Dick Grayson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
batmanschmatman) wrote2010-08-22 03:26 pm
batmanschmatman) wrote2010-08-22 03:26 pm
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Character Information
Name: Richard Grayson (Nightwing)
Fandom: DC Comics (Live Action)
Canon point: AU – Basically, future Nolanverse.
Age: 22
Brief history:
Following the events of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight:
Dick’s early life was fairly far from standard, which really set the precedent for his existence pretty well. John and Mary Grayson were circus performers: acrobats often promoted as the main attraction of Haly’s Circus because of their fairly exceptional talent. From a fairly early age, he started training to be an aerialist like his parents, and he took to the work naturally, and by the time he was eight he was an official member of The Flying Graysons, the family’s official stage name. And so things were. Gotham City was supposed to just be another stop on the tour of the east coast, and so when Dick snuck out of his parent’s trailer the night before a show, walking on top of the other structures with ease, he hadn’t expected anything out of the ordinary. Instead, he heard a man he didn’t know threatening Mr. Haly.
But, being eight, he didn’t think too much about it. Until the next day, when the rope of the trapeze snapped, sending both of his parents tumbling down to the ground below. Dick had watched his parents fall and in that moment, his life came crashing down too. After a night of being interviewed by police and watching his parents get loaded into the back of an ambulance in body bags, the young kid was lead away from the scene of the accident by Bruce Wayne, who had offered to keep an eye on him while the police investigated what had happened. Too much in shock to protest, Dick went with him willingly.
Initially, the arrangement… didn’t work perfectly. While Dick could appreciate why the wealthy man had done what he did and that he was still grieving over the loss of his friend Rachel Dawes, who had been killed a few months previously, Bruce was rarely around, constantly out working and doing god knows what. Dick was miserable and lonely, and needed someone to be there for him. So, lacking that, he started acting out a little. While he didn’t do anything too extreme, he talked back to both Bruce and Alfred and spent a decent amount of time wandering the penthouse and eventually the almost fully reconstructed manor, poking his nose into just about everything and thinking over what he’d seen before the accident. The more he thought, the less it seemed like the fall had been an accident, and the more he felt responsible for what had happened. If he had thought to tell someone about what he’d heard, his parents might still be alive.
So that was when he decided to take matters into his own hands. He started his own investigation, looking around the circus, when suddenly Batman showed up. This was in all honesty, sort of terrifying. Dick hadn’t been around Gotham that long, but he knew Batman was wanted for the murders of some cops back when the Joker had basically held the city hostage, and the idea that he was talking with him was… weird. But sort of cool. And considering it seemed like no one else wanted to help him out, he told him about what he’d heard the night before the accident.
But while Batman promised him that he’d have his chance to help out, Dick was getting impatient, and frankly, growing more angry and frustrated by the day. So again, he decided to take matters into his own hands, this time directly confronting some of the mobsters hanging around the circus. This encounter didn’t exactly go well, ending in him getting concussed before Batman dropped in and disabled the criminals. When Dick next woke up, he was in a sort of bunker, filled with Batman’s equipment, and after snarking at the vigilante, he unmasked and suddenly everything made sense. Bruce offered to train him, and after a few weeks of this, Dick hoped to get the chance to confront the man responsible for his parents death. Unfortunately, Tony Zucco was killed by another mobster before Batman and Dick could question him, and Dick – like Bruce himself – was denied proper revenge against the man who killed his parents.
Dick continued training, and occasionally tried to offer his assistance to an ever more frustrated Batman, who was busy trying to sort out the systematic killings done by ‘The Hangman.’ Initially reluctant and put off by the child’s enthusiasm, Bruce came to realize Dick was clever as well as agile, especially after the boy discovered a key piece of information to the case that Bruce himself had overlooked. The case ended in a spectacular showdown in the bunker itself with Batman and the newly christened Robin versus the Joker and ‘The Hangman.’ After that moment, there was no going back, and so once again his life found routine. Being a vigilante was hard work, dangerous, and Batman wasn’t someone who would accept anything but his best effort. But Dick loved the work, and took to it like a fish to water. Batman and Robin made a good team, and Dick began to view Bruce and Alfred as a surrogate family, the adoption becoming legal on the boy’s tenth birthday.
But as much as he enjoyed the work, as he got older it became clear that something in the partnership was getting strained. Dick didn’t like being treated like a kid, Bruce didn’t like putting up with backtalk or seeing Dick put himself in overly dangerous situations, as over the years his always confident partner seemed to take unnecessary risks to get the job done. Bruce was finally scared into firing Dick as Robin after the then nineteen year old was shot and nearly killed by the Joker, prompting a furious Grayson to leave Wayne Manor – potentially permanently.
For a while, Dick tried to make it on his own in Gotham, but found the city to be filled with too many old ghosts. On top of that, he knew he couldn’t stay away from crime fighting, and that Bruce would try and stop him from doing it as long as he was in the city. So, after trying college for a semester or two, he did what Bruce did and went on sabbatical for a year before moving to nearby Bludhaven to resume hero work, adopting the new codename “Nightwing”. And while working in Bludhaven might be a little less glamorous then working for Batman, he enjoys the freedom. Of course, just because he’s been working on his own for almost two years now doesn’t mean he always works alone, and although there’s still definite tension between the two, he does find himself helping out Batman if the need arises. After all, Bruce might have a new kid in the Robin uniform now, but he’s the only family Dick’s got.
This AU history is a conglomeration of Established Nolanverse, Dark Victory and some of the DCU canon early history of Dick Grayson.
Personality:
Dick Grayson is a social creature and probably always will be a people person. For whatever reason (natural charisma, good looks, genuinely being a good person), Dick can make a friend just about anywhere, and this general, honest amicability carries on both in and out of costume. He’s a legitimately good friend too, not just someone who superficially offers companionship to random strangers or acquaintances and then drops them when it’s convenient to him. In fact, he’s incredibly loyal and generally devoted to the people he cares about and would do just about anything for them, no matter how strained or tense these relationships may get. Dick honestly cares about other people, and if someone needs him, he’ll be there without question.
As such, it’s not really surprising that he’s quite good at what he does, i.e. being Nightwing. He’s self confident without being arrogant, very intelligent and has a good head on his shoulders, not to mention a sense of right and wrong that’s pretty much unshakeable. Sure, like every hero, he has moments of self doubt, and there are times where he’s considered crossing the line, but Dick’s always been able to pull himself back before he does. On top of his unquestionable loyalty, he’s always been self sacrificing, for the sake of others, for his own wishes or the greater good. This attitude aligns well with being a vigilante, in that he’s always willing to risk his own safety for the benefit of others, although his level of perceived recklessness can be a source of great concern to those who care about him. Dick doesn’t give up on things easily, and in general is stubborn and opinionated. He doesn’t like backing down from a confrontation and can be fairly pigheaded, although his ability to stand up to pretty much anyone, again, comes in handy most often than not.
He’s exceptionally chatty, and has a good sense of humor, which means that he’s always ready with a witty comment or retort no matter what the situation is. This is generally good natured (like the rest of his personality) and light hearted, which sometimes gives the impression that he isn’t taking things seriously, but it can pick up a bitter edge, especially during arguments with Bruce or when certain buttons are pushed. Like other vigilantes, he can get caught up in the job, and under his generally sunny disposition, he does have certain triggers that can make him outright angry or just sullen and sulky, most of which have to deal with personal tragedy and unresolved issues with his mentor. And while (as previously stated) he is quite talkative, he is also fairly guarded, both for the sake of protecting his (and Bruce’s) secret identities, and also because he really doesn’t want to talk about certain parts of himself with other people.
Abilities: (If applicable) Although Dick isn’t a true super hero (in that he doesn’t have any actual super powers), he is an exceptional athlete. With his constant training and practical use of his abilities, Dick has peak athletic strength and endurance for someone his age. He’s been trained in acrobatics practically since he could walk, and since working with Bruce Wayne has mastered dozens of martial arts disciplines. Bruce has also trained him in numerous combat and non-combatic disciplines, including criminology, escapology, fencing, stealth, disguise and the techniques and skills taught to Bruce by the League of Shadows. He speaks a variety of languages, is an experienced and talented strategist, and is a good leader. And while Bruce may have more practical experience then he does, Dick is a talented detective in his own right.
As Nightwing, he carries a similar arsenal of weaponry to Batman’s, although he favors Ecrisma sticks over Batman’s signature Batarangs, and these tools are carried in specialized gauntlets rather than a utility belt. His uniform is bullet proof and slightly lighter then Batman’s, allowing him a greater range of motion for acrobatic stunts.
Third-person sample:
It was almost unseasonably cold for late October in Bludhaven. The sun was hidden behind a heavy layer of clouds, and the wind was almost intolerable, although part of that might have been just from the fact that he was currently a good fifteen stories up, perched on the roof of a building. The wind was always worse the higher up you went, and even though the reinforced Kevlar of Nightwing’s uniform provided decent protection from the elements, he was still feeling some of the bite of the weather. He flexed his fingers
It was a slow night. Apparently the weather had gotten most sane people (and anyone else) indoors, and in all honesty, a small part of him was really starting to insist he do the same. But whenever that voice got too loud, he’d push aside all thoughts of his bed in his nice, warm apartment, and go back to watching the street below. He’d gotten a tip that there was some fairly major drug deal going down tonight, but he’d been on stakeout for going on two hours now, and there’d been no sign of anyone. It was times like these he sort of missed being part of a team. Having no one to talk to on stakeouts was boring, and even if Bruce wouldn’t have contributed to any of it, sitting in complete silence instead, Dick would have at least been able to talk at him.
Any further nostalgia was interrupted by movement down below, and the vigilante carefully watched as two groups of (relatively) tough looking guys converged on each other in the alley. After pausing a moment, waiting to make sure these were the people he was waiting for (or at least that something actually criminal was going on, it never hurt to double check), he quickly got himself back down to ground level, finishing his descent with an impressive (and maybe just a little dramatic) touchdown in the center of the action, his familiar Ecrisma sticks in hand and ready to go. The small group of thugs just stared, obviously caught off guard. Dick grinned. Showtime.
“Ooh, a party.” The smile widened. “Am I invited?”
Name: Richard Grayson (Nightwing)
Fandom: DC Comics (Live Action)
Canon point: AU – Basically, future Nolanverse.
Age: 22
Brief history:
Following the events of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight:
Dick’s early life was fairly far from standard, which really set the precedent for his existence pretty well. John and Mary Grayson were circus performers: acrobats often promoted as the main attraction of Haly’s Circus because of their fairly exceptional talent. From a fairly early age, he started training to be an aerialist like his parents, and he took to the work naturally, and by the time he was eight he was an official member of The Flying Graysons, the family’s official stage name. And so things were. Gotham City was supposed to just be another stop on the tour of the east coast, and so when Dick snuck out of his parent’s trailer the night before a show, walking on top of the other structures with ease, he hadn’t expected anything out of the ordinary. Instead, he heard a man he didn’t know threatening Mr. Haly.
But, being eight, he didn’t think too much about it. Until the next day, when the rope of the trapeze snapped, sending both of his parents tumbling down to the ground below. Dick had watched his parents fall and in that moment, his life came crashing down too. After a night of being interviewed by police and watching his parents get loaded into the back of an ambulance in body bags, the young kid was lead away from the scene of the accident by Bruce Wayne, who had offered to keep an eye on him while the police investigated what had happened. Too much in shock to protest, Dick went with him willingly.
Initially, the arrangement… didn’t work perfectly. While Dick could appreciate why the wealthy man had done what he did and that he was still grieving over the loss of his friend Rachel Dawes, who had been killed a few months previously, Bruce was rarely around, constantly out working and doing god knows what. Dick was miserable and lonely, and needed someone to be there for him. So, lacking that, he started acting out a little. While he didn’t do anything too extreme, he talked back to both Bruce and Alfred and spent a decent amount of time wandering the penthouse and eventually the almost fully reconstructed manor, poking his nose into just about everything and thinking over what he’d seen before the accident. The more he thought, the less it seemed like the fall had been an accident, and the more he felt responsible for what had happened. If he had thought to tell someone about what he’d heard, his parents might still be alive.
So that was when he decided to take matters into his own hands. He started his own investigation, looking around the circus, when suddenly Batman showed up. This was in all honesty, sort of terrifying. Dick hadn’t been around Gotham that long, but he knew Batman was wanted for the murders of some cops back when the Joker had basically held the city hostage, and the idea that he was talking with him was… weird. But sort of cool. And considering it seemed like no one else wanted to help him out, he told him about what he’d heard the night before the accident.
But while Batman promised him that he’d have his chance to help out, Dick was getting impatient, and frankly, growing more angry and frustrated by the day. So again, he decided to take matters into his own hands, this time directly confronting some of the mobsters hanging around the circus. This encounter didn’t exactly go well, ending in him getting concussed before Batman dropped in and disabled the criminals. When Dick next woke up, he was in a sort of bunker, filled with Batman’s equipment, and after snarking at the vigilante, he unmasked and suddenly everything made sense. Bruce offered to train him, and after a few weeks of this, Dick hoped to get the chance to confront the man responsible for his parents death. Unfortunately, Tony Zucco was killed by another mobster before Batman and Dick could question him, and Dick – like Bruce himself – was denied proper revenge against the man who killed his parents.
Dick continued training, and occasionally tried to offer his assistance to an ever more frustrated Batman, who was busy trying to sort out the systematic killings done by ‘The Hangman.’ Initially reluctant and put off by the child’s enthusiasm, Bruce came to realize Dick was clever as well as agile, especially after the boy discovered a key piece of information to the case that Bruce himself had overlooked. The case ended in a spectacular showdown in the bunker itself with Batman and the newly christened Robin versus the Joker and ‘The Hangman.’ After that moment, there was no going back, and so once again his life found routine. Being a vigilante was hard work, dangerous, and Batman wasn’t someone who would accept anything but his best effort. But Dick loved the work, and took to it like a fish to water. Batman and Robin made a good team, and Dick began to view Bruce and Alfred as a surrogate family, the adoption becoming legal on the boy’s tenth birthday.
But as much as he enjoyed the work, as he got older it became clear that something in the partnership was getting strained. Dick didn’t like being treated like a kid, Bruce didn’t like putting up with backtalk or seeing Dick put himself in overly dangerous situations, as over the years his always confident partner seemed to take unnecessary risks to get the job done. Bruce was finally scared into firing Dick as Robin after the then nineteen year old was shot and nearly killed by the Joker, prompting a furious Grayson to leave Wayne Manor – potentially permanently.
For a while, Dick tried to make it on his own in Gotham, but found the city to be filled with too many old ghosts. On top of that, he knew he couldn’t stay away from crime fighting, and that Bruce would try and stop him from doing it as long as he was in the city. So, after trying college for a semester or two, he did what Bruce did and went on sabbatical for a year before moving to nearby Bludhaven to resume hero work, adopting the new codename “Nightwing”. And while working in Bludhaven might be a little less glamorous then working for Batman, he enjoys the freedom. Of course, just because he’s been working on his own for almost two years now doesn’t mean he always works alone, and although there’s still definite tension between the two, he does find himself helping out Batman if the need arises. After all, Bruce might have a new kid in the Robin uniform now, but he’s the only family Dick’s got.
This AU history is a conglomeration of Established Nolanverse, Dark Victory and some of the DCU canon early history of Dick Grayson.
Personality:
Dick Grayson is a social creature and probably always will be a people person. For whatever reason (natural charisma, good looks, genuinely being a good person), Dick can make a friend just about anywhere, and this general, honest amicability carries on both in and out of costume. He’s a legitimately good friend too, not just someone who superficially offers companionship to random strangers or acquaintances and then drops them when it’s convenient to him. In fact, he’s incredibly loyal and generally devoted to the people he cares about and would do just about anything for them, no matter how strained or tense these relationships may get. Dick honestly cares about other people, and if someone needs him, he’ll be there without question.
As such, it’s not really surprising that he’s quite good at what he does, i.e. being Nightwing. He’s self confident without being arrogant, very intelligent and has a good head on his shoulders, not to mention a sense of right and wrong that’s pretty much unshakeable. Sure, like every hero, he has moments of self doubt, and there are times where he’s considered crossing the line, but Dick’s always been able to pull himself back before he does. On top of his unquestionable loyalty, he’s always been self sacrificing, for the sake of others, for his own wishes or the greater good. This attitude aligns well with being a vigilante, in that he’s always willing to risk his own safety for the benefit of others, although his level of perceived recklessness can be a source of great concern to those who care about him. Dick doesn’t give up on things easily, and in general is stubborn and opinionated. He doesn’t like backing down from a confrontation and can be fairly pigheaded, although his ability to stand up to pretty much anyone, again, comes in handy most often than not.
He’s exceptionally chatty, and has a good sense of humor, which means that he’s always ready with a witty comment or retort no matter what the situation is. This is generally good natured (like the rest of his personality) and light hearted, which sometimes gives the impression that he isn’t taking things seriously, but it can pick up a bitter edge, especially during arguments with Bruce or when certain buttons are pushed. Like other vigilantes, he can get caught up in the job, and under his generally sunny disposition, he does have certain triggers that can make him outright angry or just sullen and sulky, most of which have to deal with personal tragedy and unresolved issues with his mentor. And while (as previously stated) he is quite talkative, he is also fairly guarded, both for the sake of protecting his (and Bruce’s) secret identities, and also because he really doesn’t want to talk about certain parts of himself with other people.
Abilities: (If applicable) Although Dick isn’t a true super hero (in that he doesn’t have any actual super powers), he is an exceptional athlete. With his constant training and practical use of his abilities, Dick has peak athletic strength and endurance for someone his age. He’s been trained in acrobatics practically since he could walk, and since working with Bruce Wayne has mastered dozens of martial arts disciplines. Bruce has also trained him in numerous combat and non-combatic disciplines, including criminology, escapology, fencing, stealth, disguise and the techniques and skills taught to Bruce by the League of Shadows. He speaks a variety of languages, is an experienced and talented strategist, and is a good leader. And while Bruce may have more practical experience then he does, Dick is a talented detective in his own right.
As Nightwing, he carries a similar arsenal of weaponry to Batman’s, although he favors Ecrisma sticks over Batman’s signature Batarangs, and these tools are carried in specialized gauntlets rather than a utility belt. His uniform is bullet proof and slightly lighter then Batman’s, allowing him a greater range of motion for acrobatic stunts.
Third-person sample:
It was almost unseasonably cold for late October in Bludhaven. The sun was hidden behind a heavy layer of clouds, and the wind was almost intolerable, although part of that might have been just from the fact that he was currently a good fifteen stories up, perched on the roof of a building. The wind was always worse the higher up you went, and even though the reinforced Kevlar of Nightwing’s uniform provided decent protection from the elements, he was still feeling some of the bite of the weather. He flexed his fingers
It was a slow night. Apparently the weather had gotten most sane people (and anyone else) indoors, and in all honesty, a small part of him was really starting to insist he do the same. But whenever that voice got too loud, he’d push aside all thoughts of his bed in his nice, warm apartment, and go back to watching the street below. He’d gotten a tip that there was some fairly major drug deal going down tonight, but he’d been on stakeout for going on two hours now, and there’d been no sign of anyone. It was times like these he sort of missed being part of a team. Having no one to talk to on stakeouts was boring, and even if Bruce wouldn’t have contributed to any of it, sitting in complete silence instead, Dick would have at least been able to talk at him.
Any further nostalgia was interrupted by movement down below, and the vigilante carefully watched as two groups of (relatively) tough looking guys converged on each other in the alley. After pausing a moment, waiting to make sure these were the people he was waiting for (or at least that something actually criminal was going on, it never hurt to double check), he quickly got himself back down to ground level, finishing his descent with an impressive (and maybe just a little dramatic) touchdown in the center of the action, his familiar Ecrisma sticks in hand and ready to go. The small group of thugs just stared, obviously caught off guard. Dick grinned. Showtime.
“Ooh, a party.” The smile widened. “Am I invited?”