Robin | Nightwing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
peckish4action) wrote2014-05-03 01:10 am
peckish4action) wrote2014-05-03 01:10 am
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P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Kiki
OOC Journal:kikibug13
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: Nope.
Email + IM: kikibug13 at gmail, k1k1bug at AIM
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None.
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Dick Grayson
Canon: Young Justice
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Post Ep. 16, Failsafe.
Number: 112
Setting: The Team, and Gotham City.
History:
The Flying Graysons were a family of Aerialists - John and Mary, with their son Richard (Dick), and Richard (Rick) - John's brother - and Karla, and their son John, spectacular and very, very good - good enough that, five years after their last performance, the circus owner could recognize a Flying Grayson the moment he saw him in flight.
Dick was the youngest among them. Which was why he wasn't part of the number they performed, without a safety net, on April 1, 2006, in front of a Gotham audience. It was a tragic night, a mobster trying to strong-arm Jack Haly, the circus owner, into paying him sabotaged the lines, plunging the five members of the family currently performing to the ground from a great height. Mary, Karla, and both Johns died; Rick survived, but he was paralyzed for life and never recovered nearly enough to leave the hospital. In one moment, Dick Grayson's life changed - from the darling star, destined for the world stage, to an orphan, left in Gotham (close to his uncle) when the circus left.
But, while tragic, the change did not destroy the nine-year-old. He was adopted by the rich company-owner Bruce Wayne... the civilian identity of the crime-fighter Batman. Between wanting to get justice for what happened to his family, and strenuous training from Batman, the boy emerged, still nine years old, as a crime-fighter himself, the bright-colored, bright-spirited Robin. Batman's reason for taking him in, as divulged to his Justice League colleagues, was so that Dick would not become like himself.
For the following four years, Dick Grayson was busy with his mentor and adoptive father, with school, and with the intensive criminal life of Gotham, and elsewhere that working with Batman took him. He learned much, and, despite all the odds of such a young person making it, he survived, and thrived. One by one, other Leaguers took on sidekicks - Green Arrow (Roy Harper - Speedy), Aquaman (Kaldur'ahm - Aqualad), and the Flash (Wally West - Kid Flash) - some more willingly, others reluctantly. Robin knows them all, though Kid Flash is his friend, particularly - and the only one among them whom Robin has told his civilian identity to.
On July 4, 2010, the four sidekicks expected to join the League, but were disappointed - the adults only let them inside the building that the public knew about, and were teleported via zeta-tube to the actual headquarters of the League, on a satellite around Earth, leaving them to 'chill.' Speedy, too angry at being left behind in such a manner, left, splitting from his mentor and taking on a new alias, Red Arrow.
The other three boys, however, decided to investigate an emergency call that the League had chosen to ignore. Underneath a building of the genetics-research company Cadmus, they found a host of genetically engineer creatures with varying abilities, including telepathy... and a clone of Superman who had no idea about anything other than what had been poured into his brain via telepathic link about the world outside, including loyalty to Cadmus. The sidekicks, mostly Kaldur, manage to sway him into beginning to think for himself, and he sides with them as they fight their way out of the facility.
After they succeeded in that, the adults of the League arrived, and the four of them insisted that they be allowed to work together, as a team.
Following some discussion, and conditions, the League did allow the formation of the Team, and provided them with a lair (a Cave, within Mount Justice - former Justice League HQ) and training, as well a missions. The teenagers, joined first by M'gann M'orzz (Miss Martian), and later by Artemis (Green Arrow's new sidekick) and Zatanna Zatara, Giovanni Zatara's daughter, and other, less standard team members (such as Wolf and Sphere) - as well as, on occasion and sort of, by Red Arrow - were to take on covert operations where the League didn't dare show its hand publicly. For that purpose, they got additional tutelage and oversight as a team, as well as specific missions.
It is now October 2010. They've gotten way better at working together, and they're standing their ground - even with drawbacks like the latest telepathic training session, which went wrong and left all the teenagers traumatized.
Personality:
Dick Grayson is a thirteen-year-old with an extraordinary life. And he knows it.
To begin with, his life started in the circus. He grew up among the animals and the lifers, the barkers and the audiences, traveling all over the world, in the midst of close relatives and the whole troupe caring for him. And, above all he grew up, in the air. He learned to walk on the tightrope, more or less; he lived and breathed flight, or as close to an unaided human could get. He was always full of energy and, as appropriate to the circus, with good cheer. He was an artist born, not made, and a charming little troll.
His travels gave him a lot of knowledge about the world, in ways that most people that young never get to see; his family also gave him the confidence that he was loved, cared for, protected. And special. Fast on his feet, fast on his hands, quick-witted and graceful, Dick Grayson was an enchanted boy.
However, the perfect life (or as close to it as one can get) didn't last. When Dick was nine, his Haly's circus performed in Gotham, and, sabotaged, the five older acrobats fell. In one truly fell swoop, Dick lost his parents, his aunt, and his cousin; his uncle, the only one who survived the fall, was paralyzed for life. Dick couldn't even stay with the circus, the extended family he'd grown up with. Out of the enchanted life and a lonely orphan, in a night.
But, while Dick's life changed - while his confidence in the goodness of the world shattered - his life did not become a full-on tragedy. He got adopted by a Gotham socialite and company owner, Bruce Wayne. From the constant travels and on-the-go, kaleidoscopic life with the circus, Dick moved into the vast Wayne Manor, with a guardian who cared for him, in all his rich-boy-company-owner busy-ness, and a butler.
And nobody else.
The change was hard on him, and a lot of the confidence, the cheer, left him for a while. But he didn't stop working out - even with acrobatic equipment, because that was not an impossibility at Wayne Manor. The transition probably would have been more difficult for him if Dick didn't have one thing very firmly in mind.
He wanted to get back to Tony Zucco for taking everyone from him. Revenge his family. And that goal brought the other change in Dick's life. Because Bruce Wayne had a secret. By day, he was a businessman, in the evening, he was a glittering, empty-headed socialite. But by night, he was Batman.
And Batman... took a very peculiar view of his young ward's drive for vengeance. Because he knew enough both about vengeance and about the cheerful, bright-eyed boy to want one thing most of all for him - that Dick did not become like him.
Bruce recognized the fact that Dick wouldn't give up, not until his goal was accomplished. So, instead of trying to get in the way and alienate the boy, he took Dick under his wing. Dick chose the persona (and the outfit) himself, but the fact was that he became Robin, Batman's sidekick, a crimefighter, at the age of nine.
Now, going on five years later, he is still doing it.
On the upside, he again has family that he trusts completely, both with Bruce and Alfred, and with the team that formed months ago, with him and his fellow sidekicks (older, but, on the overall, less experienced). He once again flies at night, keeping the acrobatics he was born into alive and in perfect shape. His mind is developed to keep pace with his body - he is fast, witty, and an extraordinary hacker-- uh. Extraordinarily skilled with technology individual. In school, the kind of academy that he couldn't ever have dreamed to attend while with the circus, he is a mathlete, a star student, and that's on top of all the work that he does at night. His sunny disposition has reasserted itself, and he cracks jokes, good and somewhat less so, to keep up the morale of his allies and distract his enemies or lure them into angry mistakes.
On the downside... in over four years, he has seen a lot of the worst that humanity can dish out to each other. He is a vigilante in Gotham, the city of the worst crazies. Like Joker, or Poison Ivy, or any number of them. And Dick has survived those encounters, not unscathed, either physically or mentally. Or emotionally.
The bright facade that he puts up to the world covers a little too much hurt for a kid his age to have borne. To boot, Dick is a sensitive child, incapable - or unwilling, possibly with the support of his guardian/mentor - to shut himself away from what is happening around him. He cares about people, he cares about what he does and why he does it. So all the horror that he has seen has left deep scars on him - scars that he laughs away but ambush him sometimes. Scars that he cannot ignore.
But he is way too determined - too stubborn - to let any of that stop him. To let any of that hurt those he cares about again. Among Dick's defining traits is that he keeps on going, even when there seems to be no chance to salvage the situation, no hope. He is the hope that those around him need, and he keeps on keeping on until they all reach the other side of the current crisis, and the crisis after it, too.
Like his mentor, he's a baseline human without any meta abilities - his acrobatics almost suggest such, but it's all hard work and inborn affinity - among a team of metas, facing enemies who frequently possess or control such extra options, too. He's good enough, well-enough trained, at what he does, mentally, physically, and emotionally to avoid being the weakest link, making up for the lack of power or speed by quick thinking, providing all the needed information at the soonest possible moment, and by feats of personal heroism that would have been impressive in an adult - in a thirteen-year-old, they are downright amazing.
That is not to say that he's flawless. To the contrary, he makes mistakes. They are only few and far between, both because it's important to him to make his mentor proud, to measure up to the older members of the team who are capable of so much more than he is, and because he knows way too well how a mistake he makes might cost people their lives. He is sometimes too rash, not fully considering and weighing all the options he has, especially the ones that pertain to the best of his team - which is why, despite his attempt, he did not become the leader of that team, leaving the honor to the much more mature Aqualad. Dick's humor is also a little too sharp, sometimes poking fun more deeply than he should. His confidence occasionally borders on arrogance, though those instances are often concealing insecurities that the swift change in his life - as well as the not-always-positive experience in the years since became Robin - caused.
In the end, though, he is Robin. The laughing, brightly-clad, somersaulting little troll in the night. Batman's partner, the boy wonder who never gives up, no matter how sticky the situation, and whose cackle can herald the rapid change of bad guys' luck for the worse. He's a mostly-ordinary boy who's had an extraordinary life, and he's fully aware of that - and will make sure all that he's been given, he gives freely back, helping as much of the world as he can, any way he can.
*************************************
*************************************
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Dick Grayson is:
* Olympic-grade gymnast and acrobat.
* Extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat martial arts, after four years of training and field experience.
* Extremely skilled in the use of small weapons - primarily batarangs, but also eskrima sticks, bolas, and just about anything that he can get his hands on and think of how to use as a weapon.
* An honored mathlete.
* Extremely skilled hacker.
* Tactician and strategist, his experience having forced him to think fast on his feet, sometimes against geniuses who have had time to prepare and plan.
* Fast, smart, and agile.
* Able to drive both a motorcycle and the batmobile.
* Possessing a working knowledge of history and sciences, as needed by the sidekick of the world's greatest detective.
Dick Grayson is not:
* Metahuman. All his abilities are within the range of baseline human abilities of a thirteen-year-old. No telepathy, no flight (though he certainly seems like he's defying gravity, sometimes), no shape-shifting, no magic.
* A powerhouse. Dick is not short for his age, but he is slight - this helps with his speed and agility, with his acrobatics and sneaking, but if the punch needed has to be a heavy one? He's probably not your guy. (He'll probably think his way around the problem, but still.)
* Infallible. He's good, and he gives his best, but he does make mistakes.
Dick Grayson also:
* Makes terrible puns.
* Creates new words - which may or may not be butchering the English language.
Inventory:
* Wristwatch holographic computer
* Utility belt with Robin items (batarangs, lockpicks, bolas, chalk, ziplocks, a flash grenade, a gas pellet, rebreather, tazer) - the expendable items in a very limited quantity
* A pair of black shades.
Appearance: Robin picture, Robin in civvies with his shades, Dick training/practicing. Dick is slender, but strong enough to be as acrobatic as he is. Blue-eyed, with black hair that's a little too long to be called 'short,' but not yet reaching 'middle-length.' When at school, he wears it slicked back.
Age: 13 (almost 14).
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Robin sat, a little hunched in upon himself, as J'onn laid out the facts of what had happened. He didn't dare move much, as M'gann cried, as Wally glared, as Artemis worked her way out of the coma they'd all left her in.
He didn't dare move that much, because he felt sick, and being sick on the floor just. Wouldn't do. He tried to breathe, to get himself under control, but he couldn't get his voice out of his own head. Yelling at M'gann. Criticizing Kaldur's choices. Sending Conner to death, watching KF's determined face as he nodded, accepting their deaths.Was that really him? Sending people to death, just because. Because stuff had to be done?
He waited everyone else to file out of the room, but he should have known better. There was a shadow waiting to take him home, and it took all of his willpower not to flinch away from his adoptive dad.
"Robin." He could hear this voice, doling out the same choices that he'd made, only with less emotion, more certainty. He wouldn't have questioned himself, not even for a moment. Dick swallowed, and finally let himself straighten up to a proper sitting position, legs unfolded and swung off the cot.
"Batman."
"Are you ready?"
No, he wanted to answer. He would never be ready, he thought. Not for being what was needed of him, to become like his mentor. But that wasn't the question that Batman was asking.
"Yeah, sure." Beat, and he slipped all the way to the floor, carefully not using a hand to steady himself. "Was it..."
"You did well."
"Really?" He was trying to decide whether he was objecting to the praise - for getting his friends killed - or trying to work up enough enthusiasm for Batman's rare praises. It didn't matter, apparently, because the caped figure stepped closer, and a gloved hand was on his shoulder, and Robin could have cried, for how much the little touch mattered. It bled some of the tension off, and Dick's spine straightened. "Think Alfie'll buy that?"
"Not if he sees you like this."
"I'll have to add a couple of backflips to persuade him, then, won't I?"
"That might help."
The zeta tube took them home. Dick wasn't sure if Bruce had called ahead, or Alfred was just that good, but there was a big mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows waiting for him, and a myriad distractions, and he could slowly put the whole wreck off in a corner of his mind, and not really think about it. For a whole minute at a time.
It was still much later, alone in his spacious room, that he texted Wally. "Which pint of ice-cream are you on?"
"nah im fine man"
"I see. You ran out after the fourth one."
"dont be a prat"
"Knew it. Good night, W."
"night birdbrain" And, a whole minute later, "id choose it again u kno"
"Stop typing with your feet, or whatever. I'd rather not sacrifice you, or any of us. But thanks, that's good to know."
And it was. It didn't keep the nightmares away, but it made them easier to bear in the morning, along with the memory of a black gauntlet resting on his shoulder. A new day. A new reason to laugh. That was important, right?
Of course, he didn't get time for much in terms of nightmares. About three hours later, there was an alarm, and Robin was ready to go within minutes, uniform and smile both firmly in place.
"So, what's up? Where's the dis in the aster, this time?"
Comms Sample:
[ It's a video, of a boy in standard-issue clothing and a pair of black shades, firmly obscuring the view of his eyes, wearing a cocky smile and seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he's suddenly on a spaceship with ... who knows what and whom. ]
Hey, you all. Robin here. For those who know about Batman and Robin, you know what kind of a rare event it is, one of us to make an actual statement, so listen up.
Or don't, you know. It's up to you. But I'm curious where you're all from. Can't find answers without figuring out the patterns, you know?
Anyway. Robin out, for now, but keep an ear out for possible updates.
************************
Note: after four and a half years, keeping his identity secret is very deeply ingrained into how Dick thinks and acts - this post will probably never happen. He will try to only be on the network as Robin, except for very tightly secured communications with people that he trusts.
Additionally, a network post for a game where he chose the opposite, to be on the network only as Dick.
********************************
Your Name: Kiki
OOC Journal:
kikibug13Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: Nope.
Email + IM: kikibug13 at gmail, k1k1bug at AIM
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None.
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Dick Grayson
Canon: Young Justice
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Post Ep. 16, Failsafe.
Number: 112
Setting: The Team, and Gotham City.
History:
The Flying Graysons were a family of Aerialists - John and Mary, with their son Richard (Dick), and Richard (Rick) - John's brother - and Karla, and their son John, spectacular and very, very good - good enough that, five years after their last performance, the circus owner could recognize a Flying Grayson the moment he saw him in flight.
Dick was the youngest among them. Which was why he wasn't part of the number they performed, without a safety net, on April 1, 2006, in front of a Gotham audience. It was a tragic night, a mobster trying to strong-arm Jack Haly, the circus owner, into paying him sabotaged the lines, plunging the five members of the family currently performing to the ground from a great height. Mary, Karla, and both Johns died; Rick survived, but he was paralyzed for life and never recovered nearly enough to leave the hospital. In one moment, Dick Grayson's life changed - from the darling star, destined for the world stage, to an orphan, left in Gotham (close to his uncle) when the circus left.
But, while tragic, the change did not destroy the nine-year-old. He was adopted by the rich company-owner Bruce Wayne... the civilian identity of the crime-fighter Batman. Between wanting to get justice for what happened to his family, and strenuous training from Batman, the boy emerged, still nine years old, as a crime-fighter himself, the bright-colored, bright-spirited Robin. Batman's reason for taking him in, as divulged to his Justice League colleagues, was so that Dick would not become like himself.
For the following four years, Dick Grayson was busy with his mentor and adoptive father, with school, and with the intensive criminal life of Gotham, and elsewhere that working with Batman took him. He learned much, and, despite all the odds of such a young person making it, he survived, and thrived. One by one, other Leaguers took on sidekicks - Green Arrow (Roy Harper - Speedy), Aquaman (Kaldur'ahm - Aqualad), and the Flash (Wally West - Kid Flash) - some more willingly, others reluctantly. Robin knows them all, though Kid Flash is his friend, particularly - and the only one among them whom Robin has told his civilian identity to.
On July 4, 2010, the four sidekicks expected to join the League, but were disappointed - the adults only let them inside the building that the public knew about, and were teleported via zeta-tube to the actual headquarters of the League, on a satellite around Earth, leaving them to 'chill.' Speedy, too angry at being left behind in such a manner, left, splitting from his mentor and taking on a new alias, Red Arrow.
The other three boys, however, decided to investigate an emergency call that the League had chosen to ignore. Underneath a building of the genetics-research company Cadmus, they found a host of genetically engineer creatures with varying abilities, including telepathy... and a clone of Superman who had no idea about anything other than what had been poured into his brain via telepathic link about the world outside, including loyalty to Cadmus. The sidekicks, mostly Kaldur, manage to sway him into beginning to think for himself, and he sides with them as they fight their way out of the facility.
After they succeeded in that, the adults of the League arrived, and the four of them insisted that they be allowed to work together, as a team.
Following some discussion, and conditions, the League did allow the formation of the Team, and provided them with a lair (a Cave, within Mount Justice - former Justice League HQ) and training, as well a missions. The teenagers, joined first by M'gann M'orzz (Miss Martian), and later by Artemis (Green Arrow's new sidekick) and Zatanna Zatara, Giovanni Zatara's daughter, and other, less standard team members (such as Wolf and Sphere) - as well as, on occasion and sort of, by Red Arrow - were to take on covert operations where the League didn't dare show its hand publicly. For that purpose, they got additional tutelage and oversight as a team, as well as specific missions.
It is now October 2010. They've gotten way better at working together, and they're standing their ground - even with drawbacks like the latest telepathic training session, which went wrong and left all the teenagers traumatized.
Personality:
Dick Grayson is a thirteen-year-old with an extraordinary life. And he knows it.
To begin with, his life started in the circus. He grew up among the animals and the lifers, the barkers and the audiences, traveling all over the world, in the midst of close relatives and the whole troupe caring for him. And, above all he grew up, in the air. He learned to walk on the tightrope, more or less; he lived and breathed flight, or as close to an unaided human could get. He was always full of energy and, as appropriate to the circus, with good cheer. He was an artist born, not made, and a charming little troll.
His travels gave him a lot of knowledge about the world, in ways that most people that young never get to see; his family also gave him the confidence that he was loved, cared for, protected. And special. Fast on his feet, fast on his hands, quick-witted and graceful, Dick Grayson was an enchanted boy.
However, the perfect life (or as close to it as one can get) didn't last. When Dick was nine, his Haly's circus performed in Gotham, and, sabotaged, the five older acrobats fell. In one truly fell swoop, Dick lost his parents, his aunt, and his cousin; his uncle, the only one who survived the fall, was paralyzed for life. Dick couldn't even stay with the circus, the extended family he'd grown up with. Out of the enchanted life and a lonely orphan, in a night.
But, while Dick's life changed - while his confidence in the goodness of the world shattered - his life did not become a full-on tragedy. He got adopted by a Gotham socialite and company owner, Bruce Wayne. From the constant travels and on-the-go, kaleidoscopic life with the circus, Dick moved into the vast Wayne Manor, with a guardian who cared for him, in all his rich-boy-company-owner busy-ness, and a butler.
And nobody else.
The change was hard on him, and a lot of the confidence, the cheer, left him for a while. But he didn't stop working out - even with acrobatic equipment, because that was not an impossibility at Wayne Manor. The transition probably would have been more difficult for him if Dick didn't have one thing very firmly in mind.
He wanted to get back to Tony Zucco for taking everyone from him. Revenge his family. And that goal brought the other change in Dick's life. Because Bruce Wayne had a secret. By day, he was a businessman, in the evening, he was a glittering, empty-headed socialite. But by night, he was Batman.
And Batman... took a very peculiar view of his young ward's drive for vengeance. Because he knew enough both about vengeance and about the cheerful, bright-eyed boy to want one thing most of all for him - that Dick did not become like him.
Bruce recognized the fact that Dick wouldn't give up, not until his goal was accomplished. So, instead of trying to get in the way and alienate the boy, he took Dick under his wing. Dick chose the persona (and the outfit) himself, but the fact was that he became Robin, Batman's sidekick, a crimefighter, at the age of nine.
Now, going on five years later, he is still doing it.
On the upside, he again has family that he trusts completely, both with Bruce and Alfred, and with the team that formed months ago, with him and his fellow sidekicks (older, but, on the overall, less experienced). He once again flies at night, keeping the acrobatics he was born into alive and in perfect shape. His mind is developed to keep pace with his body - he is fast, witty, and an extraordinary hacker-- uh. Extraordinarily skilled with technology individual. In school, the kind of academy that he couldn't ever have dreamed to attend while with the circus, he is a mathlete, a star student, and that's on top of all the work that he does at night. His sunny disposition has reasserted itself, and he cracks jokes, good and somewhat less so, to keep up the morale of his allies and distract his enemies or lure them into angry mistakes.
On the downside... in over four years, he has seen a lot of the worst that humanity can dish out to each other. He is a vigilante in Gotham, the city of the worst crazies. Like Joker, or Poison Ivy, or any number of them. And Dick has survived those encounters, not unscathed, either physically or mentally. Or emotionally.
The bright facade that he puts up to the world covers a little too much hurt for a kid his age to have borne. To boot, Dick is a sensitive child, incapable - or unwilling, possibly with the support of his guardian/mentor - to shut himself away from what is happening around him. He cares about people, he cares about what he does and why he does it. So all the horror that he has seen has left deep scars on him - scars that he laughs away but ambush him sometimes. Scars that he cannot ignore.
But he is way too determined - too stubborn - to let any of that stop him. To let any of that hurt those he cares about again. Among Dick's defining traits is that he keeps on going, even when there seems to be no chance to salvage the situation, no hope. He is the hope that those around him need, and he keeps on keeping on until they all reach the other side of the current crisis, and the crisis after it, too.
Like his mentor, he's a baseline human without any meta abilities - his acrobatics almost suggest such, but it's all hard work and inborn affinity - among a team of metas, facing enemies who frequently possess or control such extra options, too. He's good enough, well-enough trained, at what he does, mentally, physically, and emotionally to avoid being the weakest link, making up for the lack of power or speed by quick thinking, providing all the needed information at the soonest possible moment, and by feats of personal heroism that would have been impressive in an adult - in a thirteen-year-old, they are downright amazing.
That is not to say that he's flawless. To the contrary, he makes mistakes. They are only few and far between, both because it's important to him to make his mentor proud, to measure up to the older members of the team who are capable of so much more than he is, and because he knows way too well how a mistake he makes might cost people their lives. He is sometimes too rash, not fully considering and weighing all the options he has, especially the ones that pertain to the best of his team - which is why, despite his attempt, he did not become the leader of that team, leaving the honor to the much more mature Aqualad. Dick's humor is also a little too sharp, sometimes poking fun more deeply than he should. His confidence occasionally borders on arrogance, though those instances are often concealing insecurities that the swift change in his life - as well as the not-always-positive experience in the years since became Robin - caused.
In the end, though, he is Robin. The laughing, brightly-clad, somersaulting little troll in the night. Batman's partner, the boy wonder who never gives up, no matter how sticky the situation, and whose cackle can herald the rapid change of bad guys' luck for the worse. He's a mostly-ordinary boy who's had an extraordinary life, and he's fully aware of that - and will make sure all that he's been given, he gives freely back, helping as much of the world as he can, any way he can.
*************************************
- Revised personality!
Dick Grayson is almost fourteen, but at that young age, he's already a hero whose name is established - as a sidekick, yes, but not somebody to be trifled with, even if he's frequently underestimated. He's smart, fast-thinking, creative, and superbly trained. In an emergency, in a pinch, he's a guy you want having your back, because that's what he does. Being Robin and all the perks and baggage that go with that is a big part of who he is. Robin is defined by his extensive skills; by the quips/jokes he makes - which are, for the most part, meant to distract and disorient the enemy, or poke Batman out of his silence, and are therefore often too sharp, and too harsh; by the single-minded determination to get the job done.
The job may be a mission assigned to the team, or to Robin himself; it may be purely technological or intellectual, or mostly physical. But it always boils down to protecting people. Robin does what he does, always, with that goal in mind. Trying to protect civilians, and then defeating the enemy. To that end, he's willing to make tactical decisions that no teen should have to make. He's analytical, an accomplished student of the World's Greatest Detective, and, like his mentor, he suppresses emotions most of the time, unless he finds himself in an environment where he feels safe enough to let them seep through.
As a result, underneath the determined, never-giving-up facade, Dick is - in his way - a traumatized boy. While the negative emotions have been channeled into self-discipline and very controlled aggression, into motion and growth, away from vengeance and self-destructiveness, he is still ... young, and a tad broken, though the latter is patched up as healthily as Bruce Wayne can manage. He can be a little rash, a bit harsh and inconsiderate from time to time. He can get carried away and make mistakes, and then get a little carried away to make up for them.
But he's still a sensitive kid, who cares deeply about his friends. Even something so small as going to the beach with the team, sans Wally, can get him sad - even if he doesn't let himself wallow - and when he lets himself let his feelings out, he can be as sad, dejected, or angry as any kid who's been hurt as much as him, and seen as much horribleness as him.
It's just that he trusts very, very few people enough to let them witness it. And that's another part of his personality - he trusts very few people. It'd be wrong to say that he has trust issues, exactly - he makes snap decisions to trust some people, like Wally with his identity, or Zatanna with being a part of the team - but, on the whole, he keeps most people at some distance at least. He'll trust more than a few with his life. But not necessarily with his past, with his secrets.
Even without sharing that, however, Dick manages to be a good friend. He's worthy of other people's trust, he gives everything of himself for the job - and his teammates, he will keep other people's secrets. He has enough common sense and knowledge to help out in a tight spot, and he never, ever gives up on people.
Reconciling the secrecy with the friendliness is the fact that he's a born, natural performer. Being there for people isn't a lie, merely misdirection, shiny, confusing, and interesting. The boy has been taken from the circus, but the circus will never be taken from the boy. Whether as Robin, or, in public, as Dick Grayson, he has a part to play and he plays it brilliantly. The public persona of Dick Grayson, from what we see of it, is that of a good student at Gotham Academy, impish and unpredictable. He takes risks - going to a teammate outside of a disguise to snap a picture with her, vanishing out of sight without much explanation, either to her, or to a schoolmate who knows him better (and will become a teammate, eventually). He is the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, and keeps on that persona, toying with the possibility for his secret identity to be discovered, but still managing to avoid that unwelcome outcome.
All in all, Dick is an early-teen boy who's taken on a lot of responsibility, and mostly flourishing under its weight. He's good people - loyal, determined, bright, and smart - but far from perfect, and he has a lot of room, before he reaches a state where he can be honestly called 'mature.' Merely 'mature for his age.' Most of the time.
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Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Dick Grayson is:
* Olympic-grade gymnast and acrobat.
* Extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat martial arts, after four years of training and field experience.
* Extremely skilled in the use of small weapons - primarily batarangs, but also eskrima sticks, bolas, and just about anything that he can get his hands on and think of how to use as a weapon.
* An honored mathlete.
* Extremely skilled hacker.
* Tactician and strategist, his experience having forced him to think fast on his feet, sometimes against geniuses who have had time to prepare and plan.
* Fast, smart, and agile.
* Able to drive both a motorcycle and the batmobile.
* Possessing a working knowledge of history and sciences, as needed by the sidekick of the world's greatest detective.
Dick Grayson is not:
* Metahuman. All his abilities are within the range of baseline human abilities of a thirteen-year-old. No telepathy, no flight (though he certainly seems like he's defying gravity, sometimes), no shape-shifting, no magic.
* A powerhouse. Dick is not short for his age, but he is slight - this helps with his speed and agility, with his acrobatics and sneaking, but if the punch needed has to be a heavy one? He's probably not your guy. (He'll probably think his way around the problem, but still.)
* Infallible. He's good, and he gives his best, but he does make mistakes.
Dick Grayson also:
* Makes terrible puns.
* Creates new words - which may or may not be butchering the English language.
Inventory:
* Wristwatch holographic computer
* Utility belt with Robin items (batarangs, lockpicks, bolas, chalk, ziplocks, a flash grenade, a gas pellet, rebreather, tazer) - the expendable items in a very limited quantity
* A pair of black shades.
Appearance: Robin picture, Robin in civvies with his shades, Dick training/practicing. Dick is slender, but strong enough to be as acrobatic as he is. Blue-eyed, with black hair that's a little too long to be called 'short,' but not yet reaching 'middle-length.' When at school, he wears it slicked back.
Age: 13 (almost 14).
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Robin sat, a little hunched in upon himself, as J'onn laid out the facts of what had happened. He didn't dare move much, as M'gann cried, as Wally glared, as Artemis worked her way out of the coma they'd all left her in.
He didn't dare move that much, because he felt sick, and being sick on the floor just. Wouldn't do. He tried to breathe, to get himself under control, but he couldn't get his voice out of his own head. Yelling at M'gann. Criticizing Kaldur's choices. Sending Conner to death, watching KF's determined face as he nodded, accepting their deaths.Was that really him? Sending people to death, just because. Because stuff had to be done?
He waited everyone else to file out of the room, but he should have known better. There was a shadow waiting to take him home, and it took all of his willpower not to flinch away from his adoptive dad.
"Robin." He could hear this voice, doling out the same choices that he'd made, only with less emotion, more certainty. He wouldn't have questioned himself, not even for a moment. Dick swallowed, and finally let himself straighten up to a proper sitting position, legs unfolded and swung off the cot.
"Batman."
"Are you ready?"
No, he wanted to answer. He would never be ready, he thought. Not for being what was needed of him, to become like his mentor. But that wasn't the question that Batman was asking.
"Yeah, sure." Beat, and he slipped all the way to the floor, carefully not using a hand to steady himself. "Was it..."
"You did well."
"Really?" He was trying to decide whether he was objecting to the praise - for getting his friends killed - or trying to work up enough enthusiasm for Batman's rare praises. It didn't matter, apparently, because the caped figure stepped closer, and a gloved hand was on his shoulder, and Robin could have cried, for how much the little touch mattered. It bled some of the tension off, and Dick's spine straightened. "Think Alfie'll buy that?"
"Not if he sees you like this."
"I'll have to add a couple of backflips to persuade him, then, won't I?"
"That might help."
The zeta tube took them home. Dick wasn't sure if Bruce had called ahead, or Alfred was just that good, but there was a big mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows waiting for him, and a myriad distractions, and he could slowly put the whole wreck off in a corner of his mind, and not really think about it. For a whole minute at a time.
It was still much later, alone in his spacious room, that he texted Wally. "Which pint of ice-cream are you on?"
"nah im fine man"
"I see. You ran out after the fourth one."
"dont be a prat"
"Knew it. Good night, W."
"night birdbrain" And, a whole minute later, "id choose it again u kno"
"Stop typing with your feet, or whatever. I'd rather not sacrifice you, or any of us. But thanks, that's good to know."
And it was. It didn't keep the nightmares away, but it made them easier to bear in the morning, along with the memory of a black gauntlet resting on his shoulder. A new day. A new reason to laugh. That was important, right?
Of course, he didn't get time for much in terms of nightmares. About three hours later, there was an alarm, and Robin was ready to go within minutes, uniform and smile both firmly in place.
"So, what's up? Where's the dis in the aster, this time?"
Comms Sample:
[ It's a video, of a boy in standard-issue clothing and a pair of black shades, firmly obscuring the view of his eyes, wearing a cocky smile and seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he's suddenly on a spaceship with ... who knows what and whom. ]
Hey, you all. Robin here. For those who know about Batman and Robin, you know what kind of a rare event it is, one of us to make an actual statement, so listen up.
Or don't, you know. It's up to you. But I'm curious where you're all from. Can't find answers without figuring out the patterns, you know?
Anyway. Robin out, for now, but keep an ear out for possible updates.
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- Revised comms sample:
[ The boy that shows up to the video pickup is blue-eyed, with black hair slicked back and tamed, and his standard-issue clothing neatened up as much as possible, almost close at making him stylish. The general appearance of a start student from some posh school is alleviated by an impish look in his eyes, the relaxed tone he speaks with. ]
Hi, my name is Dick Grayson, and I'm kind of new, here. But I've been new to a lot of places, so that's okay, or a think so, at least... Anyway.
I was wondering - I guess something like a school would be a bit... inflexible, from what I'm seeing about this place, and maybe there aren't enough students, either, but is there some sort of a library or another kind of repository where I can at least try to keep up with studies? Something? Teachers? A scientist or researcher who wants some help? I'll admit I'm better at math than biochemistry, but I could still learn, right?
Anyone have any ideas about that, hit me up, please?
That's it, for now.
Note: after four and a half years, keeping his identity secret is very deeply ingrained into how Dick thinks and acts - this post will probably never happen. He will try to only be on the network as Robin, except for very tightly secured communications with people that he trusts.
Additionally, a network post for a game where he chose the opposite, to be on the network only as Dick.
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