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gettraught[OOC Information]
Name: Tai
Age: Older than this kid
AIM and/or Plurk / E-mail / Dreamwidth journal: waaaaaaaaaaah
What characters do you play here already, if any? :|
Where did you hear about Just A Game? :PPPPPPPPPPPP
Have you seen MST3K before? ;33333333
[IC Information]
Character Name: Robin, the Boy Wonder (AKA Richard "Dick" Grayson)
Series: Young Justice
Gender: Male
Age: Thirteen
Species: Human!
Appearance: Robin isn't the biggest kid around by a long shot. The smallest of the Team by quite a margin, he nevertheless doesn't let that hold him back in anything. He's also kind of thin with that look that a lot of teenage boys get that he's not even near done growing. Give him a little time and he'll shoot up like a weed. He's a Caucasian male with a midrange skintone, black hair that he wears gelled back when he's in public as Dick and loose whenever he's Robin or at home, and blue eyes that he usually hides behind his mask or a pair of sunglasses. He takes Batman's motto of not revealing your secret identity very much to heart and does as much as he can to differentiate between his two "looks" to throw people off the scent, such as holding his posture differently and having a slightly different demeanor as Dick than Robin. His clothing comes in two distinct flavors: one is standard casual wear, with pants or jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, the normal kinds of clothing that kids in modern times wear, and his Robin uniform which is not at ALL standard. His Robin uniform consists of a black and red bodysuit with a stylized R over his heart and gold clasps, a black cape with a gold lining around his neck, more gold in his utility belt that he ALWAYS takes with him EVERYWHERE, and a domino mask that hides his eyes. He has heavy black gloves and boots as well, with a custom-built tiny personalized computer complete with USB plugs built into his left glove for on-the-go hacking and systems monitoring. ...It's really hard to miss him when he's dressed like Robin.
Personality: Robin is, when you come down to it, in many ways a pretty typical teenager. Well, excluding the genius-level IQ and the circus background and the adoptive father with more money than some small countries and the crime fighting, but details. While all of that makes up parts of Robin, he has always been and will always remain Dick Grayson at heart.
Despite learning several lessons recently that have forced him to grow up, Dick is in many ways still just a teenager at heart. His general personality type is upbeat, not carefree but willing to let go of the stresses in his life when he can, liking to make and have friends and always being willing to help people. He's the type of guy who will go visit a friend when they're sick and help them with their homework, volunteer in a soup kitchen because he feels it's the right thing to do... or agree to be the protege of the world's greatest detective in order to join the fight in protecting the helpless. He isn't subservient and giving to the point of self-depreciation, because Dick knows and Bruce makes sure he knows just how special he is, but he doesn't let it go to his head. Anymore, at least; he had to get knocked down a couple of pegs to not have inappropriate confidence in his own skills. Appropriate confidence, on the other hand, he still has in bagfulls, but he's learned to take it well when something comes up that's beyond his own abilities. Once he understands the reasoning behind something, Dick demonstrates why he deserves the mantle of Robin by accepting the situation and learning from it, not dwelling on it but taking what he can and moving on. It's a trait he's always possessed to some degree, but has really been honed over the past few months.
That doesn't keep his mouth shut. Kid Flash might have the Motor Mouth on the team, but Robin's more than a match for him in the snarky comments department. He likes to make jokes at his friends' expenses, Wally most of all, and gets into a lot of back-and-forth with Wally that resembles nothing so much as a pair of squabbling brothers. While they can - and sort of have - both die for the other if necessary, that doesn't stop either of them from making quips at the other, and more than once Rob's had to hit Wally on the shoulder or the head for saying something stupid. He likes to troll his teammates if given the opportunity, such as with Artemis and the "spelling bee," but he actually won't do most or even any of that sort of thing against people who can't or don't know how to take it. He rarely takes jabs at Kaldur, never at M'gann, and Connor seems to be determined by if the Superboy's in a berserker rage or not. Their enemies are very open to this, however, as Robin likes to throw them off-balance as much as possible, even laughing at them creepily before he attacks in order to make them nervous. He also likes to play with words and constantly makes backformations, integrating them into his personal vocabulary and even infecting the rest of the team with them to some degree.
He shares a level of determination with the entire team but most especially with his mentor, Batman, having learned through hard experience how to put things behind him and just keep going. He shows his colors as the most experienced member of the team (despite being the youngest) when he's able to keep his calm in bad situations - never once through their missions does he panic and lose it, even if he gets knocked out in battle or he sees another teammate fall. Even in their training simulation gone awry he's the only one to maintain his calm at all times and see the mission through to the end, though that particular situation broke him in other ways. He knows, thanks to everything he's been through since his parents were killed, that panicking will solve absolutely none of your problems and will likely just get you and other people around you killed. While he isn't willing to turn off the thing inside him that makes him care for other people, he's perfectly okay with turning off the thing inside him that causes him to hesitate. In his mind, there is no other option, there are no second chances: in their line of work, any wasted moment could be the death of someone you love, someone you care about, or even someone you just met. And absolutely none of those is worth the time it will take you to panic. He will keep going and going and going until he is literally on his last legs - then he'll drink some water and eat a protein bar and keep going some more.
Robin is also ridiculously intelligent, even without super enhancements. He's shown to be a mathlete champion at his school and is a freshman while being an entire year too young for it normally at an elite prep school. He didn't skip any classes (Bruce won't let him), he was simply placed in that grade naturally after not attending a regular school for the first nine years of his life. He has a naturally brilliant mind for computer hacking, designing and building his own personal holo-computer based on Batman's originals and installing it in his left glove (and making it waterproof). He can hack into and bypass pretty much any electronic system on the planet and probably plenty of ones off it, making machines and automated security measures dance to his own tune. He's also a polyglot, being at least conversationally adept in six other languages from around the world, and shows a level of political knowledge on par with most adults instead of thirteen-year-old boys. He can sometimes take the whole "high IQ" thing too far, but he'll back off if he's told to shut up. He's also the best strategist on the team, even if he isn't currently the best leader, able to formulate plans in seconds and perhaps more importantly adapt those plans to fit the circumstances when things start to change. In addition to that, though, he's at peak physical condition for a boy of his age and size thanks to his own acrobatic nature and Batman's enforced training. You can't be Robin without being in good shape; Dick's prior acrobatic experience obviously fed into that, but his continued following of a workout regimine keeps him there, and he's pretty much trained as a ninja with his quick disappearances and knowledge of martial arts. He also uses the standard bat-weapons and a pair of escrima sticks in hand-to-hand combat and is strong enough to put a crater in a standard wall without physical harm to himself even without super strength.
...Yeah, in a lot of ways he's insufferably perfect. People are allowed to smack him if he starts showing off and becomes an annoying git.
Fortunately recent events have taken something of a toll on his overabunance of self-confidence. The train-for-failure mission was something he accomplished and got through, but found himself so traumatized over later that he revoked his dreams of becoming just like Batman because he thought the price would be too high, and it took nearly blowing more than one mission to learn that he did not have the mental experience, not physical, to be able to lead the team. He's working on fixing those flaws and honestly, they're not much as flaws, but Dick really is a genuinely good person. He cares about everyone he meets and wants to see them protected. He's basically being molded by those around him, even unconsciously, into the person who will lead in the future through the dark times, who will be able to cope with bad things happening and help to save the world. He isn't perfect, and no one's asking him to be - at the bottom of it, he just wants to be good enough, to do the things that need to be done. Everything else is a welcome bonus, but not nearly as important to him.
History: Robin was born Richard "Dick" Grayson, youngest member of the family of famous circus performers called the Flying Graysons. He grew up in the circus, surrounded by his loving family, and was both incredibly happy with his life and a clear prodigy in the acrobatic arts, learning them from the time he could walk. The Graysons were part of Haly's Circus, a traveling company that toured the nation and even overseas.
On April 1, 2006, the circus was scheduled to go to Gotham City. Mob boss Tony "Fats" Zucco wanted to use the circus to traffic drugs and other illegal things across the state borders, and demanded payment from Jack Haly as part of his protection racket. Haly denied him outright, and Zucco decided to teach him a lesson - his goons rigged the circus equipment to fail during the performance that night, sending most of the Graysons falling to their deaths. The only one spared from the accident was Dick himself, since his parents considered him too young to perform the dangerous stunt. His uncle Richard (whom Dick was named for) alone survived the accident itself, but was paralyzed for life and unable to care for Dick afterwards.
Enter Bruce Wayne. Bruce had been in the audience during the performance and seen the entire accident; knowing through his Batman persona that this was likely no real accident, he offered to take in the young Dick Grayson as his ward and care for him personally. Richard agreed, and Dick moved into Wayne Manor along with Bruce, then just in his late twenties. Seeing the grief and anger that his family's death wrought in Dick, Bruce made the difficult decision to reveal his secret identity to the young boy - and moreover, bring him into crimefighting himself at the ripe old age of nine in order to ensure that Dick didn't grow up as he did, bitter and jaded by the loss and regrets. It worked very well, and Dick took to crimefighting like a duck to water, becoming Robin and the first sidekick/prodigy to the Justice League.
Bruce eventually ended up adopting Dick formally, although Dick kept his own last name, and while many other kids might have wilted under the amount of pressure they found themselves under, Dick blossomed. He turned out to be naturally brilliant on top of being an amazing acrobat, enrolling in Gotham Academy in advanced classes at an early age. He didn't skip any grades (Bruce wouldn't let him), but he did stay pretty easily at or near the top of his classes and even became a mathlete champ. His work as Robin led him to learn martial arts and detective work as well, and as a side-off he also picked up an enthusiasm for computers and hacking in general that would come in very handy. Somehow he was able to balance everything that was on his plate, giving nobody clues to his identity as Robin, on Batman's strict orders and just his own common sense as well. As time went by, more of the Leaguers began bringing in trainees or sidekicks of their own, though they were still in the minority, and one by one Robin met them all. Eventually Kid Flash became his best friend, so close that Robin even revealed his real identity of Dick Grayson (and therefore Batman's) to him, knowing he could trust him with that to the grave though they acted like a couple of bickering brothers most of the time they were together. He also had great respect for Kaldur'ahm and Speedy, considering them friends as well although he privately and very quietly considered himself the best since he began so much earlier than the rest of them.
Four years after his family's death, Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, and Aquaman agreed to bring their proteges into the actual sanctum of the Justice League for the first time. Most of them were content, but when it became apparent that their mentors were still hiding secrets from them and still didn't trust them as more than "mere" sidekicks, the group became fed up. Speedy stormed out early after the Leaguers refused to take them to the Watchtower, and as the remaining three talked among themselves, their resentment began to grow and fester. When Superman reported a fire at the Project Cadmus laboratories, the League was about to respond until Zatara interrupted to inform them of a plan to blot out the sun. The Leaguers decided to leave the fire to the fire department, though they'd always found something fishy about Cadmus, and went off to save the fun - and Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad hacked into the League computers and decided to go investigate Cadmus themselves, thinking it would prove they could handle things on their own. They had no idea what they were in for - when they were done at Cadmus, the above-ground building had been destroyed, they'd fought an army of G-Gnomes, and they'd discovered a very angry sixteen-week-old clone of Superman being kept in a subbasement. Getting him on their side and out of the building was much more than they'd anticipated, and their success in the mission and the confidence they'd displayed convinced the League to let them begin operating as a real force.
It wasn't exactly what they wanted, but it was real, important work that they understood and saw the value of. Batman needed an undercover team he could send on clandestine missions, doing things the Leaguers were too famous to do, and the Team fit the bill wonderfully. It took a little while, but eventually the League began sending them missions - and almost immediately something else went wrong when everyone realized that they didn't have a plan or a real leader. Robin assumed that it would be him due to his much greater experience as a superhero and his ability to plan quickly and thoroughly, but he turned out to be too rooted in being a Bat to be able to lead a team of misfits with conflicting personalities. He was young, and too self-assured; his work with Batman was real, and valuable, and had certainly made him the most exacting strategist of any of them, but he didn't have the personal maturity available at the drop of a hat to pull himself out of the situation and think. Eventually, Robin realized this for himself and nominated Kaldur for leader, a motion followed unanimously by the rest of the team. Kaldur didn't want the job, but accepted it for the good of the team - which did make him the best choice for it - and said he would step down when Robin was ready to take over for him. Robin nodded, agreeing that he still had things to learn, and wouldn't put himself forward again until he actually was prepared.
Despite that, in situations where Kaldur wasn't around Robin tended to be the defacto leader anyway, giving him some practice as he adapted to the team-dynamic instead of the Dynamic Duo-dynamic, and he proved his worth in those situations. As the sidekick that had been working the longest and a logical thinker, Robin was the one best able to turn off his emotions and focus on the problem at hand, always searching for solutions and not letting feelings get in the way. This proved especially evident in the training simulation their mentors put them through that was unintentionally hijacked by M'gann; after the "death" of Kaldur, Robin stepped up and took command, playing every piece he had and managing to actually pull off a mission to destroy the aliens' mothership. Unfortunately, he proved to himself that he was unable to actually cope with such emotional distance - he possessed the capability to turn his feelings off and just see people as game pieces, which lead to, as far as he knew, the completion of the mission, but he hated every step of the process. If the stakes hadn't been so desperate he wouldn't have done it, and when they were awakened he pretty much vowed to never do it again. He even referred to the experience as having "traumatized" him to Black Canary, and came to an important decision for himself: no matter how much Batman did it, no matter how effective it made him, he could never make that type of sacrifice. He could never lose his human touch. He still wanted to be a hero, but he didn't want to be Batman anymore. He was so afraid of losing Batman's respect because of this that he never mentioned it and told Black Canary not to either, but he really should have - the last thing Batdad ever wanted was for his son to grow up to be just like him.
Red Arrow had received intelligence that there was a mole on the team from Sportsmaster, revealing the information only to Kaldur, who had chosen to keep it to himself to investigate the possibility and prevent team friction at a time when they were still coming together. When that fact came out, it nearly did snap the team into pieces during a difficult mission, until Kaldur revealed his reasons for not saying anything. Robin had to admit to himself that Kaldur was right to do so and he probably would have acted exactly the same, with some added sneaky-Bat investigating, and his initial refusal to listen to an explanation was another mark against him for leadership. But he and the rest of the team came to understand why Kaldur had done what he had, and voted to keep him as leader. At the time they were fairly sure Red Tornado was the mole, willingly or not, but it would come back to bite them later.
Around that time, Zatara introduced his daughter Zatanna to the team, and Robin was (obviously) pretty much instantly taken with her, jumping into the middle of introductions and flirting with her during her "kidnapping." It became almost tragic after Klarion gathered four other powerful sorcerers together to cast a spell that split the world into two, one for kids and one for adults. Thanks to the revelation that Captain Marvel was really Billy, a ten-year-old boy, the team was able to coordinate for an attack on the magic users with Batman, Red Tornado, and Zatara, but during the battle Zatanna donned the Helmet of Fate to gain more power. When the battle was over, Fate refused to leave her, and Zatara traded himself for his daughter's freedom. Now trapped within Dr. Fate, he left his daughter almost an orphan, and Zatanna moved into the cave. Robin wanted to comfort her due to knowing the pain of losing your family as well, but he wasn't quite sure how to do it. He did, however, stick close to her whenever they were together, subtly being there for her and providing a shoulder to lean on when she needed it. Even if he was shorter than her.
The mole came back with a vengeance on New Year's, after the League had chosen to induct five new members - including Red Arrow. Roy, one of their oldest friends, was actually a clone of the real Speedy developed by Cadmus, and he'd been implanted with subconscious programming to infiltrate the Justice League and open them up to attack by the Light, a supergroup of seven strong villains headed by Vandal Savage. Roy didn't even know he was doing it, a true Manchurian Agent - he subconsciously infected all the members of the Justice League with Starrotech and caused Batman to override the zeta tubes and give Watchtower access to Vandal Savage. Roy came to himself long enough to realize exactly what had happened, and escaped while Savage was occupied gloating. Savage, however, sent Green Arrow, Flash, and Aquaman to track him down and capture him. He managed to get away and hide, while Batman and Red Tornado went to infect the team.
Red Tornado had had just enough time to write a subprogram to stop himself from infecting anyone else before he was taken over, and transferring his consciousness to the android body he was building gave him free will again. Warning them of the entire plot, the team managed to stop Black Canary as well, rendezvoused with Roy, and called on a trio of their scientist friends to devise a cure/vaccine patch which they immediately all used. With Roy, Red Tornado, and Black Canary acting as decoys, the team was able to counterinvade the Watchtower and fight off every member of the Justice League, putting cure patches on them all. Vandal Savage and Klarion, who was controlling the Leaguers, fled during the fighting, and the team freed the last of their controlled mentors just before the stroke of midnight. Robin was busy feeling pretty happy with their performance when Zatanna grabbed him and kissed him in according to tradition. He didn't know what to do at first, but after a second settled down and enjoyed it.
The team aided the adults when they started coming around, but a mystery soon emerged: six members of the League - Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Hawkwoman, and Martian Manhunter had disappeared for sixteen hours with no idea of where they'd gone or what they'd done.
Robin comes from soon after that moment.
Extra notes: He will totally try to hack the SOL computers and possibly a Cambot as well. But since this tech is literally older than he is, he will get very frustrated XD He will also try very, very hard to keep his identity as Dick Grayson a secret. He's got no way of knowing about comics, TV, and movies from other universes, after all.
Cambot post sample: [It's Robin again, but this time the picture is very wobbly - probably because the Cambot keeps bouncing up and down, rocking from side to side, and letting out a series of beeps and whistles evocative of R2-D2 and generally freaking out in robot fashion. Probably because Robin's got the guts of a busted Cambot spread open across the floor and his lap, sorting through parts with a miniature screwdriver and some tweezers, and no person of any species likes seeing their fellow... things ripped to shreds in front of their eyes, right?]
Come on, this is not a disaster! It's not even close to being a dis-, unless you're talking about "disassemble."
[Another squeal and a series of high-pitched scaling beeps.]
Don't tie yourself in knots like that! You know this one was beyond repair, that's why I'm using it and not one of you guys that's floating around. Although maybe if you don't calm down I might try and disable that speaker of yours-
[An electronic shriek, the cambot backing up a couple of feet out of Robin's immediate arm reach. His eyes aren't visible behind the sunglasses, but he's very likely rolling them.]
You know this isn't hurting anything! It was in pieces anyway, you should be glad I'm putting it to good use! Not like I'm doing it to you.
[A long, drawn-out whine like a question.]
No. Not if you stop that, at least. I promise.
[A smaller, softer whistle.]
Great. Can you nudge that socket wrench over here? You guys have more weird connections in here than half the Hewlett Packards I've come across.
Third-person log sample: He woke quickly, almost instantly - after living with Batman for four years, you learned to get up at the drop of a hat. There was metal beneath his face, and his first thought went immediately to the Cave's floor, perhaps a training session gone bad - but the metal below him wasn't the one he was familiar with, and his mind went into overdrive as he realized he didn't recognize the place he'd wound up in. And when that happened, things tended to be bad. They'd just saved the League from Vandal Savage and Klarion, but that didn't mean that another member of the Light couldn't have snuck in and done something pretty terrible. Just because he had no memory of any of them doing such didn't mean it couldn't happen - look what Psimon had been able to do to all of them, even without seeing them.
Robin silently pushed himself to his feet, glancing around quickly - a metal hallway, some sort of enclosed tunnel, with a distinctly run down, beat up feel to it. A quick glance up showed that the ceiling was not a solid piece; it was sketchy and almost unfinished, and there was a hole big enough for him to get through only about five feet down. A whirring sound came from down the corridor, around the corner, and he took two quick steps and launched himself up into cover, tucking the edges of his cape around himself to hide as much as possible. Something spherical floated down the hallway not long after he was concealed, apparently working on some form of hovercraft technology, and - was that a camera on the front? Yeah, it was - an old-fashioned camera lens swiveled around, searching for something. Probably him. Robin kept quiet and observed.
The Brain could probably build something like that, even if it did look unwieldy. Until he had a better idea of what was going on - or found someone he could question - he'd better stay hidden. Robin settled down into a slightly more comfortable position, not making any noise, to wait until the camera had gone away.
Riff sample: Consciousness returned to Grignr in stygmatic pools as his mind gradually cleared of the cobwebs cluttering its inner recesses, yet the stygian cloud of charcoal ebony remained. An incompatible shield of blackness, enhanced by the bleak abscense of sound.
[several moments of baffled silence, then reaching for his glove] ...Okay, give me just a second here, I think I need to program in a spellcheck since this guy forgot to buy one.
Grignr's muddled brain reeled from the shock of the blow he had recieved to the base of his skull. The events leading to his predicament were slow to filter back to him. He dickered with the notion that he was dead and had descended or sunk, however it may be, to the shadowed land beyond the the aperature of the grave, but rejected this hypothesis when his memory sifted back within his grips.
Whatever this guy's problem is, I doubt not being able to remember things quickly is the worst of it.
This was not the land of the dead, it was something infinitely more precarious than anything the grave could offer.
It's a tightrope. Get over it.
Death promised an infinity of peace, not the finite misery of an inactive life of confined torture, forever concealed from the life bearing shafts of the beloved rising sun. The orb that had been before taken for granted, yet now cherished above all else.
What, no consideration for the Moon? Connor wouldn't be whelmed at all.
To be forever refused further glimpses of the snow capped summits of the land of his birth, never again to witness the thrill of plundering unexplored lands beyond the crest of a bleeding horizon,
If your horizons are bleeding you've got a much worse problem than you realize. Like magma and everything on fire.
and perhaps worst of all the denial to ever again encompass the lustful excitement of caressing the naked curves of the body of a trim yound wench.
[...facepalm] Yeah, I'm too young for this.
This was indeed one of the buried chasms of Hell concealed within the inner depths of the palace's despised interior. A fearful ebony chamber devised to drive to the brinks of insanity the minds of the unfortunately condemned, through the inapt solitude of a limbo of listless dreary silence.
And I don't think he's all that far away to begin with.
-------------------------------------------------------
What do you think, sirs? Forklifts and I are mortal enemies.
Name: Tai
Age: Older than this kid
AIM and/or Plurk / E-mail / Dreamwidth journal: waaaaaaaaaaah
What characters do you play here already, if any? :|
Where did you hear about Just A Game? :PPPPPPPPPPPP
Have you seen MST3K before? ;33333333
[IC Information]
Character Name: Robin, the Boy Wonder (AKA Richard "Dick" Grayson)
Series: Young Justice
Gender: Male
Age: Thirteen
Species: Human!
Appearance: Robin isn't the biggest kid around by a long shot. The smallest of the Team by quite a margin, he nevertheless doesn't let that hold him back in anything. He's also kind of thin with that look that a lot of teenage boys get that he's not even near done growing. Give him a little time and he'll shoot up like a weed. He's a Caucasian male with a midrange skintone, black hair that he wears gelled back when he's in public as Dick and loose whenever he's Robin or at home, and blue eyes that he usually hides behind his mask or a pair of sunglasses. He takes Batman's motto of not revealing your secret identity very much to heart and does as much as he can to differentiate between his two "looks" to throw people off the scent, such as holding his posture differently and having a slightly different demeanor as Dick than Robin. His clothing comes in two distinct flavors: one is standard casual wear, with pants or jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, the normal kinds of clothing that kids in modern times wear, and his Robin uniform which is not at ALL standard. His Robin uniform consists of a black and red bodysuit with a stylized R over his heart and gold clasps, a black cape with a gold lining around his neck, more gold in his utility belt that he ALWAYS takes with him EVERYWHERE, and a domino mask that hides his eyes. He has heavy black gloves and boots as well, with a custom-built tiny personalized computer complete with USB plugs built into his left glove for on-the-go hacking and systems monitoring. ...It's really hard to miss him when he's dressed like Robin.
Personality: Robin is, when you come down to it, in many ways a pretty typical teenager. Well, excluding the genius-level IQ and the circus background and the adoptive father with more money than some small countries and the crime fighting, but details. While all of that makes up parts of Robin, he has always been and will always remain Dick Grayson at heart.
Despite learning several lessons recently that have forced him to grow up, Dick is in many ways still just a teenager at heart. His general personality type is upbeat, not carefree but willing to let go of the stresses in his life when he can, liking to make and have friends and always being willing to help people. He's the type of guy who will go visit a friend when they're sick and help them with their homework, volunteer in a soup kitchen because he feels it's the right thing to do... or agree to be the protege of the world's greatest detective in order to join the fight in protecting the helpless. He isn't subservient and giving to the point of self-depreciation, because Dick knows and Bruce makes sure he knows just how special he is, but he doesn't let it go to his head. Anymore, at least; he had to get knocked down a couple of pegs to not have inappropriate confidence in his own skills. Appropriate confidence, on the other hand, he still has in bagfulls, but he's learned to take it well when something comes up that's beyond his own abilities. Once he understands the reasoning behind something, Dick demonstrates why he deserves the mantle of Robin by accepting the situation and learning from it, not dwelling on it but taking what he can and moving on. It's a trait he's always possessed to some degree, but has really been honed over the past few months.
That doesn't keep his mouth shut. Kid Flash might have the Motor Mouth on the team, but Robin's more than a match for him in the snarky comments department. He likes to make jokes at his friends' expenses, Wally most of all, and gets into a lot of back-and-forth with Wally that resembles nothing so much as a pair of squabbling brothers. While they can - and sort of have - both die for the other if necessary, that doesn't stop either of them from making quips at the other, and more than once Rob's had to hit Wally on the shoulder or the head for saying something stupid. He likes to troll his teammates if given the opportunity, such as with Artemis and the "spelling bee," but he actually won't do most or even any of that sort of thing against people who can't or don't know how to take it. He rarely takes jabs at Kaldur, never at M'gann, and Connor seems to be determined by if the Superboy's in a berserker rage or not. Their enemies are very open to this, however, as Robin likes to throw them off-balance as much as possible, even laughing at them creepily before he attacks in order to make them nervous. He also likes to play with words and constantly makes backformations, integrating them into his personal vocabulary and even infecting the rest of the team with them to some degree.
He shares a level of determination with the entire team but most especially with his mentor, Batman, having learned through hard experience how to put things behind him and just keep going. He shows his colors as the most experienced member of the team (despite being the youngest) when he's able to keep his calm in bad situations - never once through their missions does he panic and lose it, even if he gets knocked out in battle or he sees another teammate fall. Even in their training simulation gone awry he's the only one to maintain his calm at all times and see the mission through to the end, though that particular situation broke him in other ways. He knows, thanks to everything he's been through since his parents were killed, that panicking will solve absolutely none of your problems and will likely just get you and other people around you killed. While he isn't willing to turn off the thing inside him that makes him care for other people, he's perfectly okay with turning off the thing inside him that causes him to hesitate. In his mind, there is no other option, there are no second chances: in their line of work, any wasted moment could be the death of someone you love, someone you care about, or even someone you just met. And absolutely none of those is worth the time it will take you to panic. He will keep going and going and going until he is literally on his last legs - then he'll drink some water and eat a protein bar and keep going some more.
Robin is also ridiculously intelligent, even without super enhancements. He's shown to be a mathlete champion at his school and is a freshman while being an entire year too young for it normally at an elite prep school. He didn't skip any classes (Bruce won't let him), he was simply placed in that grade naturally after not attending a regular school for the first nine years of his life. He has a naturally brilliant mind for computer hacking, designing and building his own personal holo-computer based on Batman's originals and installing it in his left glove (and making it waterproof). He can hack into and bypass pretty much any electronic system on the planet and probably plenty of ones off it, making machines and automated security measures dance to his own tune. He's also a polyglot, being at least conversationally adept in six other languages from around the world, and shows a level of political knowledge on par with most adults instead of thirteen-year-old boys. He can sometimes take the whole "high IQ" thing too far, but he'll back off if he's told to shut up. He's also the best strategist on the team, even if he isn't currently the best leader, able to formulate plans in seconds and perhaps more importantly adapt those plans to fit the circumstances when things start to change. In addition to that, though, he's at peak physical condition for a boy of his age and size thanks to his own acrobatic nature and Batman's enforced training. You can't be Robin without being in good shape; Dick's prior acrobatic experience obviously fed into that, but his continued following of a workout regimine keeps him there, and he's pretty much trained as a ninja with his quick disappearances and knowledge of martial arts. He also uses the standard bat-weapons and a pair of escrima sticks in hand-to-hand combat and is strong enough to put a crater in a standard wall without physical harm to himself even without super strength.
...Yeah, in a lot of ways he's insufferably perfect. People are allowed to smack him if he starts showing off and becomes an annoying git.
Fortunately recent events have taken something of a toll on his overabunance of self-confidence. The train-for-failure mission was something he accomplished and got through, but found himself so traumatized over later that he revoked his dreams of becoming just like Batman because he thought the price would be too high, and it took nearly blowing more than one mission to learn that he did not have the mental experience, not physical, to be able to lead the team. He's working on fixing those flaws and honestly, they're not much as flaws, but Dick really is a genuinely good person. He cares about everyone he meets and wants to see them protected. He's basically being molded by those around him, even unconsciously, into the person who will lead in the future through the dark times, who will be able to cope with bad things happening and help to save the world. He isn't perfect, and no one's asking him to be - at the bottom of it, he just wants to be good enough, to do the things that need to be done. Everything else is a welcome bonus, but not nearly as important to him.
History: Robin was born Richard "Dick" Grayson, youngest member of the family of famous circus performers called the Flying Graysons. He grew up in the circus, surrounded by his loving family, and was both incredibly happy with his life and a clear prodigy in the acrobatic arts, learning them from the time he could walk. The Graysons were part of Haly's Circus, a traveling company that toured the nation and even overseas.
On April 1, 2006, the circus was scheduled to go to Gotham City. Mob boss Tony "Fats" Zucco wanted to use the circus to traffic drugs and other illegal things across the state borders, and demanded payment from Jack Haly as part of his protection racket. Haly denied him outright, and Zucco decided to teach him a lesson - his goons rigged the circus equipment to fail during the performance that night, sending most of the Graysons falling to their deaths. The only one spared from the accident was Dick himself, since his parents considered him too young to perform the dangerous stunt. His uncle Richard (whom Dick was named for) alone survived the accident itself, but was paralyzed for life and unable to care for Dick afterwards.
Enter Bruce Wayne. Bruce had been in the audience during the performance and seen the entire accident; knowing through his Batman persona that this was likely no real accident, he offered to take in the young Dick Grayson as his ward and care for him personally. Richard agreed, and Dick moved into Wayne Manor along with Bruce, then just in his late twenties. Seeing the grief and anger that his family's death wrought in Dick, Bruce made the difficult decision to reveal his secret identity to the young boy - and moreover, bring him into crimefighting himself at the ripe old age of nine in order to ensure that Dick didn't grow up as he did, bitter and jaded by the loss and regrets. It worked very well, and Dick took to crimefighting like a duck to water, becoming Robin and the first sidekick/prodigy to the Justice League.
Bruce eventually ended up adopting Dick formally, although Dick kept his own last name, and while many other kids might have wilted under the amount of pressure they found themselves under, Dick blossomed. He turned out to be naturally brilliant on top of being an amazing acrobat, enrolling in Gotham Academy in advanced classes at an early age. He didn't skip any grades (Bruce wouldn't let him), but he did stay pretty easily at or near the top of his classes and even became a mathlete champ. His work as Robin led him to learn martial arts and detective work as well, and as a side-off he also picked up an enthusiasm for computers and hacking in general that would come in very handy. Somehow he was able to balance everything that was on his plate, giving nobody clues to his identity as Robin, on Batman's strict orders and just his own common sense as well. As time went by, more of the Leaguers began bringing in trainees or sidekicks of their own, though they were still in the minority, and one by one Robin met them all. Eventually Kid Flash became his best friend, so close that Robin even revealed his real identity of Dick Grayson (and therefore Batman's) to him, knowing he could trust him with that to the grave though they acted like a couple of bickering brothers most of the time they were together. He also had great respect for Kaldur'ahm and Speedy, considering them friends as well although he privately and very quietly considered himself the best since he began so much earlier than the rest of them.
Four years after his family's death, Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, and Aquaman agreed to bring their proteges into the actual sanctum of the Justice League for the first time. Most of them were content, but when it became apparent that their mentors were still hiding secrets from them and still didn't trust them as more than "mere" sidekicks, the group became fed up. Speedy stormed out early after the Leaguers refused to take them to the Watchtower, and as the remaining three talked among themselves, their resentment began to grow and fester. When Superman reported a fire at the Project Cadmus laboratories, the League was about to respond until Zatara interrupted to inform them of a plan to blot out the sun. The Leaguers decided to leave the fire to the fire department, though they'd always found something fishy about Cadmus, and went off to save the fun - and Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad hacked into the League computers and decided to go investigate Cadmus themselves, thinking it would prove they could handle things on their own. They had no idea what they were in for - when they were done at Cadmus, the above-ground building had been destroyed, they'd fought an army of G-Gnomes, and they'd discovered a very angry sixteen-week-old clone of Superman being kept in a subbasement. Getting him on their side and out of the building was much more than they'd anticipated, and their success in the mission and the confidence they'd displayed convinced the League to let them begin operating as a real force.
It wasn't exactly what they wanted, but it was real, important work that they understood and saw the value of. Batman needed an undercover team he could send on clandestine missions, doing things the Leaguers were too famous to do, and the Team fit the bill wonderfully. It took a little while, but eventually the League began sending them missions - and almost immediately something else went wrong when everyone realized that they didn't have a plan or a real leader. Robin assumed that it would be him due to his much greater experience as a superhero and his ability to plan quickly and thoroughly, but he turned out to be too rooted in being a Bat to be able to lead a team of misfits with conflicting personalities. He was young, and too self-assured; his work with Batman was real, and valuable, and had certainly made him the most exacting strategist of any of them, but he didn't have the personal maturity available at the drop of a hat to pull himself out of the situation and think. Eventually, Robin realized this for himself and nominated Kaldur for leader, a motion followed unanimously by the rest of the team. Kaldur didn't want the job, but accepted it for the good of the team - which did make him the best choice for it - and said he would step down when Robin was ready to take over for him. Robin nodded, agreeing that he still had things to learn, and wouldn't put himself forward again until he actually was prepared.
Despite that, in situations where Kaldur wasn't around Robin tended to be the defacto leader anyway, giving him some practice as he adapted to the team-dynamic instead of the Dynamic Duo-dynamic, and he proved his worth in those situations. As the sidekick that had been working the longest and a logical thinker, Robin was the one best able to turn off his emotions and focus on the problem at hand, always searching for solutions and not letting feelings get in the way. This proved especially evident in the training simulation their mentors put them through that was unintentionally hijacked by M'gann; after the "death" of Kaldur, Robin stepped up and took command, playing every piece he had and managing to actually pull off a mission to destroy the aliens' mothership. Unfortunately, he proved to himself that he was unable to actually cope with such emotional distance - he possessed the capability to turn his feelings off and just see people as game pieces, which lead to, as far as he knew, the completion of the mission, but he hated every step of the process. If the stakes hadn't been so desperate he wouldn't have done it, and when they were awakened he pretty much vowed to never do it again. He even referred to the experience as having "traumatized" him to Black Canary, and came to an important decision for himself: no matter how much Batman did it, no matter how effective it made him, he could never make that type of sacrifice. He could never lose his human touch. He still wanted to be a hero, but he didn't want to be Batman anymore. He was so afraid of losing Batman's respect because of this that he never mentioned it and told Black Canary not to either, but he really should have - the last thing Batdad ever wanted was for his son to grow up to be just like him.
Red Arrow had received intelligence that there was a mole on the team from Sportsmaster, revealing the information only to Kaldur, who had chosen to keep it to himself to investigate the possibility and prevent team friction at a time when they were still coming together. When that fact came out, it nearly did snap the team into pieces during a difficult mission, until Kaldur revealed his reasons for not saying anything. Robin had to admit to himself that Kaldur was right to do so and he probably would have acted exactly the same, with some added sneaky-Bat investigating, and his initial refusal to listen to an explanation was another mark against him for leadership. But he and the rest of the team came to understand why Kaldur had done what he had, and voted to keep him as leader. At the time they were fairly sure Red Tornado was the mole, willingly or not, but it would come back to bite them later.
Around that time, Zatara introduced his daughter Zatanna to the team, and Robin was (obviously) pretty much instantly taken with her, jumping into the middle of introductions and flirting with her during her "kidnapping." It became almost tragic after Klarion gathered four other powerful sorcerers together to cast a spell that split the world into two, one for kids and one for adults. Thanks to the revelation that Captain Marvel was really Billy, a ten-year-old boy, the team was able to coordinate for an attack on the magic users with Batman, Red Tornado, and Zatara, but during the battle Zatanna donned the Helmet of Fate to gain more power. When the battle was over, Fate refused to leave her, and Zatara traded himself for his daughter's freedom. Now trapped within Dr. Fate, he left his daughter almost an orphan, and Zatanna moved into the cave. Robin wanted to comfort her due to knowing the pain of losing your family as well, but he wasn't quite sure how to do it. He did, however, stick close to her whenever they were together, subtly being there for her and providing a shoulder to lean on when she needed it. Even if he was shorter than her.
The mole came back with a vengeance on New Year's, after the League had chosen to induct five new members - including Red Arrow. Roy, one of their oldest friends, was actually a clone of the real Speedy developed by Cadmus, and he'd been implanted with subconscious programming to infiltrate the Justice League and open them up to attack by the Light, a supergroup of seven strong villains headed by Vandal Savage. Roy didn't even know he was doing it, a true Manchurian Agent - he subconsciously infected all the members of the Justice League with Starrotech and caused Batman to override the zeta tubes and give Watchtower access to Vandal Savage. Roy came to himself long enough to realize exactly what had happened, and escaped while Savage was occupied gloating. Savage, however, sent Green Arrow, Flash, and Aquaman to track him down and capture him. He managed to get away and hide, while Batman and Red Tornado went to infect the team.
Red Tornado had had just enough time to write a subprogram to stop himself from infecting anyone else before he was taken over, and transferring his consciousness to the android body he was building gave him free will again. Warning them of the entire plot, the team managed to stop Black Canary as well, rendezvoused with Roy, and called on a trio of their scientist friends to devise a cure/vaccine patch which they immediately all used. With Roy, Red Tornado, and Black Canary acting as decoys, the team was able to counterinvade the Watchtower and fight off every member of the Justice League, putting cure patches on them all. Vandal Savage and Klarion, who was controlling the Leaguers, fled during the fighting, and the team freed the last of their controlled mentors just before the stroke of midnight. Robin was busy feeling pretty happy with their performance when Zatanna grabbed him and kissed him in according to tradition. He didn't know what to do at first, but after a second settled down and enjoyed it.
The team aided the adults when they started coming around, but a mystery soon emerged: six members of the League - Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Hawkwoman, and Martian Manhunter had disappeared for sixteen hours with no idea of where they'd gone or what they'd done.
Robin comes from soon after that moment.
Extra notes: He will totally try to hack the SOL computers and possibly a Cambot as well. But since this tech is literally older than he is, he will get very frustrated XD He will also try very, very hard to keep his identity as Dick Grayson a secret. He's got no way of knowing about comics, TV, and movies from other universes, after all.
Cambot post sample: [It's Robin again, but this time the picture is very wobbly - probably because the Cambot keeps bouncing up and down, rocking from side to side, and letting out a series of beeps and whistles evocative of R2-D2 and generally freaking out in robot fashion. Probably because Robin's got the guts of a busted Cambot spread open across the floor and his lap, sorting through parts with a miniature screwdriver and some tweezers, and no person of any species likes seeing their fellow... things ripped to shreds in front of their eyes, right?]
Come on, this is not a disaster! It's not even close to being a dis-, unless you're talking about "disassemble."
[Another squeal and a series of high-pitched scaling beeps.]
Don't tie yourself in knots like that! You know this one was beyond repair, that's why I'm using it and not one of you guys that's floating around. Although maybe if you don't calm down I might try and disable that speaker of yours-
[An electronic shriek, the cambot backing up a couple of feet out of Robin's immediate arm reach. His eyes aren't visible behind the sunglasses, but he's very likely rolling them.]
You know this isn't hurting anything! It was in pieces anyway, you should be glad I'm putting it to good use! Not like I'm doing it to you.
[A long, drawn-out whine like a question.]
No. Not if you stop that, at least. I promise.
[A smaller, softer whistle.]
Great. Can you nudge that socket wrench over here? You guys have more weird connections in here than half the Hewlett Packards I've come across.
Third-person log sample: He woke quickly, almost instantly - after living with Batman for four years, you learned to get up at the drop of a hat. There was metal beneath his face, and his first thought went immediately to the Cave's floor, perhaps a training session gone bad - but the metal below him wasn't the one he was familiar with, and his mind went into overdrive as he realized he didn't recognize the place he'd wound up in. And when that happened, things tended to be bad. They'd just saved the League from Vandal Savage and Klarion, but that didn't mean that another member of the Light couldn't have snuck in and done something pretty terrible. Just because he had no memory of any of them doing such didn't mean it couldn't happen - look what Psimon had been able to do to all of them, even without seeing them.
Robin silently pushed himself to his feet, glancing around quickly - a metal hallway, some sort of enclosed tunnel, with a distinctly run down, beat up feel to it. A quick glance up showed that the ceiling was not a solid piece; it was sketchy and almost unfinished, and there was a hole big enough for him to get through only about five feet down. A whirring sound came from down the corridor, around the corner, and he took two quick steps and launched himself up into cover, tucking the edges of his cape around himself to hide as much as possible. Something spherical floated down the hallway not long after he was concealed, apparently working on some form of hovercraft technology, and - was that a camera on the front? Yeah, it was - an old-fashioned camera lens swiveled around, searching for something. Probably him. Robin kept quiet and observed.
The Brain could probably build something like that, even if it did look unwieldy. Until he had a better idea of what was going on - or found someone he could question - he'd better stay hidden. Robin settled down into a slightly more comfortable position, not making any noise, to wait until the camera had gone away.
Riff sample: Consciousness returned to Grignr in stygmatic pools as his mind gradually cleared of the cobwebs cluttering its inner recesses, yet the stygian cloud of charcoal ebony remained. An incompatible shield of blackness, enhanced by the bleak abscense of sound.
[several moments of baffled silence, then reaching for his glove] ...Okay, give me just a second here, I think I need to program in a spellcheck since this guy forgot to buy one.
Grignr's muddled brain reeled from the shock of the blow he had recieved to the base of his skull. The events leading to his predicament were slow to filter back to him. He dickered with the notion that he was dead and had descended or sunk, however it may be, to the shadowed land beyond the the aperature of the grave, but rejected this hypothesis when his memory sifted back within his grips.
Whatever this guy's problem is, I doubt not being able to remember things quickly is the worst of it.
This was not the land of the dead, it was something infinitely more precarious than anything the grave could offer.
It's a tightrope. Get over it.
Death promised an infinity of peace, not the finite misery of an inactive life of confined torture, forever concealed from the life bearing shafts of the beloved rising sun. The orb that had been before taken for granted, yet now cherished above all else.
What, no consideration for the Moon? Connor wouldn't be whelmed at all.
To be forever refused further glimpses of the snow capped summits of the land of his birth, never again to witness the thrill of plundering unexplored lands beyond the crest of a bleeding horizon,
If your horizons are bleeding you've got a much worse problem than you realize. Like magma and everything on fire.
and perhaps worst of all the denial to ever again encompass the lustful excitement of caressing the naked curves of the body of a trim yound wench.
[...facepalm] Yeah, I'm too young for this.
This was indeed one of the buried chasms of Hell concealed within the inner depths of the palace's despised interior. A fearful ebony chamber devised to drive to the brinks of insanity the minds of the unfortunately condemned, through the inapt solitude of a limbo of listless dreary silence.
And I don't think he's all that far away to begin with.
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What do you think, sirs? Forklifts and I are mortal enemies.
