Now It's Us - Chapter 1 - FroldGapp - Robin (Comics) [Archive of Our Own]
https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/221732341
Fic rec! 6k Batman
SUMMARY: Damian and Tim have learned to (mostly) tolerate each other but after Tim is grievously wounded their relationship is tested in new ways.
COMMENTS: This is a fic about Damian suspecting he actually cares about Tim, but he can't quite wrap his head around it until a really drastic situation changes Tim's life and then Damian is like a) oh i might actually care about him b) oh he's totally the better robin c) he's also a better person. It's a lot of revelations, and Tim is a saint for not having snapped months ago. But once Damian figures things out he's actually very sweet.
Cassie's time at college has its ups and downs, and during a particularly bad Valentine's Day, a chance encounter with Tim allows for reconnection and a little healing.
Submitted by @gnomewithalaptop
Submitter's comment:
I honestly just genuinely LOVE how this author writes Cassie and Tim's interactions in this -- sure, it's shippy, but underneath that romance, you can really feel the deep level of care and respect that they have for each other, and that strong friendship is really what drives the fic for me. I also really love how they dive deep into realistic struggles Cassie might face as an adult in the dating scene. Honestly, this whole fic just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy, even with all the emotional angst -- I love to reread it when I've had a rough day
a lot of different places! sometimes a conversation with a friend or a tumblr post will spark something in my head, and other times something in canon will make me wish the writers had explored it more from a different angle. I usually start off with one scene fully formed in my head and then just work from there to put together a story that makes some kind of sense
22. do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that?
oh, dude, all the time. to be honest, a lot of the DC fandom kinda scares me, because people can get really up-in-arms about canon vs fanon debates -- I remember being so paranoid posting the first couple chapters of Things That Don't Come Back because I'm not the most familiar with New Gods/Apokalips lore beyond some cameos I've read in other books. but I did a bunch of research and made a really in-depth bibliography, and it's been mostly fine
to be honest though, my anxiety around getting it wrong and my need to do an extensive amount of research is why I still haven't posted the last chapter, so "getting past that" is definitely still a work in progress. but!! we're taking things day-by-day! I'm lucky enough to have some very good friends to encourage me, so I mostly just try to ignore everything going on outside that
G5. Is there a specific AU you’d like to write but haven’t yet?
I'd love to write a cabin fic. I've made a couple of attempts, but none of them have quiet panned out. Still! The idea of Dick and Tim being trapped somewhere by a snowstorm or something and there's ✨only one bed✨ is incredibly appealing to me >:D
Hmmm, I'm not opposed to Allura having a strong leadership role like Shiro and Keith, but I'm worried there's already too many leaders in the group. Shiro is the one the group defaults to before meeting Allura, with Keith essentially acting as his second in command.
What do you think of the idea as Allura becoming a senior member of the Owsla when the group establish a warren at Watership Down? Or do you have any other ideas for her? Unfortunately neither the book or the movie has any real, strong female characters. (The Netflix adaptation tries to remedy this with Strawberry being a doe, Clover having a larger role)
How WOULD the group meet Allura and Coran actually? I have some ideas for them, like their warren was the Altea Warren before the Daibazaal Warren comes and destroys it, leaving them lost and stranded and without a Warren.
Also, I'm thinking maybe Cowslip's Warren is going to be Lotor's, and the Alteans are part of his Warren? He's still manipulative and although he means well, he doesn't necessarily do so in a way that's....not secretly sacrificing the lives of others..... 😬
I also have some ideas for Krolia. She's definitely playing up the role of Hyzenthlay, who was ALSO an oracle. Long story short, she's a deserter who joins the Marmora Warren, but during a scouting mission she gets separated from the Marmora Owsla and is attacked by some Daibazaal rabbits, before she takes them out. Injured and weak she ends up running into Tex, a lone rabbit, who helps nurse her back to health. The two fall in love and have Keith. She gets discovered by some Daibazaal Owsla rabbits and she and Tex fight and kill them before they can call for backup, but the fight leads Krolia to the decision of leaving as a means of protecting her mate and son. She rejoins the Marmora Warren and is part of their Owsla.
She does spy work for them, so I'm thinking the group ends up meeting her while she's undercover in the Daibazaal Warren or something. :U
Prompt from @froldgapp - Red gets creepily possessive of Keith: enters his head uninvited, calls him to her in the dead of night so he wakes in her cockpit unaware of how he got there, makes aggressive calls to “keep him safe”, maybe even a wee smidge of possession.
I’ll even lower the angst factor: turns out she’s been corrupted and Hunk fixes her.
*insert evil laughter here*
Prompt #3: Homecoming
Allura ordered Shiro to rest for at least a feeb, leaving Keith at Black’s controls. But the once and future Red Paladin proclaimed the moment Shiro was ready for active duty, he’d return to Red.
It only seemed fitting. Red reached out to him when they were in rift. When he asked the team if they could hear their lions talking to them, it wasn’t Black who spoke to Keith but Red, lamenting his loss and urging Keith to come home.
Lance offered to step down but agreed to co-pilot at Keith’s insistence, and Keith was surprised to be excited to be among the paladins and his found family once more.
But Red refused to wait for his return. Keith began to space out during meals and meetings; Red’s growls drowned out any conversation. He dreamt of battles he hadn’t fought and woke up in Red’s chair. His wolf would pop into his lap, a warm and comforting weight, but it didn’t stop him from worrying.
What was happening to him?
Shiro noticed. Shiro always noticed, and he ended up flopping his arm over Keith’s waist at night and pulling him close. He would sit next to Keith at dinner and elbow him every time he stared too long into space. But somehow, Keith still found himself in Red’s cockpit, on her paw, hands on her controls before being jolted awake by Shiro or his wolf.
Most nights, he never remembered falling asleep.
Red’s growls eventually became words, became the things of nightmares.
Give in. You cannot fight me forever. Your leader could not defeat me. The princess cannot defeat me. You are Galran. You belong to Zarkon, to me. Give in.
No!
Give in.
I can’t.
You were alone, scared. The other paladins despised you and wanted you gone. They abandoned you, just like everyone else in your life.
They had. When he was hurting, drowning in Black the first time, they hadn’t tried to help him. Instead, they moved on without him.
Everyone has left you. The Black Paladin will do it again. But do not despair, little one. I will always be here for you. Come to me.
N-No.
Come to me.
A hand of fierce, frigid fire rose up to greet him, reached out for him to take. He wanted to say no. He wanted to turn his back on her, but the others - they had turned their backs on him. Would they do it again?
Come to me, and you’ll never be alone again –
“Back off, Witch!”
A fierce roar tore through Keith’s mind - a thundering noise that reflected all the lions of Voltron. Hot flames singed the witch and bathed Keith in warmth and security.
A cool splash of water, followed by the warmth of the desert sun, tore him from the nightmare. A strong arm gripped Keith tightly about the waist, holding him against someone’s core, while Hunk gripped his left hand. Allura and Pidge cupped each shoulder.
Lance gripped his right hand, fingers threaded with his - and holding onto the Red Bayard, which Keith had placed into Red’s slot.
“We broke it,” Allura said, voice high with relief and tears. “You’re going to be okay, Keith.”
Keith blinked, gripping back Lance and Hunk’s hands. Shiro slowly lowered him to the ground. “What-What happened?”
“Haggar,” Shiro muttered from behind, face buried in Keith’s ruffled mop. “Black recognized the same sort of magic she had used on the clone. Haggar was using your bond with Red to get to you.”
“But we stopped her by severing her connection with Red,” Pidge assured.
“How?” Keith said, hoarse. A shudder worked through his body.
“With our bond.” Hunk squeezed Keith’s hand. “It’s stronger than any you could have with her.”
Keith looked away, ashamed, horrified. He had considered it, perhaps was even on the verge of accepting her words for truth.
“Hey.” Shiro kissed his temple. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Yeah - because she wasn’t wrong.”
Keith’s eyes snapped up to Lance and blinked back the tears that somehow had started to form.
Lance pulled the bayard out of Red but cradled it and Keith’s hand between his own. “We did turn our backs on you. We didn’t ask you to say, and we didn’t go after you when you didn’t come home. That’s on us, and we’re going to make it right.”
Keith could still feel the chill of Haggar’s fire as the flames licked his cheek, could still see her hand in his mind’s eye as it reached for him –
“Yeah.” Pidge shook him. “She can’t have you, and we’re going to prove it to you.”
Red roared in his mind; hot flames kissed his cheek - an apology, an assurance, Keith wasn’t sure, but he was relieved to have his lion back.
Though the paladins may have stayed on the floor of Red’s cockpit for what seemed like vargas, and though they eventually gave Keith space, they never let him go again.
At the moment, yeah, Voltron. I always have a hyperfixation going (where my autistic peeps at), usually a TV show, sometimes a film or book series, and I kinda got hooked on Voltron and especially Keith. It’s nice because between Gravity Falls ending and me discovering Voltron, I kept jumping around, obsessing over a certain show for a few weeks before moving onto the next, so it’s nice to have found one that I’ve hung onto for months and seems like it’s going to last me quite a while.
Balmerans: Are you good at reading other peoples emotions?
Buddy, you could literally have smoke coming out of your ears, face red as you snarl at me, vein ready to pop in your forehead, and I’ll still have to ask, “Wait, are… are you angry? Is that was this is?”
74, 59 and 20 for the get to know ask thingy please!
Hiiiiiii <3
Thank you for the ask!!
74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?
My best guess would probably be that person picking up on either words I use commonly, specific mannerisms I write into characters, or the way I write dialogue. Though that's all vague and vibe-y. It's likely that the thing that would cause someone to pick up on me being an anonymous author is something that I don't even notice that I do 😂
As an example: there's one writer I'm thinking of who consistently replaces one specific word with a homophone of that word. I don't think it's intentional, but it would be a pretty big tip-off that they had written something anonymously
59. Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?
Not currently! Though an ex-roommate of mine did. Somewhat amusingly, I realized that I'd actually read her work before I even met her. Unfortunately, the living situation soured pretty quickly, so I have some regrets lol
For me personally, I've told some of my closer friends that I write fanfic, but outside of the internet, I tend to keep my username secret 🤫
20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?
That's a tricky one!
For words and expressions, there aren't any that I can think of which I intentionally use a lot, so the ones that are there are likely accidental lol
For themes: loneliness and obsession feature pretty frequently. I see them both as likely endemic to people who become vigilantes, so I have fun playing around with them. For shipping-specific themes: still loneliness and obsession, but with a trauma bonding and codependency flavor 😈
Thank you again for the asks!! I had fun answering them ❤️
