Craving Comics

I had an AU, that at this point is more of a headcanon for me, that I thought you might enjoy because it's a nice mix of angst, Tim not thinking things are as bad as they very clearly are, and some fluff.

So it's pretty widely accepted that the Bats don't really know anything about Tim's days with Young Justice right? Like they might know one or two small facts, but they don't know that the gang blew up Mount Rushmore, any of the times the DEO tried to arrest them and drag them into Government Labs for experimentation, or that time they went to a Disco Themed Hell with Supergirl. They sure as hell don't know about any of the things that happened with Secret and Harm. Even though Tim would canonically be gone for days at a time (some of his adventures, mainly the one when they were gone for THE ENTIRE WINTER OLYMPICS) with no one noticing. One time they were in space and had enough time to not only go to Darksied's planet but spent WEEKS there and when they got back still not even Batman knows that Tim was even gone.

Anyways, all this to say. If Tim vanished for a month or two and just said he was spending time with Young Justice again while sending in case files and stuff to keep Bruce busy, I don't think anyone would notice. Nor would they notice if he suddenly switched from being Right Handed to being Left Handed and then after months of practice he goes back to being right handed. It's such a small change after all.

So here's the headcanon. On a Young Justice mission, something goes horribly wrong and Tim full on looses his hand. It's simply gone. The reason no one knows or notices is that he got a robotic replacement, a very realistic looking one like Roy Harper has, that he spent a few months learning how to work with and then went to physical therapy for it for years. It's just part of his life now and he thinks everyone knows, after all. How could they miss it? Jason has seen his palm open with a screw driver deep in his wires. Jason thought he was still tripping from fighting Scarecrow a few hours before. Not a single person outside of Cassie, Tim, Kon, Bart, Greta, Anita, Slobo, and Cissie knows that Tim is missing his right arm just below his elbow for almost 5 years.

That is until Tim has been up for 4 days straight and Dick says something about needing a hand with something and in a moment of sleep deprived brilliance, Tim takes off his hand, and throws it at Dick.

Yes! I love this AU/hc. There is a fic that kind of has this situation: "I told you about that... Didn't I?" by weewoow_070603. Jason is the one to find out, though.

I like the details you added in this AU that the fic (as far as I remember) didn't add: Tim being gone is a regular thing, the fear toxin with Jason, the months of physical therapy, etc.

I do think something as vital as this would happen to Tim, and he'd just forget to tell his family. At first, he tries to hide it. He doesn't want to deal with their fretting, the lectures, the scolding, and them getting involved. He has it handled, after all. After a while, he forgets that he should hide it and why he did in the first place. Then someone finds out, and he's confused why they don't know such a common place thing.

I'm also super glad you tied in all those YJ examples that you did. People tend to focus on the space baseball or Santa Clause (which I love those events too), so it was refreshing to see other events as examples.

In the Tim Emperor of Space au, being the ruler of multiple planets, possibly having multiple names he's referred to across planets since they have their own traditions and ideas of what a proper title might be, not to mention that at least a few of the planets came under Tim's hold while he was Robin while others while he was Red Robin, and I don't see Tim as being the sort of person who'd tell entire planets his actual, legal name,

getting off track

Anyway, in this AU, something to make note of, YJ is, for good reason, very co dependent, they had to be since in most cases they had next to no support in their day to day lives and several were in actively abusive situations and they only had fellow teens to help them

So, YJ knows and has always known that their birdie is an emperor, it makes him happy to help people so they support his hobby. Had this been a thing then rather than suggesting Tim get help and accept Bruce's death, Cassie would have instead suggested that Tim go on a royal tour/visit across his planets in the hopes that the time and distance would give him some perspective and the active adoration from his planets would probably also help in her opinion. He didn't but after the Brucrquest is done, Cassie might suggest he go on the royal tour anyway because he needs a break.

Anyway, Bart, Kon, and Cassie, sometimes just one, sometimes all, or in any combination, are considered royal consorts on Tim's various planets, depending on societal norms and attitudes on each planet. On at least one or more of the planets, each of the core four has inspired at least one cult that is quickly becoming a recognized religion across the galaxy. On the planets where any or all of them are the royal consort, their job is mostly to wear pretty things, fend off suitors who want to take advantage of their birdie, participate in charity events, and do their part in whatever convoluted scheme Tim has come up with to help out another planet that wants to be under Tim's aegis. They find it's very much like going as Tim's arm candy to a civilian event but they get to punch more people.

I love the idea of them maintaining various roles for Tim dependent on the culture of the planet. Sometimes, they are his advisors, or consorts, or generals, body guards, religious leaders (for the cult they accidentally started), vague family members, etc. The YJ definitely has fun in the different roles (even retired ones occasionally help out [it's like a vacation but in space]).

Tim has a very helpful spreadsheet (that links to more documents for further information) that explains who takes up what role on each planet. Despite that, they do occasionally mess up. Sometimes, planets even chat with each other. It gets a bit chaotic when that happens

Tim drake ruler of worlds

Ok I am an outsider but I think ppl are focused too much on the brucequest. Imagine the comedic potential of none of the batfam knowing but the loa does. Damian arrives and shows respect to Tim bc even the demons heir knows when they are outclassed (by several planets worth of people). Batfam + jl don't realize this until a force appears that overtakes planets and sees Tim. Tim says "fuck off". They promptly fuck off. What the jl doesn't know is that they only overtake weaker planets without a good defense. Planets Timmy has multiple planets to act as a defense and should not be counted. He wouldn't ask them but the second those planets hear of the threat to their beloved rulers planet???? They shall take this strain from his shoulders!!! He has done so much!!! (What if he thinks we are too much work) We can do this small act for him!!!

They hear of one (1) threat and are like but what does he get from ruling us?? (Mental health boost from millions saying how great he is, stress relief tbh, the ability to take days off while he feels like he's still being useful). We Will Keep Our Overlord!!!!

Better if they have longer lifespans and so Tim being 17 is like.. Smart Baby!! Babey so clever!! We love him!! Earth babies are clearly such good rulers!!! We should recommend?! But wait?? He tries to KILL earth?? THATS WHERE OUR BELOVED BABY RULER IS??

Tim is like people electing a bear to president because it clearly can't make anything worse right? But then he makes it BETTER?!??!??

I fucking love this so so much. I can't with them electing him for the morale boost (baby for overlord), and Tim somehow doing well anyways.

Just planets of people who love their mascot overlord who actually does really good work.

Also, you are correct that Damian (and LoA) knowing about Tim from the get-go would be such a juicy twist! Like, Damian would try to befriend Tim instead. He would try to establish a friendly relationship and connection for the purpose of having him on Damian's side when Damian takes over the LoA or Batman's mantle.

I bet Talia has trained Damian in business relations and how to manipulate people onto your side. Damian would try these tricks (there can still be some conflict with Tim being Robin) and notice months later that they somehow became brothers. Oh well. Tim's proven to be a formidable ally. For those who hurt his family? He's a terrifying opponent. It's truly better this way (and not that he'll admit it even to himself, but he also cares about Tim at this point).

Since Damian knows about the planets and they have a friendly relationship, Tim would take Damian with him sometimes when he visits. He'd show him some of the ropes (training useful for WE or LoA) and implement ideas Damian proposes.

Then! Your whole JL and invading forces ideas??? Fuuuudge. I love that shit so much. I just love dramatic reveals like that

crack idea Tim ruler of worlds It's canon that YJ went to space a lot of times, Impulse even has an spaceship, so during one of those missions on space they accidentally help a planet to overthrow a tyrant, a simple mission they did in less than a week, but now the planet has no ruler and they have no idea what to do, so the citizens of the planet decide to ask YJ for help, i mean they saved them after all surely YJ would know what to do next. Tim who plays Civ V on max difficulty on 4x speed while solving cold cases, decides to rule their planet until they decide on a leader and a new government system, all he needs is a signal for communications to earth and he can visit every couple of months if needed ,after all how hard can it be? the answer is pretty easy, but Tim has a feeling that once his rule ends Civilization V will be really boring to him now, and he doubts it will matter that much, except other planets noticed, and apparently when you have a planet that belongs to you it's easier for those planets to get in contact when they need help, adn that's how Tim ends up ruling a small sector of space, he also played spore till the space stage so he knew how to handle multiple planets. Later when he get's control of Wayne Industries he understands how Bruce managed to pretend to be incompetent while being CEO, he only needed to remove a couple of shareholders and change a couple policies to improve efficiency, profits and employee satisfaction by 50%, it's honestly kinda boring compared to managing his planets. Lucius and a couple workers of WI are very much aware, that if Tim wanted he could completely rule the company with an iron fist, when they heard that Tim is planning to give it back to Bruce some of them seriously considered killing Bruce so that Tim continues as CEO. Meanwhile in a planet far away from earth some green lanterns save a planet that was under attack by yellow lanterns, the battle was hard on the planet, but they noticed that one of the lanterns was a human, they all knew of the prosperity, happiness and the protection that the planets ruled by red robin have, so they decide to ask for the human green lantern to contact Red robin if he was willing to rule their planet in exchange for helping it recover, surely this won't have any consequences.

This is such a beautiful crack idea I'm in love! The potential for chaos, the reveals, the long time secret. It's fantastic.

I am curious how many planets he ends up ruling by that point. Also, Starfire, Diana, Aquaman, and the GLs might insist that Tim be respected as the interplanetary ruler that he is. Suddenly, no one in JL can refer to Tim as anything less than a title of respect fit for someone of his position.

I'm also curious how Tim handled managing those planets while Bruce was gone. How did he keep that type of communication from Ra's?

Add onto Tim's ruined reputation with the JL (if you want extra spice)? What if someone tries to recommend that the JL takes over leadership for Red Robin due to them believing Tim can't handle it despite the many years he's not only led but brought the planets prosperity? That JL member is insisting on an action that will bring about war.

Just so much possibilities and chaos it's delicious. Thank you!

Tim ruler of worlds

The reason why no one of the batfam knew that Tim is a king/emperor is simply because they didn't ask, Tim is almost constantly with a tablet or a computer managing his empire, but he never actually explained what he's doing to anyone outside of YJ, so everyone just assumed that his hobby was playing planet mangement games.

at the beginning Bruce thought that Tim gaming so much would end up interfering with Tim's life, but at the time he was still beginning to care about Tim so he just didn't say anything and left Tim to suffer the consequences of his own actions if it affected his studies or Robin.

But the only thing that happened was that Tim was happier than usual, and let's not talk about the fact that Tim felt better when he was helping a planet full of people who acknowledged him and were openly grateful for his actions, unlike someone who despite everything Tim did, was constantly testing him and barely acknowledging all that Tim did for him.

And so Bruce lost the chance to ask what Tim about his 'game', in fact Alfred was happy that Tim had a hobby and the positive effect it had on Tim, so time passed and everyone 'knew' that Tim liked to play those games and was constantly playing even multitasking while solving cases, the only one who could notice that it wasn't a game but instead a system that Tim made for managing his planets would be if Barbara hacked Tim's game to check it, but she has no reason to do that.

That's how despite not hiding at all what he was doing, no one ever noticed anything, in fact Tim thought that everyone knew about it but didn't care, the closest someone ever got was when Jason decided to mess with Tim by doing something on his 'game', but the second Jason touched something the glare that Tim gave him was so terrifying that Jason feared for his life, after that no one even tried to touch Tim's 'game'.

You went for Bruce's throat in this and I appreciate it so much: "unlike someone who who despite everything Tim did, was constantly testing him and barely acknowledging all Tim did for him."

Let's go!

Also, I imagine Jason would feel so guilty about going to mess with Tim's game if he knew that his actions would have drastically affected real people's quality of life.

You are absolutely correct that Tim would design himself an entire program to mimic the games he usually plays to help him understand ruling the world better. It's genius, even if it's unorthodox. That is part of the reason he's able to assume control so quickly.

Poor Tim probably isn't getting enough sleep with all the worlds he is managing. Though, he probably set up automatic processes to help them become independent, self-sufficient, and less reliant on him. He's still there to help them, but he's not directly assisting everything. My hc is that he went dark from Bruce for a few weeks until the worlds were able to manage on their own. He periodically has to "go help YJ with a mission" whenever he acquires a new world to rule. That stuff is better to implement in person, after all

I had an idea for the AU where Tim is ruler of a dozen or so planets. As someone with an Empire that large, OA would take notice. They sent a few Green Lanturns (not any human ones) to check it out and found Tim to be an actually good ruler. He even willingly came back with them to OA without a massive vanguard (the don't know that YJ could destroy them all if they so pleased) and Tim spent nearly a week there just discussing things like trade routes and taxes on goods and which items were taxed more where and all kinds of things like that which OA normally oversees.

After the week is over, the Guardians respect Tim for being one of the nicest yet most cut throat negotiators they've ever met. First king/Emperor/ruler/whatever in centuries to not get into a screaming match with them at some point or act like a brat at all. Tim was polite and respectful the whole time, just as his mother taught him.

Tim also comes out with much better trade deals and the Guardians owning him a handful of favors by the weeks end and none of them but Tim realize just how Amazing of a deal he got.

This would be absolutely fantastic to read. I want to hc that none of the human GLs were there at the time when Tim was making all of trade deals and chatting. Perhaps they were on Earth or a far away mission. Whatever the case is, they return to OA and hear rumors about the amazing new leader for several worlds.

Identity shenanigans ensue because, after the whole BruceQuest stuff, those human GLs know Red Robin (or whatever mantle he's taken; I'm fond of "Patron" for this AU), but don't know that he's the badass ruler they were told to treat with respect or whatever (space politics?)

Then they find out that a bunch of humans moved to the worlds according the leader. The humans, though, are ex-LoA agents.

Just chaos, ig, with identity shenanigans

I’m imagining that one of the Justice League members goes to one of Tim’s planets and tries to explain that Red Robin has become “crazy” and is no longer mentally capable to rule over all of his planets and then suddenly they’ve got a whole planet of angry citizens who are ready to fight for the right to keep their leader

Tim is naturally unaware of what is happening as he is busy blowing up Ra’s basements and turning some of the League’s assassins over to his side

Any JL member who does that is lucky to leave that planet alive.

A lot of the LoA assassins that defect to Tim end up relocated on the planets. They receive government type jobs where they help out the citizens, guard them, or learn from them. Tim's got the ones who eventually want to return to earth on a contract-like deployment agreement (and everyone who agreed to go to outerspace agreed with their assignment).

The change in scenery, so far from the Earth they know, helps a ton of ex-LoA agents heal from their trauma and seek atonement. The citizens are happy to have trusted allies of Red Robin's assisting them and protecting them. The last time someone tried to invade one of the planets, it took Tim some time to get there. Now? Automatic deterrents.