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Tim’s been out for a while now, and he isn’t really dysphoric very often any more. Sure, there are times when he still feels like the ghost of Janet Drake is haunting his reflection and he wants nothing more than to tear off his skin, but overall he’d say he’s pretty comfortable in his own skin most days.
Today’s been a very good day in that respect. It’s been a good day in a lot of other ways, too. For example, Red Robin and Red Hood are nearly done with their shared patrol, with only one more area to cover before they can call it a night, go home, and put on a movie.
He is pulled out of his fantasies of Alfred’s movie snacks by a loud crash in the alley below them.
With twin sighs, he and Hood peer over the edge of the rooftop to see…someone. The magic user isn’t one he recognizes. It is, he realizes tiredly, going to be a long night.
—
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, babybird. I feel fantastic.”
Jason stretches across the couch, feeling more settled than he has since his resurrection. They still don’t know what exactly the spell they were hit with did, but Jason almost hopes that it’s incurable, because he isn’t sure how he’s going to deal with feeling normal again.
Tim, on the other hand, is evidently not having a very good time. He keeps touching his face and looking down at his body, his distress visibly worsening every time. Jason briefly considers blindfolding the kid until the magic wears off.
Tim glares at him, and Jason wonders if he’s secretly a mind-reader. A lot of things would make more sense if Tim were a meta.
Dick enters the room, and Jason tenses automatically. He takes a deep breath and reminds himself that they get along now.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Tim asks desperately. Dick nods.
“Magic gender swap,” he says brightly. Jason blinks. Tim stares at Dick flatly.
“Hate to break this to you,” Tim says, sounding very tired, “but I would have absolutely noticed if I suddenly had a dick. I do not.”
Dick winces. “No, like, a literal gender swap. Internally.
“What?” Jason asks, at the same time as Tim groans loudly.
“That’s so stupid, who even does that?” Tim asks.
Dick sends him a sympathetic look and turns his attention back to Jason. “Sex and gender aren’t the same thing,” he begins, and Jason glares. “Sex refers to the–”
“I know the difference, Dickface,” he interrupts. Dick nods.
“Right, so the spell altered your gender, as in the internal experience.”
Jason isn’t really sure what to do with that piece of information. He hasn’t felt this comfortable in…ever, maybe. It makes sense, he supposes. He hasn’t always been exactly confident in his own skin, and he’s always suspected, but it wasn’t really a pressing issue given that he was a small child, and then Robin, and then dead, and then–
“Wait,” he begins slowly, almost disbelievingly. “So this is what it’s supposed to be like?”
—
This is so unbelievably fucked up. He should have recognized the sensation immediately. The pit in his stomach, the crawling in his skin. This is what his bad dysphoric episodes feel like. He’s dysphoric. Because Random Alley Guy un-trans’ed his gender, and now he’s in the wrong body the opposite direction. What the fuck?
Dick and Jason left to deal with Jason’s impending crisis, and Tim might feel a little bad if not for the fact that he definitely has it worse. He sighs and calls Kon. It connects almost immediately.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kon. Are you busy?”
There’s a pause.
“No. What’s up?”
Tim sighs, because how does he even begin to explain this situation?
“Wizard made me a girl.”
“...What?” Kon replies, sounding very confused.
“Wizard made me a girl.”
There’s another pause, longer than the last, before Kon speaks again. “Like, made one for you? That feels messed up.”
Tim laughs despite himself. “No, Conner. He turned me into a girl.”
“Oh. That still feels messed up.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want me to come over? We can watch movies or something until it gets better.”
Tim smiles. Conner Kent, he thinks, not for the first time, might be his second favorite person.
“Can you bring Bart?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
The line clicks, and Tim is once again alone, pondering all of the choices he’s made to get to ‘evil magic user made me un-trans and also made my brother un-trans but the opposite, somehow.’ He eventually concludes that he doesn’t really want to know exactly how he got here.
—
Tim glances up at the sound of footsteps, shifting slightly where he sits on the couch.
“So, what’sgoingon?” Bart asks without preamble.
“Wizard made Tim a girl,” Kon replies. Bart turns away from Tim to look at him, expression somewhere between confused and horrified.
“Likejust created oneforhim? Thatfeels kinda messed up, man.”
Kon laughs.
“No,” Tim replies. “He turned me into one.”
Bart’s eyes widen. “Oh. Are you okay? Also, was he a transphobic wizard or does he just do that with everyone?”
“Everyone, I think. And I’ll be fine.”
Bart nods. “Do you have snacks?” he asks. Tim nods quickly, and then Bart is gone. He returns a moment later with three sodas and two bags of chips.
Kon sits on Tim’s right and Bart on his left. Bart hands him a soda and both bags of chips, presumably because he’s in the middle, and grabs the remote. He chooses a movie without asking either Kon or Tim, and when Tim raises an eyebrow, he shrugs.
“It was on that spreadsheet of activities you sent us,” he explains. Tim isn’t really sure what his face does at that, but Bart frowns a bit. “Did you already watch it?” he asks. Tim shakes his head, still sort of at a loss for words.
“Wait,” Kon says, sounding as dubious as Tim feels, “you read the spreadsheet?”
Bart squints. “Yeah?”
“It was huge.”
Bart nods. “Yeah,” he agrees. “But Tim asked.”
—
Tim is woken up by pressure on his shoulder. He stretches, eyes blinking slowly open.
“Hey,” Dick whispers. “We have the antidote ready in the Cave.”
Tim stands, yawning, and follows Dick downstairs.
The antidote is administered quickly. Jason is sitting off to the side, a bandaid already on his arm. He looks vaguely ill, and Tim feels sort of bad for him. He strongly suspects that, were they sure there weren’t any long term consequences, Jason probably would’ve tried to see if the effects of the spell were permanent.
Tim takes a deep breath as he moves to sit beside Jason, already feeling slightly less inclined to peel off his own skin. Jason sighs, leaning his head against the back of the couch.
“Well,” he says, as if talking to himself. Tim is fairly certain the word is directed toward him. “That was a deeply upsetting experience that I hope never to repeat.”
“Yeah,” he agrees.