Today I thought about if Dick had to be Batman and he was alone. Like Battle for the Cowl whatever, and people are dressing up as Batman (cough Jason) and being all dumb and murdery and he has to take up this mantle
And then everyone is gone.
Damian’s not there/doesn’t exist/wasn’t sent by his mother in the first place, Tim’s gone, Jason’s fricking crazy, maybe Steph doesn’t do batgirl and stays spoiler so she’s not involved with him. Maybe even Alfred isn’t there (be it retirement, death, whatever)
People don’t like Dick becoming Batman. Some think it’s weird, like he’s wearing his father’s skin (as if Dick doesn’t already feel that way), some think it’s disrespectful, maybe some of his friends are mad and consider him a hypocrite cause he said he didn’t want to be Batman. I think his closest friends would have to be unaware/away cause I don’t think realistically they’d be awful about it. So he’s just kind of alone.
He does his best, does a lot of investigative work and maybe even ends up leaning towards how Bruce was in the early days - less of the vengeance thing but more of the “Batman is a shadow/urban legend” type thing (although I’d find it funny and fitting that he’d show himself to children and therefore kids think it’a a secret only for them, cause they can see Batman and adults don’t really).
But Dick is losing himself in this. Not exactly into the anger but some self loathing and loneliness. He doesn’t know what to do and he doesn’t know how to move on from this. He’s scared to try and change the Batman mantle to fit himself more which just makes him end up hiding more and more.
And then Bruce comes back.
And he finds his eldest son as Batman, a mantle he didn’t want him to take up (not because he’s a bitch but because he knows Dick doesn’t want it and Bruce thinks Nightwing is better anyways) and all alone and he’s just all… what even the heck happened here
