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Nine year old Tim Drake is enthralled. Staring at the starless night sky from the emergency exit staircase he is hidden, he can make out the moving shadows of the two figures he has been looking for tonight. Yet, it is the smaller of the two that he is interested in the most. He takes out his camera and gets in position, ready to shoot what is the sheer epicness of Robin. And not any Robin. His favorite one. The one of Jason Todd.
Tim admits that Dick Grayson as Robin was a sight to behold, with his graceful, seemingly perfect moves, executed as if he was giving a performance. But it was Jason who ignited a spark inside him and later on a fire. He was the one who actually managed to inspire him. To be a better person and to do good. To be fearless. To help people. But most importantly, to be himself. Not his constantly absent parents, nor his countless teachers, tutors and nannies. Not his nonexistent friends or pets. No one except for Jason, who put on a mask and respectively took Tim’s mask off. He lifted the burden of pretence he carried on his shoulders his whole life. Out here, with him, he can be his true self, not caring what the world would say. He can finally relax, find some piece of mind far away from the hypocrisy surrounding his life and maybe find what he has been looking for too. True friendship. Eventually.
He has two favorite things in this world. One is his camera. His skills in which he uses to capture and frame his other favorite thing. Or in this case, person. His sole inspiration portrayed in photographs, so as to be able to carry it with him at all times. To always be close to it-him. Now that he had found it he never wanted to lose it. This feeling of belonging.
So, Jason Todd is Robin. And he is Tim’s Robin. He has known it since he first saw him. His liveliness, his protectiveness, his love for people and his understanding of them, everything that makes Jason Todd who he is, every aspect of him, is what Tim admires and relish. Jason makes him see the world through an entirely new viewfinder. And he loves this new world so much, words can’t describe. He doesn’t want to lose it. This new perspective of seeing. Because in this new world there is something really special, nearly impossible to find in the one he has lived so far. Hope and love. And it is a world Jason showed him.
Robin is his whole world and Jason Todd his everything.
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Robin is dead. Jason is dead. Tim wishes he were dead.
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Standing at the edge, the gargoyles of the Cathedral being his only company, he watches the seemingly asleep city. Seemingly because Gotham never really sleeps. She is so lively and active, even more so at night.
In his fist, there is the picture he has kept on his person at all times since that heart-wrecking day. It is of his Robin eating a chili dog at this very same spot. He gazes sorrowfully at it, reminiscent of the past. He closes his eyes as he cradles the picture to where his aching heart is. He takes a deep breath, in and out, and places the photo in one of his secret stashes of his bandoliers. He lifts his head and stares at the city lying under his feet once again, determination lighting his eyes this time. He has a job to do.
His name is Red Robin. And it confused many Gothamites at first. It made them believe he is a robin. But they learned quickly that they were wrong. He is not a robin. He doesn’t laugh- not since then-, he doesn’t crack jocks like robins do. Least of all, he doesn’t inspire anyone. So, they made a big mistake, the citizens of this city. Never to be made again. Dressed in death’s black and the blood’s scarlet, his colors put utter fear in those unlucky enough to meet him up close or even sight him.
He is not a robin. He is a red robin. Risen from the depths of the running blood of a true robin. A dead robin. A darker, crueler by far version of him. Born in his stead, not to take his place, but to show respect to his person and the values he embodied. He took up the mantle to honor his memory. Not so much Robin’s as much as Jason’s.