(she/her) | 20 | an obscure comicbook reference scholar | marvel & dc & umbrella academy & any other hyperfixations of the week | be well and do no harm. www.outoftheframework.tumblr.com/masterlist
oh! well would'ya look at that, chapter two got out
Excerpt from the second half of Introduction to Tim Drake Studies, now posted here on ao3!
_
“Tim,” sighs Bruce with a parental gentleness that his third child still has trouble processing even after all these years, “would Conner like to join us for dinner?”
The third Robin flounders, peeking over his shoulder and then back again.
“Who?” He asks in a tone scarily believable for a lie so embarrassingly horrible. Kon picks that moment to reappear, now with socks, straightened glasses, and more presentable hair. He leans around Tim and extends a stiff arm out to Bruce.
“Mr. Wayne. Sir,” he greets, trying not to look surprised or terrified in any way when his boyfriend’s father accepts the handshake with a grip that simply cannot be human. Bruce nods.
“Conner.”
The handshake lasts horrifyingly too long. Once he escapes Bruce’s death grip, he surveys Dick and Jason standing on either side of their father and goes with his Kent-brand Southern instincts.
“Mr.-” he pivots his arm out to Dick, continuing after the slightest pause, “Wayne.”
Dick looks over to Jason, then Bruce, and finally at Tim, who seems to be seconds away from crumbling. He shakes Kon’s hand. The teen pivots once again, quicker this time.
“Mr. Wayne,” he addresses Jason, who’s quick to return the gesture.
“Mr. Kent,” Jay draws as he shakes Kon’s hand far more aggressively than necessary.
“Stephanie Brown,” the girl calls from her place at the dinner table where most have already sat down again in attention, “heiress to the Wayne fortune. But you may call me Ms. Leech.” Damian looks to be much too frustrated with his own confusion for a biting remark. His arms are crossed as he grumbles about dinner invitations and “just letting anyone march in now.”
“Hey Steph,” Kon greets with a smile and a small wave as Tim breaks out of his embarrassed stupor enough to ask Bruce, “Wait, you actually wrote her into the will?”
_
I enjoyed writing this fun little piece! I'd love to hear what you all think about it :) Be well and stay safe, everyone!
oh! well would'ya look at that, chapter two got out
Excerpt from the second half of Introduction to Tim Drake Studies, now posted here on ao3!
_
“Tim,” sighs Bruce with a parental gentleness that his third child still has trouble processing even after all these years, “would Conner like to join us for dinner?”
The third Robin flounders, peeking over his shoulder and then back again.
“Who?” He asks in a tone scarily believable for a lie so embarrassingly horrible. Kon picks that moment to reappear, now with socks, straightened glasses, and more presentable hair. He leans around Tim and extends a stiff arm out to Bruce.
“Mr. Wayne. Sir,” he greets, trying not to look surprised or terrified in any way when his boyfriend’s father accepts the handshake with a grip that simply cannot be human. Bruce nods.
“Conner.”
The handshake lasts horrifyingly too long. Once he escapes Bruce’s death grip, he surveys Dick and Jason standing on either side of their father and goes with his Kent-brand Southern instincts.
“Mr.-” he pivots his arm out to Dick, continuing after the slightest pause, “Wayne.”
Dick looks over to Jason, then Bruce, and finally at Tim, who seems to be seconds away from crumbling. He shakes Kon’s hand. The teen pivots once again, quicker this time.
“Mr. Wayne,” he addresses Jason, who’s quick to return the gesture.
“Mr. Kent,” Jay draws as he shakes Kon’s hand far more aggressively than necessary.
“Stephanie Brown,” the girl calls from her place at the dinner table where most have already sat down again in attention, “heiress to the Wayne fortune. But you may call me Ms. Leech.” Damian looks to be much too frustrated with his own confusion for a biting remark. His arms are crossed as he grumbles about dinner invitations and “just letting anyone march in now.”
“Hey Steph,” Kon greets with a smile and a small wave as Tim breaks out of his embarrassed stupor enough to ask Bruce, “Wait, you actually wrote her into the will?”
_
I enjoyed writing this fun little piece! I'd love to hear what you all think about it :) Be well and stay safe, everyone!
MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON MAN-BUN DICK GRAYSON—
I love fanart of Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin where they’re just in the cave or on a quiet patrol just bonding and being soft, y’know? Just the sweetest little “guess I’m your dad now” and “I hate you considerable less than everyone else” moments.
I mean, that in itself is *chef’s kiss*
But I think the thing that really puts it over the top for me is that my brain likes to smash-cut into thinking about where Tim was at that moment like that sitcom trope lmao
Batman!Dick and Robin!Damian, sitting on the edge of a skyscraper eating ice cream cones: wow, what a peaceful night, huh?
*Tim gets shish kabobed in the middle of the desert*
Batman and Robin: haha better knock on wood! don’t wanna jinx it :))
Introduction to Tim Drake Studies (New fic on ao3)
“Tim. . . the kid needs help okay? And maybe you’ve all talked it out already and maybe I’m just a paranoid bastard and maybe you just don’t wanna hear it from me, but I owe him- I owe it to him. Even if he’s already too far away, I owe it to him to make sure that someone’s gonna catch him. Every time. That someone will catch him every goddamn time.”
Jaws tighten, Adam’s apples bob, and knees bounce, but none of the seven observers speak a word. They bite their tongues and look toward the rebel son, the one who showed up to dinner for the first time in a month to give them a presentation on the wellbeing of the younger brother he once tried to kill.
A literal presentation.
__
Or: Jason strolls up to a Wayne family Sunday dinner with a slideshow and half a plan to help his little brother. Chaos ensues.
On ao3 here :)
It's a little messy but I hope y'all enjoy! I'm planning on having the second part out in the next day or so.
It’s a relatively unassuming wall toward the northwest corner of the bat cave, one that’s subtly shadowed by the giant penny but nevertheless a blank canvas.
So it’s not that surprising that even in a family full of detectives, the single post-it note stuck onto the rough concrete went unnoticed until a week after its placement.
It read: RED ROBIN SLIPPING ON ICE AND FALLING FIVE (5) SEPARATE TIMES DURING ONE FIGHT
Tim was slightly perturbed but not surprised; his lack of balance in his suit’s newly designed boots was particularly egregious that night. He retaliates the only way he knows how.
The second post-it is what grabs the attention of the rest of the bats.
It reads: JASON STARTING THE KEURIG BUT FORGETTING TO PUT HIS MUG UNDER SO COFFEE FLOODED ONTO THE FLOOR
Was Jason the culprit who stuck the first note onto that wall? Unclear. But that didn’t matter. The deed was done.
Soon the wall was deluged with every color and shape of post-it note, detailing every mishap, small or large, committed by any member of the family. The following is an itemized collection of a selection of entries.
STEPHANIE TRYING TO BLEACH HER EYEBROWS AND ENDING UP WITH CHEMICAL BURNS ON HER FACE FOR TWO WEEKS
DUKE FALLING ASLEEP ON PATROL EVEN THOUGH IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY
CASS LETTING STEPHANIE CUT HER HAIR
DICK FORGETTING THE MIRANDA RIGHTS BUT KNOWING EVERY LYRIC TO THE ENTIRE MAMA MIA SOUNDTRACK
BRUCE.
BARBARA FORGETTING SHE REGISTERED FOR A CLASS UNTIL THE DAY OF THE FINAL
DAMIAN FAILING A HISTORY TEST BECAUSE HE NEVER WENT TO CLASS AND ALSO FORGOT WHO GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS
feel free to add on more entires I forgot to mention
It's been some time since the pioneering post-it stuck alone on the relatively unassuming wall toward the northwest corner of the bat cave, one that’s subtly shadowed by the giant penny but nevertheless a blank canvas.
Exactly how much time? Who's to say. There was a short-lived push for a uniform dating system, which never quite caught on due in equal parts to natural proclivities for rule-breaking and an unresolvable conflict between the unflappable believers in day/month/year and the diehard month/day/year loyalists.
All this to say that there's a lot of new post-its on the wall, and a respectable number of non-post-it materials for shaming, which include:
index cards where you can still see the shoddily-erased physics 101 vocabulary terms
the backs of redacted files that 100% should have been shredded
Jason's death certificate (forgery)
name tag stickers
old demerit slips
a photo of Batman autographed as "Bruce Wayne" (authentic)
and at least two (2) receipts from the closest Red Robin chain restaurant (in South Central PA, ~2.5 hours away from Gotham) with totals amounting to exactly $420.69
There's some sort of complicated archival/lamination system that no body else apart from Barbara, Tim, and potentially Alfred (?) understands but works nonetheless to keep enough space open for new notes without spilling over into a more visible area of the cave and to generally prevent devastating water damage.
The following is an itemized collection of selected entries not included in the first update.
DUKE ATTEMPTING TO RECREATE THAT B99 COLD OPEN DURING AN ACTUAL POLICE LINEUP AFTER REPEATED WARNINGS NOT TO DO THAT EXACT THING
& immediately below:
JASON BEING IN THAT POLICE LINEUP AND LEADING 4 JOKER GOONS THROUGH EVERY. SINGLE. VERSE. OF "I WANT IT THAT WAY" TWICE. & ALMOST BEING ACTUALLY ARRESTED FOR DELAYING AN INVESTIGATION
DAMIAN AND BRUCE TELLING REPORTERS WILDLY CONTRADICTORY COVER STORIES AT THE EXACT SAME TIME, MAYBE 5 FEET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER
TIM FLYING TO SAN FRANCISCO FOR HIS FIRST WEEKEND OFF IN (???) YEARS & WAKING UP TO 75-80% OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS OUTSIDE HIS WINDOW
BRUCE OWING FAVORS TO 75-80% OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS AFTER MOBILIZING THEM TO HELP FIND HIS SON, WHO "FORGOT" TO TELL ANYONE HE WAS SPENDING THE WEEKEND IN CALIFORNIA (note: unrelated to previous entry)
DICK CONTINUING TO MAINTAIN A 1 FOR 3 AVERAGE IN YEARLY SPACE MISSIONS WHERE HE DOES'NT UNINTENTIONALLY COMMIT THE SPACE EQUIVALENT TO A FEDERAL-GRADE CRIME
STEPH HAVING TO PRETEND SHE'S BRUCE'S ILLEGITIMATE DAUGHTER IN COLLEGE AFTER SAYING THAT, "I AM WEARING A PURPLE SHIRT" (SHE WAS) AND "I AM BATGIRL" (STILL IS, MIRACULOUSLY) DURING 2 TRUTHS AND A LIE ON THE FIRST DAY
CASS STRAIGHT UP PUNCHING A GUY WHILE ON THE NEWS & REALLY HAMMING UP THE "OH! MY KNUCKLES! OH, THEY HURT! I'M FRAIL! A FRAIL HEIRESS WHO HAS NEVER ONCE KNOCKED A MAN CLEAN OUT BEFORE IN MY LIFE!" ACTING PERFORMANCE AFTERWARDS
and as always, feel free to add on in the replies! (though, do be warned that we don't allow batc*st in this here town, partner)
Ya’ll are glossing over the fact that Dick Grayson DRAWS!!!!!
DICK GRAYSON DRAAAAAWWWWSSS!!
WHHAAAAAAT?!!!
And omg he drew his brother. Do you think that’s how he began bonding with Damian? Aaaand maybe Damian gave him some pointers. Aaaaand Damian stared at his brother’s work with something approaching respect. Because he didn’t realize Grayson was also an artist. He hadn’t know the schematics of that old Gotham building actually didn’t come from the library. That Dick is actually quite brilliant with technical drawings and design. That, in the beginning, he helped Bruce, design a lot of their equipment and locations. Maybe even Titans Tower and defensive weaponry and vehicles.
And maybe he startes to bond with Damian through art, and is gracious enough to ask Damian for pointers or advice on how to tweak Damian’s Robin suit, which of course, makes Damian’s eyes widen and makes him pause and feel kinda cared for and he scoffs, because he has to save face, and then has an awesome drawing session with Grayson to “improve” the design and, of course, he eventually chooses what Dick designed anyway and ugh…so MANY FEELINGS.
For @kurawastaken who’s asking for D and lil d headcanons. Come and be a sentimental fool with me.
Very much love this and all the additions as well.
But I do think we're all sleeping on the possibility that the outline was from a Robin Hood adult coloring book and Dick colored it in with the Robin palette and went "-hmm..."
my proposal for tropes we as a fandom should adopt in all fanworks going forward: Duke Thomas edition
So every fandom has tropes and characterization quirks that have been generally accepted into fanon and, like, maybe? they were originally based on some obscure comic panel from the 80s or something but it doesn’t really matter because we’re all just,,, cool with it? Like for example- in the dc comics fandom, an art piece could show 3 of the bats that look virtually identical except one of them is holding a box of cereal so that one is obviously Dick Grayson. . . Y’know?
Anyway, these things usually come up naturally I guess but I’ve been here a while and it’s finally time to put my foot down. It’s high time for Duke Thomas to be more in fanon than “the sane one.” Because he might be the relatively new guy but he is certainly fears no gods or laws of the land just as much as the other bats, lemme tell ya.
TL;DR here are character quirks (”canon-based” or otherwise) that we should all really latch onto seriously I’m begging y’all to make at least one of these happen-
Duke “Habitually Jumping Out of Moving Vehicles” Thomas
This one’s actually based in canon y’all; Duke did indeed yeet himself out of the back of a cop car and off of a bridge (in We Are... Robin). Normalize Duke’s wearing knee and elbow pads as Signal because jumping out of a car turns out relatively fine once and then suddenly Batman’s rooftop disappearing act seems mellow compared to the amount of times Gordon has whipped his head around to see a now Signal-less backseat.
Like, he’s going 60 mph?? And he didn’t even hear the door open?? and tHE DOORS ARE STILL LOCKED??
Imagine this leaking into civilian life and Bruce waking up to a blurry photo of Duke mid-escape from a limousine on the front page of the Gotham Gazette.
(more under cut)
Duke “Puzzles are my Passion” Thomas
Duke is ~canonically~ very skilled at both solving and concocting riddles (as a child during that time where The Riddler just,,, controlled Gotham, he worked non-stop on riddles, trying to make the perfect one). Please y’all- let Duke solve puzzles. Have the other bats ask him for help after 36 hours straight of brooding over some brainteaser that Duke works out within the half-hour. He texts a picture of the solution scribbled out on loose leaf in the margins of his pre-calc homework because this boy shows his work.
My guy is a word-cross FIEND. A mind-sweeper speed-runner. That guy who mails into the Gazette to correct a solution in the “fun & games” section and also ps that photo is not of me I am simply a polite young man who is much too busy writing into the paper in the year 2021 to jump out of limos-
I also would love to see this integrated into the type of cases he investigates / runs into on his daytime patrol. Like, obviously the criminal activity is going to dramatically differ before and after sundown, but that doesn’t make Duke’s work any easier or less important. It’s a different skillset; he has to work differently. Instead of jumping into fights, halting mob meetings, saving civilians in dark allies, etc. Duke has to sort through all of the moving pieces before they all converge into something catastrophic.
It’s a known fact that criminal organizations in Gotham make and execute a lot of behind-the-scenes plans during the day specifically not to run into the bats. And Duke knows and monitors this shit all by himself; his work is crucial to logistics and information gathering for the bats as a whole. Now criminals have like, a 2 hour gap between bat-shifts to try and get stuff done. But Duke would 100% set traps on timers or lead them on this pre-set convoluted goose chase to distract them until the night bats come out and to let himself enjoy the whole thing playing out on the news while he finishes homework that’s due at midnight.
Duke “I Know a Guy” Thomas
So in going off of the basic concept for the “We Are. . . Robin” run in combination to his general likability, Duke has a lot of friends all around Gotham. Okay, sure, he doesn’t have a Super best friend or a Speedster on speed dial, but he does know this guy who details cars up on West 35th and will tell them all about the new mods on Black Mask’s transport vans if they come through the third floor window and bring takeout.
Bruce and Tim will be waiting for the facial recognition software to identify at least a partial match off of security cam footage when Duke pulls into the cave, takes one look at the screen, and says “Oh, that’s <insert name, address, abridged life story, and known associates here>.” This also brings in the opportunity for Duke to have some sort of perfect recall for faces, voices, names, etc. which I think could be a really cool element for his position as the batfamily member who has a lot more personal interaction with the people of Gotham.
I’m also into the idea of a lot of people knowing/telling stories about Duke. Not to reference the Chuck Norris meme but almost like the Chuck Norris meme lmao. Think about Jason mentioning his brother to someone and she replies, “Duke Thomas? Like that Duke Thomas? The one who swam across the harbor because he said it’d be faster than the subway and it actually was?” These stories have varying levels of truth to them but Duke will never confirm nor deny when he gets random calls from family members yelling “you dID WHAT”
So those are my top three, and the following is a little speed-round of headcanons :)
Duke has a super expressive face. Like when he’s relaxed around family, you can tell exactly what he’s thinking and how he’s feeling by his visual reactions to things
Duke rotates through picking up new and revisiting old hobbies at a pretty rapid pace. Some hobbies include: bullet journaling, origami, viola, cello, synth, conversational basics in multiple languages, up-cycling and embroidering clothes
Duke has a really fucking adorable smile. He can’t help it. He’ll try to grin sarcastically or smug to be annoying but his smile just cannot be anything other than endearing. He also has a very specific booming laugh that’s an absolute treasure to hear, because it’s the most genuinely happy thing ever.
Duke unironically enjoys Signal by Twice even though the first time he heard it was after Steph had set it as his morning alarm.
So.
Come and get your food, I guess.
Feel free to add on if you’d like! I’d love to see anything you guys write/draw/etc. based on anything from here if you feel compelled to do so!
mm hi please excuse me while I obsess over these for a hot sec
. . . I’m using every fiber of my limited impulse control not to spend the next 3 hours hyper focused on writing a fic based off of these instead of working on anything I could actually submit for one of my classes—
Tim: batman has a job because the American system was built to benefit those few in power. you are anarchist symbol of civilian vigilante justice who lets me stay up all night to also deliver vigilante justice instead of studying for a civics class that is the fundamental antithesis of everything you’ve ever taught me.
Hard to figure out exactly how likely that is, but we can come up with a rough guess. Some of these numbers are likely a bit off, but not a whole lot off. (Percentage of non-cis people may be higher than 0.6%, but it’s not likely 10%.)
Percentage of the world that's white: 11.5%
that's male: 51.9%
that’s straight: hard to confirm given the number of places where it’s illegal, but estimated at approx. 94.9%
that's cis: harder to ID, but estimated at 99.4%
that's allo: again, estimate only, 94.9%
that's Christian: 31%
that's neurotypical: estimated at 97%
that has no disabilities: 85%
Odds of someone having all those traits at once: 1.37%. It’s not entirely unrealistic that a person would be all of those things at once - I mean, he’s gotta be something, right? - but it sure does put into perspective how many characters are being shoved into this tiny, tiny niche.
[image: tweet by AmmoniteInk: "I dunno. Having a character whose white AND male AND straight AND cis AND allo AND Christian AND totally neurotypical AND not disabled at all, in any way, just seems kind of unrealistic to me. It’s just a lot to put on one character, you know?"]
I wholeheartedly agree with the notion here of diversity in characterization!
I wanted to put another perspective here on the percentages added above. I’ve been pretty interested in data visualization projects for a bit and because of that I’m always thinking about framing data/demographic precentages to most accurately present them within their specific contexts and nuances.
Just something to think about: the percentages here are taken from predicted world population data with a generous margin of error (as op stated as well). So this answer of 1.37% is 1.37% of the entire world population. I’m not sure what year(s) op collected data from but the tweet is dated for November 2019, so at least late 2019/early 2020.
The UN projected the world population to be around 7.713 billion at the end of 2019.
1.4% of 7.713 billion is 107,982,000. So in using these numbers and this logic system, the projected number of men with all of these characteristics is about 108 million.
But also none of this really applies to a great amount of fictional media. A book set in 2500 BC Egypt will have much different demographics than one set in modern day Denver, Colorado- y’know? It’s pretty much the same in real life, as in the predicted 1.4% of the global population will draw much more heavily from a Western European country like Ireland rather than South Korea, for instance, as anywhere with an Asian or otherwise non-white majority population naturally would have less- you guessed it -white people.
So really the takeaway from all this is that numbers can be very misleading and also that, alas, these men do indeed exist in real life. BUT, fiction is all about creating new worlds and is also a stellar tool for representation of groups beyond the straight white cis male standard. So please do go forth and create bigger and better things- the 98.63% are counting on you!
Don’t get me wrong- I’m a Battinson slut forever and always -but Affleck really gave his best performance as Bruce Wayne in these paparazzi shots, huh?
These are so vividly meant to be on the front page of some Gotham City $0.99 tabloid with a headline like:
FORMER CEO DEMOTED TO INTERN? BRUCE WAYNE CAUGHT FUMBLING WITH COFFEE DELIVERY RUN
“Oh no, what a shame. Whatever will Tim do without a fourth iced coffee for the day?” Says Wayne, after accidentally dropping the tray into a nearby trash can.
Good question! The answer is that every night Bruce does indeed shave his face, but at this point in his life the man exudes so much exasperated single dad energy that his beard looks to have about two months of growth by the time he’s wrangled all the kids back into the cave.
This fact I made up is true and, no, I do not take constructive criticism.
Don’t get me wrong- I’m a Battinson slut forever and always -but Affleck really gave his best performance as Bruce Wayne in these paparazzi shots, huh?
These are so vividly meant to be on the front page of some Gotham City $0.99 tabloid with a headline like:
FORMER CEO DEMOTED TO INTERN? BRUCE WAYNE CAUGHT FUMBLING WITH COFFEE DELIVERY RUN
“Oh no, what a shame. Whatever will Tim do without a fourth iced coffee for the day?” Says Wayne, after accidentally dropping the tray into a nearby trash can.
A favorite Tim and Damian dynamic / growth storyline trope of mine is when (after exhausting all other potential options) one of them has to begrudgingly ask the other for a favor, which in turn sets of a series of events where they slowly- but also very suddenly -become a really effective team that somewhat resembles a close brotherly bond.
But even more, I like the idea of their dynamic forming without any other intention or motive besides being brothers. Like, there’s no “fixing” or co-dependency or anything because they’d find each other naturally when the barriers on either side have already been personally addressed, if that makes sense?
Sometimes combative relationships become more-so habitual as time passes, wounds heal, and people grow. [in general, not referencing any specific comic runs or issues] Tim and Damian's introduction to each other virtually guaranteed hostility. For ~15 year old traumatized Robin Tim and ~10 year old traumatized assassin Damian to be immediately civil with each other would have required levels of emotional maturity neither of them could possibly achieve at that time.
I honestly don’t think either of them can be justifiably “blamed” or carry a huge amount of responsibility for their animosity. Certainly, anyone could try to use canon examples to argue culpability on either side, as in: Damian’s repeated use of physical violence, Tim failing to be “the bigger person” when he is the older brother, etc. But where’s the validity in holding traumatized children up to a strict standard of maturity?
I suppose that’s the marvel in their growth, no? They were doomed from the start, failed by the adults that were supposed to protect them and all too familiar with fighting to survive. And then these boys- still young, still just kids with too many scars -find each other so naturally alongside their own paths to healing.
The sheer amount of defiance needed to get to this point where they can decide their own narrative, the intrinsic improbability of two individual crusades to prosper over tragedy-- these two are self-made miracles.
Becoming close brothers and allies wasn’t some final stop along a hero’s journey, or an unsustainable coping mechanism, or even an “I’m sorry; let’s just start over” situation. To anyone within or close to the family, their camaraderie could seem sudden, suspicious even, like the calm before the storm. The family’s continual demands of civility at every raised voice had expanded to mistrust in silence, so that eventually reconciling became hopeless and reprimanding became habit.
And that’s the most intense, the most brilliant, visible radiance of Tim Drake and Damian Wayne: coming together is not a miracle, but it’s at the intersection of two. It’s these kids finding their brother at an impossible point and not turning back, but instead asking: “where to next?”
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