Some puns should stay unspoken.

[the_hit_list]

[ A few minutes after this.

Tim appears on the mirrors, looking uncomfortable, but that’s not as noticeable as the fact that he is currently glowing like a Tim-shaped nightlight - or Timkerbell, if you’re feeling unkind. He considered staying offscreen (off glass?), but at least three people, if not more, have already seen it. It’s hardly a secret, and he wants to get to the bottom of this now. ]

It’s stating the obvious, but something is affecting me, because I don’t have metahuman abilities.

[ And he doesn’t want or need them. Tim would like to go home and not get runout of Gotham. Sparkling is not an option. ]

If anyone else is glowing, feel free to chime in. If this is your doing, please stop if you can. It doesn’t hurt, and I’m not mad, but let me know if you can’t make it stop?

[ He rubs the back of his hand, but it doesn’t dim the light. Tim starts putting his gloves back on. ]

I’d feel better if I knew this was someone in the camp.

[ He’ll continue to glow for another minute or two before it fades. As for Tim, he’s staying on the outskirts of the encampment until he feels confident that he knows what’s going on. He’s been told it has a healing effect - but he knows healers who also have heavy-hitting attacks. ]

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[the_hit_list]

[ But Tim wants to know. Why those friends. Why that moment. What critical things do Kon and Bart have to do, and when. How long will it guarantee their health and safety? Would Brainiac 5 bring them back again, if something happened?

… does this mean they’re more integral to the timeline than Batman? It’s hard to see the reasoning clearly this close up.

Tim stills under the scrutiny. Waits out his judgment. It’s mild, like he’d known (not as he’d feared). Dick … was never really mad about it. He’d been worried. And Tim still hesitates on the hug, for himself, because it feels expected now. If he backs out, he’s giving in to fear.

Dick needs the hug, too. It isn’t like Tim didn’t hit him a fully automatic spray of news. Good news, but upending nonetheless, right? Obviously, Dick could use a hug. Tim can give him one. So he does. ]

[circusbat]

[He hadn't been mad because there hadn't been reason. He'd known that Tim was getting to the point where he needed to go his own way, be able to do things his own way. Saw in Tim what he's certain that Bruce once saw in him as well.]

[He wraps his arms around Tim, not holding too tight but definitely proving that he isn't afraid of the fact that Tim is glowing.]

[Though he's not sure if he should mention that he feels a little tingly. He was pretty bruised up when he arrived, after all.]

[the_hit_list]

[ The hug is carefully timed and not overstayed. Tim doesn’t want to press his luck, and he wants Dick to know that he’s okay, that he’s keeping it together in spite of the mind-bendingly bizarre circumstances. He pulls away and gives Dick a cautious smile. ]

Thanks. I guess -

[ It doesn’t escape Tim’s attention that Dick’s visible bruises look a few days older, if any are visible. It doesn’t cause the break in his sentence, but it wouldn’t help. ]

We know I’m safe. I can’t test upper limits on this, though. I can’t run experiments with a healing power.

[ Clinical as he is, Tim would never set up a control group among the campers. It’s not right. He’ll learn the limits through use. ]

[circusbat]

[Dick doesn't give up the hug quite as easily as Tim probably feels he needs, but only by an extra second or two. Basically letting him know that he doesn't HAVE to pull away. Dick's never the one who feels like people overstay a hug with him, after all.]

[He does reach out and ruffle Tim's hair with an easy smile.]

No, you can't run experiments. What you can do is be ready when people are injured to help them out. You and I both know that it's going to be needed.

[They've both been in the biz far too long to think nobody will get hurt.]

[the_hit_list]

[ While he wants to be seen as competent, whole, and better, Tim also just wants them to be okay as just Tim and Dick.

So the hair ruffle is more than welcome, even if Tim laughs and makes a show of trying to duck away - he doesn’t. Something in him relaxes because Dick isn’t holding Tim’s “recent” behaviour against him.

(So the animosity was all on Tim’s side, but that’s not a surprise.)

And it’s not like his hair can look worse. It hasn’t seen product in two weeks. ]

I’ll be ready, gah! It’s not like there’s anything else to do!