I need to see Tim meet a kid who’s mentor “died” but they don’t believe it.
I need Tim to see this kid who’s just begging Tim to give him a chance to explain his reasoning, begging Tim to be the first person to look at the evidence he’s brought logically.
I need to see Tim say “I believe you, I’ll help you” to him. I need to see the adventure they go on to bring that mentor back, I need to see Tim make sure another kid doesn’t go through what he did.
i need to see that kid healing from what other people said to him while Tim heals from what those people used to say about him
Tim probably still has a sketchy reputation but that doesn’t stop people from going to him for help. A certain kind of people that is. Desperate people. People turn to Red Robin when they’ve run out of options and no one else believes them so maybe the vigilante who went crazy for a bit might. They’re desperate for somebody, anybody to believe them.
And Tim does believe in them.
He was crazy, but he was right.
And rumours of this filter through, in quiet whispers of mentor to student and little groups talking at night, in conversations on boring stake outs and after they start to think you're going mad.
"If they're not careful, they'll end up like Red Robin."
"But he was right, wasn't he?"
"Oh sure but he was never the same. I swear I can still see the madness behind that domino. "
And through the quiet admittance of the guilty, who never want to admit they were wrong, but have to see the truth each time they face Batman in a meeting.
"Red Robin- he was mad, he was crazy, he was insane, but really... he was right. You ever have an issue you can't surpass, a problem you can't out puzzle, a mystery you can't solve, you have a theory that sounds insane- ans might well be? Something everyone thinks you're mad for- even yourself? You go to Red. Always Red- the Detective Robin. He's insane. But he's almost always right.
"I haven't heard of him being wrong yet- never a tale of him finally losing it that isn't disproven sooner or later, with the evidence in a nicely organised file, often with a 'fuck you' or "i told you so' on a post-it; but it's always deserved- because he's always proven right, in the end."
'Red robin- the mad bat that was right."
I can actually see this happening though, red robin eventually becomes a sort of last resort, he’s the one you turn to when your desperate, when no one believes you.
I see him taking in those children because he doesn’t want them to suffer through it silently and alone like him, he doesnt want to see them drift away from the community like he did, he doesnt want them to feel the sense of abandonment he felt.
Then I see him becoming a sort of role model to them, because he was the only one who believed them, the only one who didn’t think they went mad, the only one who looked at them and told them he understands and that he’d help them.
He becomes the most trusted vigilante after that, the kids stop turning to their mentors when they need help and start turning to tim, because they know he’ll help them without a second thought. Without questioning them because he trusts them and no ones ever done that before.
He becomes their hero their role model.
He breaks down the first time he hears a kid tell him they want to be just like him, because hes never been told his efforts are appreciated, just always looked at like he’s mad, or a look of resignation because he was right.
but now?
these kids look at him with adoration like he hung the stars in the sky
the same way he used to look at the robins before him
and its not just kids, its also other vigilantes close to his age, everyone older than him may scoff at him and his theories and call him mad
but they?
they look up to him
And he feels fulfilled.
he feels loved.