Your gateway to endless inspiration
Red Robin - Blog Posts
Tim "won't end you but will end your bloodline" Drake:
The World Contains…
Crack prompt (Inspiered by a screenshot I saw on Pinterest)
Streamer!Danny AU where Danny is giving some form of scientific lesson in a video.
Danny: The world contains protons, neutrons, electrons-
A severely sleep deprived Red Robin crashes through Danny’s window in the background, landing on the floor and immediately passing out.
Danny, looking back to the camera with a deadpan expression: …and morons.
Kitten Kisses
DCxDP : Dead Tired, Stray!Danny Phantom, love square identity shenanigans (sort of)
Week 1: Indirect Kiss
===
There is a security camera set up at Tim’s desk.
It’s mostly to ensure that Tim actually leaves his desk, nowadays, but the genuine concern was something nobody really thought could qualify as a necessity.
Tim is young, but it’s undeniable that he’s a genius. Sadly, that did not mean certain visitors or members of the board didn’t take his age as carte blanche to just rummage around in his desk for no reason.
After the 5th time Tim noticed his things had been moved (they would have found nothing, Tim was very meticulous regarding Wayne Enterprises documents) something had to give.
So. Security camera.
After the first month of its implementation, nobody was fool enough to get caught over some useless files and a surprisingly thoroughly encrypted computer system. Nobody important, at least.
Babs likes to hack into it, sometimes, to make sure Tim is home on time and not working late. Bruce sometimes hacks in just to check in, watch him work or eat because he was a creep, but Tim can hardly throw such large rocks from his glass house. For the most part, it’s more decoration than anything.
Until tonight, that is. Tim gets a little ping! signaling movement at his WE desk. He’s just gotten home from patrol, mask already off and cape halfway unclipped with hastily ungloved hands.
Perplexed by the midnight alert, Tim pulls up the feed onto his set up at home. There’s hardly anything worth hacking into, considering the computer there is more of a remote in type of system, rather than an actual computer to be used like the one at the Nest.
And yet still. There they are. Tim would recognize that silhouette anywhere: Stray.
He watches as, at first, only that skin tight black suit with white accents entered the screen, the rogue thief’s toned torso curved alluringly, signature white clawed gloves lightly scraping along the desk as he travels from one end to the other—not hard enough to leave any trace, but enough for the skrrrrch rasp out.
There’s a tap of a claw, before the screen fills as Stray bends over, and gods, what a sight that is to see. Stray has an almost prehensile cat’s tail, and it swayed and curled over itself in a way that seemed hypnotic. Long glowing white hair that falls over his shoulder with two black tufted cat ears that seems to actually move, eyes barely visible behind bright neon green goggles—but most importantly a new addition: blood red lipstick.
Tim stares as those red, red lips curve into a smile, whispering a soft “Hey, Red. Miss me?”
Tim can feel his pulse jump, because he did. He really did.
They’ve been dancing around each other, ever since the vigilante figured out Stray’s M.O.
The rogue was only stealing paranormal artifacts, or objects that were stolen via grave robbing. None of the other Bats had figured it out until Tim had told them, considering Stray’s first few hits were on a handful of Rich People. The items were so scattered, and had nothing of real importance that could connect them.
But the Rich were angry, and though that was hardly anything to be alerted by, it made for an ornery work environment. The Bats hadn’t stepped up, hadn’t felt the need to, until certain museums were getting hit too. A couple civilians even, here or there, until finally something was stolen from Batman himself—something they had kept at Wayne Enterprises to be handed over to Constantine for analysis.
Selina was no help either, simply stating that every cat’s got to have their secrets—all but confirming that the new rogue on the scene was Selina’s.
Red Robin had cornered Stray, or rather, Stray had let him, and they almost—there was a moment…But then Catwoman had come, urgent, saying something about a sister.
And then Stray hadn’t been seen in weeks.
Tim shakes his head, trying to clear his thoughts from the fog those cherry red lips cast over him. Still, he can’t help but say yes. Even if only in his mind.
“I missed you, dolled myself up and everything,” those sinful red lips do a little pout as a delicate claw twirls a strand of that silky hair, conjuring up so many images that Tim involuntarily stands up, as if to immediately leave. “Doesn’t red look so good on me?”
Fuck, but it does. And then it clicks. Hastily, Tim taps a couple buttons, reclipping his cape and putting his mask back on. Once his gloves are back on he pulls up the feed onto his phone, grappling his way over to his office as if being chased.
Because if Stray was at Tim Wayne’s desk, calling him Red through the feed, that meant—that meant he knew.
“Sadly, I can’t stay.” Red Robin vaults out the Nest, keeping half an eye on the feed as those pouty lips talk to him, watching as Stray perches himself delicately on the desk. There’s a sly smile now, though Tim can’t help but follow the long lines of the rogue’s body instead, with his legs crossed, leaning on one delicately clawed hand, head tilted coquettishly.
“But I’ve got a present for you, loverboy.” Red is almost there, just a couple blocks away, as Stray pulls out what looked like a business card with the hand he isn’t leaning on, bringing it up to those distracting red lips.
“I heard you like games!” Stray bares his teeth in a fanged smile, “Find me, and it’s a date.”
Red Robin is on the WE building now, scaling down to break into the usual window, silently prowling his way quickly through the halls. He watches as Stray winks, giving the card a little kiss. When he grins Red could see the rouge was smeared a little, and somehow that made it so much more enticing. Stray places the card back on the desk before smoothly getting up and exiting stage left just as the vigilante skids to an arrival in front of his office door.
He burst into the office, only to find it empty. He immediately went to the nearest window, trying to spot the rogue, but as always Stray is quick to disappear without a trace. RR suspects that Stray is some kind of meta, but hasn't gathered enough evidence yet.
Out of leads, he swiftly makes his way to his desk, where the business card lay innocently, face down. On the back of it, a tantalizing red lip mark.
Red picks it up, turning it over to see a time and place typed onto it—an invitation, then, not a business card at all. He stares for a second, feeling a smile grow on his face, before he flips the card over again to stare at the kiss mark.
He brings the card to his lips, softly kissing it, eyes closed and content. He can almost feel the warmth left over, feel a hand caress his neck along his spine. Soon.
He tucks the card into one of the pockets on his belt, feeling excited and suddenly rejuvenated.
Maybe he could do another loop—maybe a couple, he doesn’t care—before getting back to the Nest to research.
He has a date to score, and research is so much easier when he doesn’t have to deal with euphoria.
I mentioned in my last piece that Tim’s wand detracts and extends but it takes him a hot second to realize this and @xxxnightcorequeenxxxv3 commented that they could just picture his outraged “It extends!” Anyway I thought about that comment all day
really quick animation demonstrating tiny Timmy not being used to things like dadly teasing
DPxDC Dead Tired Coffeeshop Accident
For one reason or another, Danny is now living in Gotham and working in a coffeeshop. For one reason or another, Tim frequents the same coffeeshop.
Now, both of them are honest to god messes who treat sleep like a grave enemy. Meaning they both survive on coffee, spite, energy drinks, and their respective hyperfocuses.
They don't even talk, really, they just see each other from time to time: Tim knows the barista who looks like he's been dead for weeks is named Danny, and Danny knows how to make Tim's Death Wish with his eyes closed, but other than that, they are just strangers who largely don't care about each other.
That is, until one time after his patrol, Tim comes to the said coffeeshop in his Red Robin gear. He doesn't even think about it, he simply needs coffee. He comes to the counter. He orders. His voice is tired and emotionless. He just wants his coffee and maybe stare at a wall for a few hours until his brain reboots. Danny takes his order without even looking at him. He has been sitting and staring at a wall for a few hours, night shifts are literally killing him.
They are both so done.
Red Robin waits for his coffee. Danny makes it almost automatically, his mind elsewhere. The coffeeshop is empty, save for them two. It's four in the morning. Nothing feels real.
Danny sets the cup on the counter.
"One Death Wish for Tim," he says out of a habit, not fully registering they are alone, and he doesn't need to do that.
Tim takes the coffee without thinking, nods a silent 'thank you'. Brings the cup up to his mouth-
And notices a glove on his own hand.
He is in Red Robin get up.
He freezes and looks at the barista, who is cleaning the coffeemachine. Danny, noticing him looking, also looks back at him. Did he make the wrong order? He knows Tim's soul, he's seen it a lot, he couldn't have mistaken him for anyone else, but maybe he forgot to add syrup?..
There's a domino mask on Tim's face. A vigilante domino mask.
They stare at each other. No one moves. No one blinks. The sun is rising somewhere over the city.
Tim takes a sip of his coffee. Danny goes back to cleaning the coffeemachine.
They never speak of this again, but Tim becomes a regular here in both of his personas.
You really would think Dick had threatened Tim with Arkham when seeing his reaction. He's such a feral little gremlin.
Sparring Partners
I present to you: Karaoke night with the Batfamily
Steph drags Cass to do a duet of “Take on Me” Steph is jumping around on stage out of breath while Cass surprisingly demolishes that high note
Dick blackmails convinces Jason to do a duet of “Bring me to life” by Evanescence where they spend the entire song duration competing with each other, both absolutely devouring the song. They’ll pretend like they didn’t just perform the most iconic duet but Steph and Babs have it on video. (They end up winning best performance, tied with Duke’s cover of Shut up and Dance)
Tim tries to get out of singing but Stephanie somehow forces him into performing “I want it that way” by the Backstreet Boys. He pretends to be unenthused at first but gets way too into it and eventually he ends up hogging the mic for half the night
Duke is the ultimate hype man, and when he isn’t hyping people up he’s singing the FUNNEST songs. His cover of Shut up and Dance? The entire family was cheering him on, even Damian couldn’t pretend that Duke didn’t just kill that song. (He ends up tied with Jason and Dick for best performance)
Neither of them can really sing and end up performing a competitive duet of Smooth Criminal which was extremely off key . They had a blast but they would never admit it.
Damian gets really competitive with Tim and he and Tim end up having a singing contest. Remember how I said Tim ends up hogging the mic? Well whenever Tim isn’t hogging the mic, Damian is trying to prove how his superior karaoke skills surpass Tim
Bruce was enjoying himself but then Dick decided to do a beautiful cover of Slipping Through my Fingers by ABBA and no Bruce wasn’t crying! He just had something in his eye! He then decided to leave early in order to work on a case
Jason sings Staying Alive for irony purposes because he would never miss the opportunity to make a death joke!
Steph, Cass, Babs and Duke perform the frattiest rendition of Boyfriend by Big Time Rush
Babs and Dick scream Mr. Brightside at the top of their lungs, which frustrates everyone because they both can fucking sing.
Alfred refuses to sing at first but after the entire family insists he sings “My way” by Frank Sinatra and everyone’s jaw dropped.
Screen rant and CBR have m the worst articles ever. They’ll say something like DC just confirmed Nightwing is actually a terrible leader and then their reasoning is something stupid like “He asked a team member to stay behind because she was emotionally compromised, meaning he doesn’t trust his teammates!” or Tim Drake was the weakest Robin and this comic confirms it! And the evidence is just Tim getting the flu or something.
I like to imagine that in the villain world it’s considered suicidal to injure Nightwing.
Random villain #1: Yeah and then I shot Nightwing
Random villain #2: You shot Nightwing???
Random villain #1: Yeah, I got him pretty bad, might’ve killed him
Random Villain #2 *eyeing Batman, the Batfamily, Superman, half the Justice League and the Titans as they appear behind Random Villain #1 *: Uhh I had nothing to do with this
Woah, there’s no reason to get so heated. I never said he’s perfect, he does some bad things but terrible is a stretch. Like yeah, taking Robin away from Tim? He went about that completely wrong, even if he had his reasons. I will say that making mistakes doesn’t mean he’s a terrible sibling. And because I love exploring the dynamics between the Bat Family, I’m going to go through some moments where Dick was a good sibling to each of them, or at least some cute moments between them!
Tim
This is probably my favorite Batfam dynamic (with Steph and Damian being a close second) In many ways Tim helped Dick become a big brother. He felt like he failed Jason by not being there and made an effort to be more available to Tim!
Here’s some moments between the two!
When Dick trusted Tim not to use the Lazarus pit?
Or when he and Babs threw Tim a surprise Christmas party so he wouldn’t be alone on Christmas
After Tim quits being Robin, he’s nervous that Dick and Bruce won’t talk to him again. Tim’s school gets shot up and Bruce is adamant that he’s okay but Dick goes to check up on him.
Even when they’re fighting, they’re there for each other! This takes place after Dick gives Robin to Damian!
Also! I want to add that in Bruce Wayne murderer, Dick and Tim do argue because Dick is angry that Tim is doubting Bruce’s innocence, it’s a very emotional time for the two and siblings fight all the time. Hell my sister has snapped at me tons of times and I’ve snapped at her.
Jason
The biggest thing with Dick and Jason, is Dick wasn’t there a lot when Jason was Robin, because he was mostly with the Titans at the time, but when he was there, he did his best. Here’s some moments of Dick being a good brother to Jason!
Dick gives Jason his number as well as his Robin suit (this panel is quite old but DC continuity is really confusing)
Or when Jason is grounded and Dick takes him out on an adventure to help him out
And he even apologizes to Jason because Bruce compared the two
And when Jason is accused of murder, Dick trusts him when he says he didn’t do it
I will say that out of all of Dick’s siblings, he probably made the most mistakes with Jason, which kinda makes sense because that was his first time being a big brother figure. But even then, you have this little moment:
Damian
This is a major one! Dick and Damian are probably the sibling relationship that gets the most focus in current comic (which I have my own opinions on, because I hate that they put his relationship with the others on the back burner) But Dick is very essential to Damian’s character growth. And yeah they get off to a rocky start, Dick was grieving Bruce’s death and all of the sudden he’s in charge of a murderous 2nd grader. He wasn’t the most emotionally available, I’d honestly say their relationship is in the middle of parent/child and siblings. I’ve maxed out the amount of photos I can use in a post so I’ll leave you with this!
God I love them so much.
Cass
Don’t worry! I didn’t forget Cass! But they don’t have as many moments compared to the others! Like I said, I ran out of photos, but I can list some!
- If I recall correctly, Dick wasn’t the most welcoming to Cass because! He’s NOT perfect! He makes mistakes and he can be a real Dick (pun intended) but a huge thing is, he acknowledges this, apologizes to her and they agree to put it behind them! This happens in Batman and the outsiders (2007) #14
- This is more a moment of her helping him out, but in Nightwing (1996) #81, Dick gets shot, Cass visits him in the hospital and he enlists her help in defeating Deathstroke. This is an important moment because a big theme in Nightwing 1996 was Dick stretching himself thin and trying to do everything on his own, which caused him to start getting sloppy.
- In Nightwing #106 Dick teaches Cass how to make his world famous pancakes, which is adorable!
(but I mean so does almost every member of the batfamily)
And as for Duke, I’m not sure if they have any moments together?
And I can totally get your frustration that people act like he’s perfect and honestly that’s probably why I’m not the biggest fan of Tom Taylor’s Nightwing run because he made him almost into a Mary-Sue and I think a flawed Nightwing is the best Nightwing, like I mentioned how in Nightwing 1996, he insists on doing everything alone, which leads to him getting overworked, which leads to him getting shot on duty, which leads to Blockbuster realizing that Nightwing is Dick Grayson which leads to basically his whole life falling apart.
I hate the “bad sibling Dick Grayson” tag, like Dick Grayson would never. Especially in Tim centric fics. They have such a close bond in canon, Tim Drake is Dick Grayson’s #1 fan and Dick raves about Tim like every other issue in Nightwing (1996)
I hate the “bad sibling Dick Grayson” tag, like Dick Grayson would never. Especially in Tim centric fics. They have such a close bond in canon, Tim Drake is Dick Grayson’s #1 fan and Dick raves about Tim like every other issue in Nightwing (1996)
I love Tim and Dick’s relationship in canon and I really wish it was explored more in fanfic. But it feels like it gets thrown aside in favor of making Tim and Jason besties, often to the point where fics will villainize Dick and it makes me so sad. This being said, there’s a similar problem with modern comics as well, where Dick and Tim are thrown aside for Dick and Damian. Don’t get me wrong I do love them, I just wish DC could highlight their relationship without forgetting the bond between Dick and Tim. This is a problem I’ve seen a lot with DC. They want to forge a bond between two characters but by doing so they kinda ignore the previous bonds they had. They sorta did the same thing with Jason and Roy.
In my opinion, Dick and Tim have the best relationship of siblings in the batfamily. Tim drops in after Jason’s death. Dick is harboring all this guilt from not really being there a lot. Don’t get me wrong, he tried his hardest, he gave Jason his number, gave him some solid advice, but he was always busy with the Titans. Then Jason died and Dick felt guilty and Tim showed up and Dick wanted to do better for Tim. In a lot of ways, Tim showed Dick what it means to be a big brother. AUGH they’re just so important to me, the way Dick unconditionally supports Tim and the way Tim looks up to Dick is just so MWAH 🤌
Imagine Tim talking to about how he was at the circus the night of the Flying Grayson’s
Tim: Yeah, I mean watching them die really helped shape me into who I am today
Dick: …that’s great Tim
Tim: Though if I’m being honest it kinda scarred me for life
Dick: It scarred you for life?
I know this would probably never happen but it’s kinda funny to think about
Idk why fandom decided that Tim was the coffee addict insomniac in the family when this is a legit quote from Nightwing (1996)
“Anyone who says there aren’t enough hours in a day aren’t using all 24”
Throughout almost the entirety of this run, he’s running on nothing but caffeine and justice.
Furthermore idk why some people in the fandom decided that Dick was the mentally stable one either because he’s pretty insane throughout this run. And man does he get put through the wringer, Blockbuster essentially psychologically tortured him throughout a period of weeks and pretty much destroyed his life.
Everytime I see Jason call Tim replacement in fanfic (I will forever deny that he said it canon, nope did NOT happen) I have to laugh because who do you think was the replacement first?
On TikTok I saw a few people use the fact that Jason asked Tim to be his Robin in Battle For the Cowl as evidence that Jason and Tim are really close and the other day I saw the actual panel (I haven’t read BFTC) and I’m shocked that people interpreted that as wholesome. So my takeaway is that they
A. Didn’t see the panel, just saw someone mention it in passing
or
B. Are a little delusional (but hey aren’t we all?)
he looks like he’s eaten dog food on multiple occasions
Can i request more of your red Robin!Tim? I hardly see art of him in that outfit!
throws Loser #3 at you then proceeds to forget he exists
