(in chronological order - it’s sort of a canon timeline but also I was hungry)
Shared food is one of the ways that Dick and Tim are often shown bonding. And by “shared food,” what I mean is, Dick finds food for Tim. Please enjoy my ten favorite examples.
1. Dick makes dinner in Prodigal 1
(My favorite part of this panel is Tim’s weird smushed-face of amazement in the second panel. “Wow! A WHOLE PLATE OF FOOD! Just for me!” My second favorite part is that I have no idea what food that’s supposed to be.)
This panel comes from the Prodigal arc - Dick and Tim’s time as Batman and Robin - which is when Dick begins a long career of keeping Tim fed and when the two of them first really get to know each other.
Up until this point, their major previous interactions have been three variations on “Tim tracks Dick down in NYC and an initially-skeptical Dick reluctantly agrees to help him with whatever” (Lonely Place of Dying, New Titans 64, Showcase ‘93 11) and “Dick and Tim and Bruce fight Azrael” (in Knightfall).
But they’re about to get a whole lot closer in Prodigal.
Bruce and Alfred have both left the country (Bruce’s back is broken, and Alfred’s quit), so Dick and Tim are alone in the Manor. Or, well, Tim technically has his own home and family, but apparently he doesn’t eat there, as we discover in Prodigal 1 when Tim hangs around the Manor long enough that Dick makes dinner for him.
2. Orange juice in Prodigal 5
Dick’s still living by himself in the Manor, and Tim’s living next door and sneaking over to be Robin. Tim is apparently still not eating at home, though, because Dick has started stocking the fridge for him:
3. Pineapple and andouille pizza in Detective Comics 698
After the end of Prodigal, Dick moves from NYC to Gotham for a while. When the deadly Clench sweeps through Gotham and Tim gets infected, Dick saves him from an angry mob. Shortly after finding a cure, they investigate a case together.
Over Alfred’s grumpy objections, Dick orders pizza for the two of them:
(Alfred does not consider this real dinner.)
4. Soup in Nightwing 6
After that, Dick moves to Blüdhaven to investigate a series of murders, and Tim’s his first visitor. Dick’s self-conscious and defensive (he feels like he hasn’t been accomplishing much), which makes him initially kinda hostile, but he softens quickly. Dick takes Tim along on his stakeout and starts confiding his anxieties about his stalled investigation in Blüdhaven, and since it’s cold, he shares his thermos of soup:
(The soup is no longer Dick’s. It is now Tim’s.)
5. Pizza again, in Secret Origins 80-Page Giant
It’s when Dick’s living in Blüdhaven that these two start to get really close. In this comic, shortly after the Gotham earthquake, Tim’s hanging out in Blüdhaven again, and by this point, the comics are implying Tim comes down to visit regularly - both his “Day in the Life”-type comics in Young Justice involve spending time in Blüdhaven while his teammates are spending time with family. This is also around the time when they’re going trainsurfing.
It looks like Dick has bought pizza again - those boxes on the floor say “Blud Pie.”
This is the first comic in which Tim is teasingly nicknamed “little brother.” <3
so ive been getting into dc lately and my fave guilty pleasure is problematic ships and so i was going through the rastim tag and happened upon some art by you with the caption "this is a crack outtake from my wip fic where tim shows up on ra's lil secluded island to stop him from dying" and ive spent like an HOUR looking for this fic and cant find it and please tell me it exists somewhere?? it sounds absolutely hilarious and top tier fun
HI ANON sorry for the late reply I'm traveling at the moment!!!!
I'm so sorry to disappoint but I have not posted nor finished writing that fic... I got a little distracted w life and burnt out w the lack of engagement I was getting on my rastim stuff (you are the first to show interest in this fic!! I'm so fucking excited!!! Thank u for the message. It made my day)
HOWEVER IT LIVES NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART and I would like to one day finish it. If you would like to message me offanon I'd love to talk thru it/rastim in general w u
Alright, so something tha really bugs me in the tpn fandom, particularly in fanfics, is how they characterize Emma. There's a lot of fic I've read that make her a crybaby. Now there isn't anything wrong with a character being a crybaby but it isn't accurate for Emma. Yes she's emotional and sensitive and open about it, but you need to remember that she's canonly only ever cried 3 or 4 times in the span of 15 years.
#I mean. she's an emotional child and should be allowed to cry #no need for shaming tears (via @officersnickers)
One of my favorite things about the series is how it doesn't shame any of the characters for crying, regardless of gender.
(Chapter 55)
So I think Silent's ire is rooted in the simplification and sanding down of her character in order to more easily facilitate stock narratives/scenarios rather than the act of Emma crying at all, especially when it's such a significant moment of "The Day Emma Cried" short story from the first light novel (released back in 2018) that it's the focus of the title and it's laid out plainly in the text itself as something that both Norman and Ray recognize.
Norman notes it again years later during chapter 4/S1 episode 2.
It's why his reunion with Emma in chapter 118/chapter 119 is such a striking moment with how her tears initially seem to flow without any preamble, only wordless disbelief as the magnitude of everything happening rapidly registered in her brain and a figurative switch has been flipped.
It's not that she doesn't experience those emotions, but that it's not how she generally regulates and expresses them.
I'm assuming the fanfics in mind weren't having her cry as part of a character study examining the ramifications of how being thrust into a leadership role at such a young age and internalizing so much trauma while maintaining a front for the sake of others and leaned into being more tropey, which is something that people are free to write as an exercise in flexing their creative muscles, but it's not something I'm keen on reading either.
No offense, but if you claim to love a character yet hate every piece of development they've ever had, then you don't really love that character. You love the personality you assigned to them, and should probably just make an oc or something.
I wanted to ask: what are your favorite norayemma fanfics? 👀👉👈
Ooo we will be here for a bit I love promoting fics that resonated with me so deeply and continue to shape my interpretation of the series (check out my TPN Fanfic tag for snippets to longer commentary in general), though I have yet to properly comment on some of them on AO3.
Beginning with one of the realest author's notes from @hylialeia:
Can you believe they invented OT3s 🖤🧡🤍
☆ This unnamed piece set during the timeskip by @p-s-geeks:
There is a flower in your pocket. It’s wild and medicinal. You’re familiar with it. You remember white bedsheets, a pleading whine, two pairs of hands embracing you, and the flower on your forehead, working more wonders that it was biologically capable of (it wasn’t the flower, you know). The flower currently in your pocket is probably in a worse state, has probably shriveled up and wilted after hours of being plucked. It weighs lighter than a feather but feels heavier than diamonds.
[…]
You unearth the flower from your pocket. Ray deserves to see this. Deserves to relive memories with you. And you kind of need him to. Right now, he’s the only one who’s been through thick and thin with you in majority of these trials and tribulations. He’s the only one who can look at it the way you look at it.
[…]
“It’s alright” Ray says, pressing himself closer to you. You hold onto him like he’s the last lifeline on a sinking boat. “It’s alright. You’re not alone. You never were alone”
You sleep listening to her gentle words in his gentle voice and it’s the deepest sleep you’ve gotten in a long time.
(You wake up to a beautiful orange sunrise. To limbs tangled around yours. To soft snores. To groaning and complaining about morning coming too early during summers. And the hole in your heart subdues itself. It doesn’t disappear, doesn’t stop panging, but you still smile in remembrance and hope.)
How all the little things build and build until they become so deafening, and how so much solace is able to be found in those small‚ tender exchanges on one quiet night, with Ray echoing simple yet loving words he learned from her so long ago that became etched into his being after Grace Field not only by her but through the actions‚ big and small‚ of their family as well (because family is so very integral to each of them). How at first orange is such a painful reminder and how it ends on a most radiant sunrise that's the true embodiment of Emma, giving them both the strength to continue onward.
☆ Everything in banana_slug_army's library. Too much to cite in one post, but here's her tag on here and me talking about the only kind of jealously I enjoy between them:
(I do subscribe to the headcanon of Norman having a pang of jealousy over how much time RE got to spend together before their reunion in the Paradise Hideout with how he tends to navigate extremes at that age, but it’s of a very specific variety. Seeing how close the Grace Field escapees have become during their near two years out in demon world and how that shared trauma brought them together could be a mixed bag for him, with the aching reminder that he wasn’t there with them, didn’t share those memories with them after a lifetime of being together, and the initial flare of jealously turns into shame over thinking it in the first place when 1) he’s mad at not being able to have been there with them‚ not at them, 2) how selfish it is to still want that when they already went through his death once and now will have to go through that a second time, and 3) he spent so long isolated and effectively helpless in his immediate circumstances while at Lambda and suffered for no justifiable reason that it manifests in a festering internal rage, which heartbreakingly can never be given a satisfactory answer…so basically banana_slug_army’s Interwoven lol)
☆ Everything in @salsae's TPN library. Again too much to cite but here's her tag on the blog, me gushing about (so what am I defending now?) aka the quintessential Norray-focused REN fic exploring NR's relationship nine months into the search for Emma, and me gushing about her canon-divergent REN wedding fic, to have and to hold (fanart here). I am constantly citing this snippet of defending and thinking about the flashback and dream sequences Shirai went back and added to the volume release of chapter 181.
☆ Speaking of wedding fics, @carnivorouswillgraham's w.a.m.s. gushing can be found here. Also the post that inspired the fic with my silly edit.
The softness she regards them with, almost proto-shoujo bubbles. 🖤🫧🧡🫧🤍
Norman, adorably, hesitating because he’s still grappling with latent feelings he can’t even begin to articulate about his friends, but at the forefront of them is how he unquestionably gravitates to them and is attune to all their little nuances.
Ray, heartbreakingly, hesitating because he’s grappling with the reality he’s beginning to comprehend and the crushing acceptance that he can’t save all his siblings as things stand now, and after already narrowing it down to just Emma and Norman, being faced with the question of if he could honestly live with himself if he chose one to save over the other. The conclusion he comes to further bolsters his resolve to confront Isabella in just a few short weeks, and foreshadows the devastation of Norman’s shipment after a lifetime of realization and meticulous planning.
Really like the quiet magnitude of this both for Emma and Norman’s blissful unawareness of the farm system’s horrors conceived for them and ofc from the future romantic perspective as being the core foundational tenant of REN. 🖤🧡🤍
☆ Last of the wedding-related fics but honeynpeaches' Between Your Fingers, Between the Lines also has the first portion of Ray's chapter dedicated to it so I'll use that as a segue (gushing found here). The third chapter exploring Emma's inner monologues throughout the course of the series remains unpublished, but the Norman and Ray chapters can be read as self-contained fics. Highly recommend it and frequently to go back to reread when I need to reground myself in their character foundations.
So many little nuances and call backs, profoundly beautiful.
Additional citation of snippets in this post and this post, as well as this post for Ray angst fic recommendations.
There are so many amazing passages in here, but the "[o]ften, those eyes are blue" line absolutely fucking wrecks me every time. How the cadence of that brevity lands on such a simple fact that now evokes so much sorrow when he used to have such warm and positive associations with those eyes. Windows to the soul and everything that made Norman Norman and what he loved about him.
And then the often referenced celestial symbolism of him as the stars of the trio (to Emma's sun and Norman's moon), but a less romanticized, more viscerally horrifying perspective on it.
☆ As the Crow Flies by Goldfish_Writes I've talked about in more depth here. I'm not very big on full genre AUs, with my usual thoughts being "I consider the characters' personalities inherently shaped by the narrative itself. If you remove them from those circumstances they cease to be the same characters anymore, and I grew attached to them in part because of the circumstances they found themselves in; I got attached to this story." I'm also not very big soulmate AUs as they seem to miss more than they hit for me. But I am a big fan of REN, and I'm interested in seeing where this fantasy story goes.
The pre-established Noremma is absolutely delightful. Another thing thing I've mentioned before is my dislike of Norman being extremely uncharacteristically nebbish or aggressively confident and suave when pursuing relationships that' works in tandem's usually packaged with Emma becoming bizarrely demure. Again, I understand the appeal of stock scenarios, but it's not something I enjoy reading for them. I adore when they reach this level of knowing, playful banter with an underlying thrum of challenge, bred of familiarity at which boundaries can be teasingly skirted and which are low blows and off-limits, and founded on them being equals (after both of them, to different degrees, placed each other on pedestals).
☆ home by 81194, featuring a classic scenario of Ray, a dumbass, trying so so hard to lie to himself about his feelings for NE and failing spectacularly throughout a series of snippets before the two take matters into their own hands.
i think emma wouldn’t have been so spontaneous if she hadn’t been sure of how everything would go. things always go her way when she’s involved, after all… i love her sm.
Very much in agreement on Emma's respectful tenacity and ambition on these matters lol
☆ A Relatively Brief Reflection on Cognitive Dissonance by ribbontype is a wonderful character study of Norman up to the trio's reunion in chapter 121 executed through exquisite, deft prose, allowing one to easily luxuriate in its flow and imagery.
The way they make him whole and reaffirm his resolve to damn destiny itself. <3
☆ Tethered by SuddenWhispers is a beautifully written fic beginning during the human world arc and continuing past canon as the cast navigate what living truly means in the human world, along with what Emma regaining her memories could mean for the new promise.
Also some Ray and Barbara and Cislo interactions with the latter two acting as mentor figures to the former encouraging him on one of his weaker fronts of advocating for his wants, hello??
☆ the ambiguity of belonging by Kiss_Kiss is another post-canon fic that's smaller in scope but no less rewarding of a read with its quiet and desperate moments of vulnerability between the trio reaffirming how much they mean to each other.
Also not only is the handwave of Lambda sickness done away with for Norman, but it also touches upon what the difficulties of losing one's ear entails for Emma, something I rarely if ever see.
☆ Finally, hoping you're someone i used to know by @hylialeia
A post-canon fic delivered in gorgeous lyrical cadence. Such loving attention is paid to sentence composition that the words aren't merely a means to an end, but a reflection of a deep appreciation for both these characters and the craft itself, the weight of them meant to be lingered over and savored. Always a treat when you can find a fic like this in a fandom.
Hello. I mean this really imploringly, and really genuinely. If you're a U.S. citizen still on the fence about what to do for the election, please vote Harris. There's this idea circulating that the person you vote for should be someone you like, love, idolize and that is so very not true. You're voting for the opponent you'll face for the next four years when you have issues to protest and matters to vocalize. You're voting for the person most likely to give an inch when you protest the things that matter. You're voting for the person most likely to not strip away your existing rights and scatter your focus across the things we already won, and which can be taken away. We lost Roe v Wade under the Trump-appointed judges. The current trans-panic is so disgustingly on fire, and it's absolutely the Republicans eager to rip away what little protection there is. Both candidates are also, disgustingly, pro-Israel. But Trump will never ever give a fuck to any protest on that matter.
You don't want to be complicit in genocide. I get it. But if you're a U.S. citizen, you're already benefiting from the U.S.'s foreign policy, and that's already complacency. Refusing to vote or voting third party isn't absolving you of that. It's just letting Trump walk in the door. And letting Trump in is complacency. And your ability to organize, and to make change, will go so less far against a Trump cabinet than a Harris one. The material harm under Trump is real.
Does voting for Harris make you feel guilty? I'm sorry, but you have to bear it. Your guilt isn't what's important. A white person's guilt isn't important. A citizen of a global terror's guilt isn't important. Actions that pacify your guilt aren't important. Focusing on absolving your guilt is in fact harmful, as opposed to actions that can actually materially reduce harm.
Please protest. Please donate to good causes. Please support Palestine. Please be vocal. Please fight for BIPOC and LGBTQA+ rights. Please view Harris as the opponent whose ears these things fall on. Your ability to organize safely, largely, loudly, and effectively will go so much further under a Harris presidency. Please.
Just going to add onto this with the position the Sunrise Movement (climate change group) made when I was text banking with them because I think it summed it up really nicely:
I know things seem really crazy out there right now. Trump would be a disaster environmentally (and otherwise) but voting is a chess move, not a valentine. Voting is not about selecting a political savior who will single handedly fix all of our problems, it’s about selecting the terrain that you can best move forward in. Movements throughout US history have accomplished incredible things. The best shot we have at transformational change is with Harris in office.
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