Red Robin and the art of being friends with Reality AU

The first time Timothy Jackson Drake took up Cartomancy he was five years old. He’d been feeling disconnected from his body for about a year already— and he was getting used to it. It was quieter, less bright, loud and lonely.
His parents had stopped coming home as much as they did before. He liked the disconnection because of that— It pulled away from the feeling of loss and loneliness and… betrayal that they didn’t come home for his birthday.
On his birthday, he discovered an old deck of cards, and while researching what he could do with them, stumbled upon Cartomancy. And Tim was curious, oh so curious about it. So he researched it and learned it was to most not magic, but a way to reflect on the situation through a different lens, a different framework that could help them work out their issues.
Tim picked up the habit, and never put it down again… because while doing Cartomancy he felt fully in his body, not halfway gone as he had gotten used to being.
He first saw him ‘imaginary’ friend ^[1] about 2 months after he had begun doing Cartomancy, although they would not talk until Tim was six and already firmly, constantly floating halfway out of his body mentally.
They didn’t talk in words— Tim just talked aloud and his ‘imaginary’ friend would give him a feeling that corresponded with their answer and Tim paraphrased what they meant from that.
When he was six was also the moment all minor inconveniences in his life just seemed to vanish the second he thought about how much more convenient for reality it would be if they didn’t exist and sometimes (When Magic was able to be persuaded by his thoughts) they would disappear. But— as all kids do, he adapted and moved on.
At 9 he figured out who Batman and Robin were, although his ‘imaginary’ friend refused to give hints and the cards weren’t helpful— Tim figured it out.
As he grew, bigger and bigger inconveniences just seemed to disappear. At that point Tim was used to it and so didn’t even notice anything was wrong with that… what was weird to Tim was that he never grew out of his ‘imaginary’ friend, they stayed with him, no matter how much time passed. Eventually that too would be accepted by Tim as just another strange thing about himself and moved aside.
Then at 13 he became Robin— and then Red Robin, and while he probably should have said something, the topic of his ‘Imaginary’ friend or the fact that he did Cartomancy just never came up. It’s not like it was anything special as far as he knew. It was just an organised way of thinking that helped him solve cases and make choices and gave him advice.
Even still, he didn’t notice the way he was subtly directing magic, unconsciously asking it politely to free the way towards victory. He didn’t notice what he had been doing since he was but a tiny child.
Until when he is 17, Zatanna comes into the cave for something while Tim’s going Cartomancy and just freezes.
“Since when is Red Robin magic? Or a seer?”
She decides to train him. And in training, she realizes two things. One. Tim’s main coping mechanism is dissociation, which is bad ^[2] and Two. His Cartomancy is the only moment where he can be Grounded and not be Overwhelmed because his senses, both physical and metaphysical are that much stronger than anyone else’s
And then she realises a third thing. Magic, in her experience, must be commanded what to do. It’s like pushing the wind through the correct pipe to make the correct sound. Tim… Tim asks Magic to do things for him unconsciously, he persuades— not demands. And the worst part is that Tim doesn’t notice he’s doing it. He just thinks, logically “It would be so much more convenient for this to be like this because this” and Magic agrees with his reasoning and bends to the shape Tim needs.
And then Zatanna finds Tim Talking to his ‘Imaginary’ friend, and realises said friend is magic itself. The biggest problem is that Tim doesn’t know he’s talking to magic… And Zatanna is just, jaw on the floor.

Notes

1. This Imaginary friend is Magic/reality. Yes— Tim is friends with reality itself.↩︎

2. Dissociating is bad for a seer because when seers dissociate, they literally detach themselves mentally from their body and into the metaphysical… and if you aren’t anchored well enough in your body then you won’t be able to find your way back.↩︎