metalogs | [OPEN] When the cure's as bad as the cold.

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[OPEN] When the cure's as bad as the cold.

Who: Tim Drake

mostdangerousbird
What: Robin is lovingly and semi-willingly forced to get out of Central City to ~~get the fuck out of Joker's way~~ recuperate in Little Love
When: Approximately July 4-20ish
Where: In and around Little Love, and the guild residence of Bart Allen
Content Warnings: Possible discussion of the Joker, assault, and mental health.

[ OOC: These are meant to be loose scenarios rather than absolutely precise starters. If you can't figure out a way to bounce off one of them, please let me know and I'll do something more direct for you. ]

The First 72 Hours

[ He is a predictably bad patient, made worse by the fact that his body's newfound ability to heal has him semi-mobile even before he's even brought to Little Love. Tim isn't trying to consciously self-sabotage the healing process, but he hasn't let himself fall asleep since he got here, although he knows that he'd heal more if he did. The ibuprofen and caffeine supplies are going down quickly, when no one's looking.

Retreats to the guestroom are strategic, and Tim doesn't bother to pretend otherwise to friends. Any excuses would result in offerings of alternative solutions or arguments, and he wants neither.

What he wants is distraction or escape from his own head. When all else fails, he wants to curl up where he can't be observed. For the first few days, Tim swings unpredictably between the two.

If it's the former, he can be found anywhere on the grounds of Bart's little farm at all hours. While he'll stick close to the house, he won't run inside if someone drops by for a visit. He won't run anywhere, actually, because Tim's trying to mask the limp, but he also won't resist any idea or hug. He's using up all of his spoons on covering up the worst of the damage: everything else is pliant drifting through the day. ]

Day 3-10

[ Tim is increasingly feeling cooped up. Yes, worse than the chickens. Yes, he gets it - he's a birdie too, ha ha.

(Ha^HAhaHA_hA)

He can't sit still, and so spends a lot of time walking around Little Love, now that he's healed enough to not limp. Most of the time, there's at least one friend with him, but not always. The town is fine, in a stereotypically small Midwest town sort of way. He's never lived anywhere where the downtown was practically one intersection, and the houses are all singles. The tall building is 5 stories, and a bunch of side streets don't have a sidewalk.

Really, he feels a bit like Spock on an away mission, especially when he encounters a buckeye at the local greasy spoon, or that the bakery is closed on the weekends. Huh. The library, too, is so much smaller than he's used to, although the librarian is kind enough to offer to get the books in from the big branch in the nearest city.

Maybe you find him looking perplexed, as a farmer tries to explain why the cornfield on the right side of the street is superior to the left side.

Maybe you find him reading and re-reading a flier for a kegger on the riverbank with an increasingly furrowed brow.

Maybe you try to forcibly piggy-back him home because he hasn't slept in 32 hours over his protests that, really, this is not necessary. ]

Day 11-14

[ But after awhile, Tim is just done with this town and desperately seeking a signal that it's safe to go back to Central City, where he can get espresso at 2 am and no one will judge him.

He's still venturing out, but more time is spent aggressively typing away at something on his laptop rather than making friends with the locales. Back to the wall, privacy film on the screen, one key window-swapping sort of typing. His conversations increasingly revolve around when he gets home and how he's starting to feel like taking this much vacation will lead more work when he returns. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A few ground rules: one, the multiverse exists, and I’m not going to waste time debating that. By the time, I’m having this conversation with you, you already know all about it. Two, this universe is different from a lot of the others. We have no native counterparts here.

[ Which will inevitably lead to questions about what everyone’s like in other universes in the end. Tim will try to avoid the Batman Who Laughs. ]

Our universe has undergone a few significant events that critically impact the timeline. Lives get altered, people can get written out of existence. Your memories can get involuntarily suppressed. The last time it happened, I forgot about Young Justice.

[ Like it never even happened. Like Kon never even existed. He has the memories now, but that only makes him boggle at how he didn’t notice how much was gone. ]

Zatanna unlocked my overwritten memories. They’re not sequential - if they were, I’d be at least 23. It’s more like someone flipped back to beginning of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books and made slightly different choices. They’re concurrent. I remember being the majority shareholder in Wayne Enterprises. I also remember telling Bruce that I was going to Ivy U and running away with you. I can’t have done both, but I did.

[ It occurs to Tim to pause the exposition and give Steph space to breathe and interrupt. It’s likely both too much and not enough information. ]

Essentially, that’s why I think you might be from my universe. I think you’re from the original timeline.

[It both is and isn't a lot to take in. She's made peace with the multiverse existing, Power Girl is running around, after all, and she's already met Jason, who clearly isn't from the same world as them.

The fact that this world lacks counterparts also doesn't come as too much of a shock. It would be a bit egotistical to assume she exists in every universe, and she has enough of an understanding to know that tiny choices can make huge differences.

Everything else is a little more difficult to wrap her head around, although that's partly due to the fact she doesn't like the idea of some force being able to suppress their memories or rewrite their lives. It makes her feel powerless.

But that isn't Tim's problem.

She takes a breath when he stops, her expression thoughtful (if a bit perturbed) as she files away this new information.]

So it's like — you were at the same point as me, then something rewound you a few years, changed something, and you lived a whole new life? And in that one we're still dating?

Yes to the first part. We were dating more recently for me than for you, I think, if I make all the memories as linear as I can.

[ He’s not eager to talk to her about this. He’s barely even talked to the “correct” Steph about it. To tell a past Steph more seems gauche. (Like avoiding her was more dignified.) ]

We broke up a little over a month ago. It was my fault and my choice, so it’s not going to be weird and you don’t have to sympathize. As far as you’re concerned, it didn’t happen.

[Knowing Tim for a significant chunk of her life means that she's immediately able to decipher exactly what he isn't saying behind that very vague explanation.]

You were a jerk about it, huh?

[On one hand, she feels bad for alternate self, but if their universes are actually as similar as they seem to be, she's comforted by the knowledge that her and Tim just — don't quite work.

It might be for the best, at the end of the day, even if he was a jerk.]

I wasn't a jerk -

[ Then what was he, if not a jerk? He certainly didn't handle it well, and he's still not handling it well as Tim hasn't had an honest, face-to-face conversation with Steph about the breakup or underlying reasons yet. ]

I just... didn't know how to a nuanced conversation about it, so I didn't. I'll talk to her, talk to you? When I've figured out what to say. You wouldn't like it if I went with the cliché of 'it's not you; it's me'.

[There's no doubt in her mind that he was definitely a jerk about it, but arguing that point isn't going to get them anywhere, it never has.]

Don't wait too long to find the right words, boy wonder. It's one thing to break up if it's not working out, just don't lose me as a friend 'cause you got too in your head about it.

[She can forgive him for breaking her heart, that's fine. Making her wait for an explanation or a conversation is, well, a jerk thing to do, and she'd like to hope this other version of her respects herself enough not to put up with it.]

I’ll figure it out eventually.

[ He has come out to Bruce, and Dick, and it was difficult but survivable. Steph is something else entirely. He feels like he’s betrayed her, as absurd as it is.

But not this Steph. Not yet. He doesn’t have to explain anything to her - they’re not dating, and Bernard isn’t here to complicate the situation. He can just move them back to the grand scheme of things. ]

So that’s my universe, but we should get you caught up on t hi is one. Did you join one of the guilds?

[Steph gives him a look that should be relatively familiar; it's the one she has to break out when Tim is trying to distract her by changing the topic, and she's allowing it, but wants him to know that she knows exactly what he's doing.

True love.]

Not yet, I want to do my research before signing up for anything.

[Look at her, not being impulsive.

You know what that is? Growth.]

[ Oh, wow, look how short the leash is for his bullshit. So short that it is, in fact, a fish hook, and he's wriggling on it. Tim will think twice about aggressively manipulating the flow of the conversation again.

For now, they're on this topic. ]

If you want a list of sources, I did a bibliography for my report.

[ Surely everyone does. ]

Frances Starling's autobiography is... interesting.

[ He's not going to steer the conversation. He's absolutely going to steer her research. ]

It's kinda cute that you think I'm gonna do a report.

[What does she look like, a nerd?

She'll do some reading and some asking around and some looking into things on her own, but that doesn't mean turning it into homework.]

And if you've done all the research, why can't you just send me your book report? I promise I'll change some words around so the teachers won't know it's yours.

[Because clearly they'll be graded on this.]

Research isn’t a four letter word.

[ Oracle’s not here. Thorough fact-finding, doing due diligence, building a file - Tim thinks it’s as important a part of the investigation process as an actual stakeout.

And Tim never liked letting people copy his homework, so he’s mildly annoyed by the suggestion. ]

I’ll transfer it directly to a secure device, or you can use my computer to read it.

[ It’s nothing that isn’t public knowledge, but the heroes are packaged and marketed here better than the Justice League. Tim doesn’t want to email or message the file through the phones they received on arrival. Bad optics, for an unaffiliated meta human to have a file of every personal fact and most major heroics / crimes of all the big name guild members. ]

Obviously, Tim, it's got eight letters.

[What's the point of Steph if not to purposefully play stupid to antagonize Tim?

This is probably why they broke up.]

I'll look into getting something other than the phone they gave us, and Babs has taught me a trick or two about jailbreaking.

[She can just get some no-nonsense smart phone and make it as secure as possible.

And then give it to Tim so he can make it even more secure.]

[ This isn’t why they broke up. This is part of why he’s been so squirrelly about the breakup. Steph is - Steph. She drives him crazy and challenges everything he says and the never ending poke poke poke of teasing. He can never honestly say he’s uninterested. ]

I took out cash from the card for all my purchases, when I still had the free money debit card. I bought clothes and everything else secondhand to make up for how much I was spending on tech. They’ll flag your account if you spend too much.

[ He puts “get your hands on her phones” on his to-do list. He’ll ask before he swipes them. ]

I should probably try to upgrade Jason’s, too.

Yeah, that's what me and Cass have been doing, except for a few occasional things so it doesn't look like I've gone off the grid.

[A few of the 'normal' purchases she makes, things like clothes or a meal or a bus ticket. The things anyone in a new city would need. The things a twenty year old wouldn't think twice about charging to a credit card.]

Good luck with Jason. He doesn't seem as intense as the one back home, but I can't imagine he's a fan.

[For..... obvious reasons, even if it isn't actually Tim's fault.]

Yeah, save going off the grid for when you drop completely out of sight after two months.

[ Because she is going to do that, Tim assumes. Nearly everyone else has, and he expects Steph and Cass will fall in line. ]

Jason's... fine. I think I've gotten him handled. We turned up in the same Confluence, and I don't think he knew how to react. He had no idea that was going to be a third Robin, let alone a fifth.

[ Tim thinks that Jason very begrudgingly likes him - but is still furious with Bruce about the whole thing - but that's Jason's business. ]

Turns out we're neighbors. The building hasn't imploded yet. Nobody's even thrown a punch.

Ugh, I'm not looking forward to that.

[There's a moment where she wants to say there's no need to, it's not like they know she's a vigilante, before she remembers that whole thing where they have powers now.

The worst.]

The fact you're probably not from the same world must help, right? Not that I ever got why Jason was mad at you about being Robin.

Edited (broke my html like a dumbass) 2022-08-14 03:41 (UTC)

You mean you don’t want to find yourself in a fleabag apartment in Central City, splitting a studio with a roommate because you can’t get a decent job since you’re not even a second class citizen here?

[ There’s no real sugarcoating it. While he expects her to stay unaffiliated, Tim’s not going to lie to her to her to engineer it. He waves a pointed index finger around. ]

Again, Bart registered. You could have decent housing. And… I think I get why Jason was upset, putting aside the trauma and the effects of the Lazarus pit. I didn’t take to Damian well, either. I maintain it’s because the little gremlin tried to kill me, but…

[ But Tim will come at least close to admitting that he antagonizes Damian. ]

Can't we just pretend to be locals? Someone has to be peddling fake social security cards and all that.

[She doesn't want to live in a fleabag apartment :( or work a crappy job :(

Why can't she just do a little bit of crime to live a slightly more pleasant existence?]

Also like, you weren't dead when Damina got to be Robin. That's kind of a different situation.

Then we'd be running the risk of getting caught breaking even more laws than we are. Metahumans are supposed to sign up for one guild or the other - vigilantes are frowned on back home, but nobody's going to deny Batgirl her constitutional rights if she gets involved in anything. We're not citizens here - I don't get the feeling that they care about us at all. They'd treat Kon like crap even if he did register. The guilds killed a lot of clones, back in the day.

[ Okay, she has a point there. He can still commiserate. ]

No, but not for lack of trying on his part, and I got it back anyway.

[ And that's it, right there. The fact that Tim's actually content to go back to Robin, after all that? They didn't want to be Red Hood or Red Robin. Maybe someday, when it's his choice. ]

[Steph makes a face, somewhere between concern and annoyance. Things were difficult enough back home, she doesn't need another layer of bullshit to deal with.]

Fine, no identity theft right off the bat.

[Not ruling it out forever, but there are more important things to deal with right now, like the rest of what Tim is going on about.]

Wait, you're Robin again? Does that mean there are two of you? Is Damian okay?

[He's a little shit but she loves him.]

[ He tips back in the couch until he's looking up at the ceiling and laughs, rolling his eyes at the bad pun. ]

Really, Steph? Off the bat? Aren't we banned from that phrase and any baseball colloquialisms?

[ But then he gets a little more serious. ]

Damian's fine. He's still Robin, just... not in Gotham. He needed a break so he's on sabbatical. If there can be two Green Arrows and three Batgirls, there can be two Robins. Besides, I wasn't really feeling Red Robin, and B wasn't feeling the alternative. So, Robin.

[Steph looks perfectly innocent, like she has no idea what Tim is talking about, because she would never make any kind of Bat-associated puns.

But quibbling over jokes really isn't the point, right now.]

There have never been three Batgirls at the same time, though. [Ha.

She isn't sure how to feel about Damian leaving Gotham. She's worried about him, but there isn't anything she can do from here.] But it's good you've got Robin back. That Red Robin costume was awful, full offense.

Oh no, secret future knowledge.

[ Actually, he probably should be more careful with that, and he resolves to use more discretion from hereon. Tim isn’t going to be the one who causes the next crisis. ]

I liked the Red Robin costume. It had a clean colorscheme and the bandoliers held more than the belt.

[That earns a suspicious look, but it's one that comes with the knowledge she isn't going to actually get answers if she asks questions, so she'll have to live with the mystery of whatever the hell 'three Batgirls' involves.]

Shame that the cowl made you look like every teen girl's first dildo.

[Isn't he so glad that she turned up?]