruce failing to notice the clue wasn't Tim's fault, and besides Bruce was supposed to be the adult. He gets what he gets for starting shit with a kid and expecting someone half his size to be the bigger person. Besides, if trying the soft approach with Batman resulted in that kind of BS, then clearly a firmer hand was needed to put a stop to it.
The Red family is much better, obviously.
No shade to Nightwing. Dick did his best, but his ability to be there for Tim was somewhat limited due to his own grief and the fact that he could only handle so much exposure to Bruce himself. Tim can't blame him for that. Come to think of it, Redwing has a nice ring to it. "Hey, Jason, you know what would really fuck with B?"
Dick has a bit of a breakdown when they first explain things to him. The fact that they kidnapped him so they could talk in private probably didn't help. They aren't entirely sure they succeeded at convincing Nightwing that this is real and he hasn't slipped completely into a trauma-induced hallucination.
Either way, he's stopped trying to snap himself out of it and seems to be on board? At least, he seems to prefer joining team red over letting either of his brothers out of his sight for longer than a few minutes, and he's totally willing to completely thrash anyone who so much as looks at them the wrong way.
