Application.

[dorkwonder]

CHARACTER
CHARACTER NAME: Tim Drake-Wayne
SERIES: Red Robin & Teen Titans v3.
CANON POINT: The end of Teen Titans v3 #100 (just before the reboot)
LOSS: Back in the 2004-2005 there were two crucial story lines in the DC universe that took place back-to-back. Over in Gotham City, the arc “War Games” took place. In a nutshell, Bruce Wayne aka Batman, came up with a contingency plan to control all of the gangs in Gotham. Stephanie Brown, the newest Robin and the girl Tim loved set the plan in motion, not understanding the true magnitude of the plan. A city wide war breaks out and things get messy. By the end of the arc, one of Gotham's most notorious crime lords, Black Mask, became the head honcho of the majority of the gangs. Just before he ascended to the top of the crime scene, he tortured and appeared to have killed Stephanie Brown. In actuality (and thanks to a handy retcon), Steph took off to Africa to regather herself and heal. Tim, on the other hand, thought she was dead and was devastated by her loss.

Steph's death started a chain of tragic events that left Tim deeply scarred. The next major storyline that quickly followed War Games was “Infinite Crisis”. In the build up to Infinite Crisis, Tim's father is killed by Captain Boomerang. Shortly after his father's death, the whole universe is in danger because of an alternative universe Clark Kent who is obsessed with bringing his Earth back, and Earth three's Alexander Luthor. In the DC universe, there are 52 Earths that exist in a multiverse. During the first major crisis, Crisis on Infinite Earths, all 52 Earths were eliminated, and the only Earth left was the one Tim is from, New Earth. Superboy-Prime hated Tim's best friend and fellow Teen Titan member, Kon-El/Conner Kent/Superboy. As a result of recent events, Superboy-Prime believed Conner was a “bad” Superboy and didn't deserve the title.

Conner was feeling lousy because he recently discovered his human genes came from the megalomaniac villain, Lex Luthor. Lex Luthor created a switch inside of Conner when he created him. A few years ago, Conner was created to replace Superman when he died. He was created from the genes of Superman and a human. Luthor flipped the switch and made Conner go on a rampage. Conner quit the Teen Titans and kept to himself for a long time. However, when he realized Earth was in danger, he quickly took action. Alexander Luthor had restored the 51 Earths that had been defeated before, hoping to restore a “perfect earth.” Superboy Prime was going around, killing anyone who tried to stop them. Conner and Superboy-Prime got into a fight and in the end, Conner died defeating Superboy-Prime by crashing the both of them into the machine Alexander Luthor was using to restore the old worlds, causing it to blow up.

Needless to say, Tim lost a lot of people in a very short time. The deaths of his girlfriend, best friend, and father took their toll on Tim. In Paradisa, Tim is going to lose the memory of deaths of the people he cared about that took place during this time. Instead he is going to have memories of Conner leaving the Titans after the Crisis, to continue to try and make peace with himself, Steph told him about going to Africa instead of deceiving all of them, and he will believe his father is in a coma from the attack.

ABOUT THE CHARACTER:

If there was one word to describe Tim, it would be resilient. In the seventeen, almost eighteen years he has been alive, Tim has had to deal with a great deal of adversity. When he was only thirteen, he lost his mother to a violent crime, and his father fell into a coma. Despite the losses he endured, he kept an optimistic attitude. Life kept throwing challenges at him, and he refused to become “like Bruce”, meaning he didn't want to cut himself off from his loved ones or live in “shades of grays”. It took the death of both of his parents, a couple of people he knew at school, the perceived death of his girlfriend, the death of his good friends Conner Kent (Superboy) and Bart Allen (Kid Flash), the perceived death of Bruce Wayne (Batman), and being fired from the role of Robin by his brother figure Dick Grayson (Nightwing/Batman), for Tim to finally break. Even after he broke, there were still remnants of hope inside of him.

While Tim still holds onto hope, there is no going back to the person he used to be. The deaths of his loved ones weren't the only challenges he faced. Before Bruce's “death”, he began to act strangely and at one point lost his sanity all together. Bruce had an idea that it was coming, and he contacted Steph after she returned from Africa, to make sure Tim was prepared for a life without him. He had Steph lie and work behind Tim's back, to make him a “better Robin”. By that, Bruce wanted to force Tim to make the difficult choices, make him live in the gray instead of seeing the world in terms of black and white morality. Their plan worked at the cost of Tim becoming tougher, broodier, and he closed himself off. Tim doesn't /want/ to live in the gray, he feels better when he doesn't have to compromise to do the right thing, but he realizes now that sometimes it's the only way to get results. In the comics, Tim was beginning to lean towards the darker side of gray, rather than the lighter. Since Tim will believe his father is still alive back home, his best friend never died, and his now ex-girlfriend didn't deceive him into believing she's dead, he'll lean more towards the light side side of gray. Eliminating their deaths means he got close to his breaking point, but he never got there (although there are those currently in Paradisa who know the truth...).

Each person who has worn the mask of Robin has had their own style. His two predecessors were Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. Dick Grayson was an acrobat, leader, and more of Bruce's partner than his sidekick. Jason was headstrong, brave, and he preferred to fight with his emotions rather than discipline. Starting off, Tim wasn't nearly as skilled as the other Robins in physical prowess. However, what he lacked in fighting skills, he made up for in detective work. Tim's brain is wired to think in a logical way. Most of the time he thinks ahead before he makes a move and will even spend days calculating what he wants his next move to be. Other times he can calculate three different scenarios in the span of a few seconds, evaluate which one is the best choice, and then act on it. He's highly observant and takes the time to notice even the smallest detail. Sometimes he completely spaces out while he is lost in thought and ignores everyone and everything around him. If something is a mystery to him, he can become obsessive in his pursuit to find out the truth. When he believed Bruce was still alive, he took off on his own to find the truth. He tried to tell the others that he was alive, but no one listened to him. If no one else was going to do it, then it was up to him.  Even if that meant he had to break a few laws on the way and put himself in constant danger.

Tim's ability to make quick decisions under pressure, not let his emotions rule him, and strong will make him an ideal leader. During his tenure in Teen Titans, he was the leader. Everyone would turn to him for answers, and he often came up with their plan of action. During Tim's mission to find Bruce, a young woman by the name of Tam Fox came across Tim. Tam's father worked for Wayne Enterprises, and she had been tasked to bring him back to Gotham. Tam discovered Tim while he was fighting with the League of Assassins. Tam ended up getting trapped by several deadly assassins and thought she was going to die until Tim showed up. Upon observing Tim, she thought to herself “But through all this...me being abducted, held in this case, the ninja...I was never that worried. Because there was something about Tim...despite the sadness, the obsession, the weird costume...just him being there, I knew I'd be okay.” Tim has a determination and confidence to him that reassures others and gives them cause to not only believe in him, but believe in themselves.

Not only does he have all of the mental attributes to be a good leader, but he has the emotional qualities, too. Tim cares a great deal about the people in his life and doesn't hold back on showing them. He often refers to Dick as being “his brother” and even in his darkest, most obsessive moments, he still asked Dick to trust him and trusted in Dick. When Superboy returns to life and visits Tim for a second time, Tim gives him a huge hug. He apologizes for being so distant the first time they reunited, explaining he was “in a bad place, but now I'm in a better place.” Ra's Al Ghul, the leader of the League of Assassins targets Tim after Tim more or less dismantles his entire organization. Instead of taking on Ra's by himself, like Ra's thought he would, like Batman would, Tim asks his friends to help him. He told Ra's “I'm not Batman, I have friends.” Tim fights so hard, becomes so obsessive, and is willing to go to great extremes because he cares about people so much. The downside to this is guilt weighs heavily on him whenever something goes wrong. If he makes the wrong call and someone gets hurt, he blames himself. Tim even blames himself for things that are out of his control. Originally, he wore his Red Robin costume because it used to belong to the so-called “bad Robin”, Jason Todd. When Conner came across them during their first meeting, he commented that it looked like Tim was wearing the costume because he wanted to punish himself for Bruce's disappearance.

An interesting note about Tim is one would assume someone as dedicated to his job as he is, he wouldn't have time for dating or wouldn't want it to get into his work. Other than the one year time skip that took place after the end of Infinite Crisis, Tim has more or less always been in a relationship. He's even kissed Jubilee from the X-men! At times, he can be the most adoring, loving, and caring boyfriend any girl could ask for. When his first girlfriend, Ariana was attacked and almost sexually assaulted, she wanted to have sex with Tim because she was afraid if she didn't, she'd be uncomfortable with it later on. Tim was very mature about the situation and explained “even though we have adult feelings for each other, we're only kids.” He held her in his arms and kissed her instead. His next girlfriend, Stephanie Brown discovered she was pregnant shortly after the two dated. She was only fifteen at the time and Tim was only fourteen. Tim was not the father of the child, but he was there every step of the way. He went to breathing classes with her, asked an older friend for some advice, and risked getting grounded for life to make sure he was at her side during the birth because he promised her he would be there.

Other times, Tim can be an outright jerk. Steph and Tim kissed while he was still with Ariana. Tam and Tim ended up dating, only to break up a few months later because Tim used Tam as a tool in one of his plans. At least Tim does feel badly about the way he has treated some of his exes, but not enough for him to decide “dating civilians might be a bad idea”. Throughout his tenure as Robin and Red Robin, Tim has been dubbed “The Virgin Wonder” because despite all of his romantic interests, he has always kept the physical side of his relationships pretty tame. More recently however, he found himself attracted to a possible villain by the name of Lynx in a lustful way, rather than an emotional attraction like his previous girlfriends.

Last, but not least, underneath the mask Tim is a teen. He likes to exchange witty banter with his friends, hang out when time allows it, and he's even into Warlocks and Warriors (a variation of Dungeons and Dragons). Whenever he meets someone who isn't breaking the law or under suspicion for one reason or another, he generally greets them in a friendly and helpful manner.

ABILITIES: http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Tim_Drake#Powers_and_Abilities

THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:

Tim was willing to bet the majority of the people who looked out at the scenery beyond the castle and up in the sky, found it nothing short of breath taking. Everything about it was perfect. If he believed there was someone up there in the sky, then he'd be convinced that the Big Guy himself had come down and poked a hole in the sky so everyone could catch a glimpse of his realm. Tim appreciated the scenery for what it was, but he didn't take any comfort in it.

If anything, it made him miss Gotham even more. Which was probably in part why he was observing the scenery by crouching on a gargoyle, rather than from a window. Gotham was far from a perfect place, in fact, it was one of the most dangerous cities in the world, but it was home. He missed seeing the skyscrapers, listening to the beat of the city, and diving into the mix of things. Being in “paradise” wasn't making him relaxed, it was making him restless. He had so much on his mind and not enough resources to help lighten the load. If he was back home, he could tap into any number of his resources and get the ball rolling. He could also find a crime to break up to help distract him from his troubles that were interpersonal related.

Tim sighed and leaned back against the wall, pulling his cowl off from his head. The odds were stacked up against him, but he'd fought against worse odds before. If Bruce could find a way back home from being lost in time, then he could find a way back home, too. Not only would he find his way back home, but he'd find something useful to help his father. The castle was filled with people from all over the universe, someone had to have something he could use to bring his dad back to his consciousness. Then things would get better again, go back to normal or at least a new normal, and he'd make sure no one ever hurt his father again.

FIRST-PERSON JOURNAL SAMPLE: Since Tim'll be pretending to be “Alvin Draper” on the network, I decided to go with a fictional personal sample that takes place a couple of days after he's been in Paradisa.

[Private; locked to self.]

I'm not in Kansas any more, that's for sure. I knew there was a multiverse and people traveled through it, but I didn't know there was a place that collected all of the multiverses. From what I've gathered, it wasn't impacted in any way by everything that happened when Mandrakk tried to destroy the multiverse. Why hasn't any cosmic force tried to come after this place? I know it has some kind of protective barrier on it, it has to in order for it to have not been discovered by now, but the Monitors or some other cosmic force should have picked up on it.

I have a lot of questions for this place and so far no answers. I've gathered some information in my first couple of days here, but not enough. Not even close to the information I need to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. For starters, I don't know what I've lost. A couple of people have mentioned that coming hear means losing something. A skill, a memory, some sort of ability...the possibilities are endless. My best bet is to compare and contrast with Kara and Steph and see if anything doesn't match up.

The thing that troubles me the most is Bruce has been here before, and he wasn't able to figure a way out of here for everyone. If he couldn't figure a way out, what chance do I have?

No, I can't afford to think like that. Maybe he wasn't given enough time to figure out what happened. Something like this is going to take a lot of time, effort, and resources. I'll find it out and get everyone out of here who wants to leave. I don't care what it takes, I'm not leaving here until I have answers.

OPTIONAL:
INTENT: Young Justice was one of the first comic books I read, and Tim was a main character in it. I loved his dynamic with Conner and Bart. I follow him and a few of the other members of Young Justice when they “graduated” and became Teen Titans. Recently, at the suggestion of a friend, I went and read a lot of Tim's individual stuff. It gave me a whole new level of appreciation for the character. I admire how resilient he is, and I'm disappointed with the direction he was taken in the last few issues of his series. I like Tim as his own individual and not a mini!Bruce, which the writers heavily pushed for at the end. Part of the appeal of Paradisa is with his memory loss, he can still have a lot of the inner conflict and struggles he has, without having him be the mini!Bruce they abruptly turned him into during the last issue of the series.