SEE

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT FINAL LINE OMG EHAT

Dick is a pretty boy. Everyone knows it, except him.

There is an unwritten rule about not hitting him in the face, everyone follows it, (even from his time as Robin some people already followed this rule). His siblings when by miracle they train together. His team when they get together to practice strategies and fighting methods. Even the damned villains and evildoers know not to hit the pretty bird in the face.

Dick never finds it strange. Somehow, he thinks it's simply because people have learned that punching him in the face isn't really going to stop him, if they're looking to confuse him, hitting the back of his head is more effective.

It's not until a drug dealer accidentally hits him in the nose for the first time in years, breaking it, that he notices something strange. How could he not? The battle stops for a moment because his companions start yelling at him, telling him that his face is off limits, and the dealer apologizes.

Dick barely blinks and stops them, then goes to his apartment to clean up the blood, the pain not even bothering him at this point. That's why he doesn't understand why not only his team makes a fuss about it the next day, but they even call his siblings to tell them what happened. He's not even that hurt ??????

The only other person who doesn't make a fuss about it is Batman, who has punched Dick in the face enough times to find it odd. Nobody is happy with Batman upon discovering that fact.

No but like imagine if Dick liked his coffee Turkish (kid grew up in a traveling circus and bc he’s so ethnically ambiguous in canon I headcanon him as being vaguely from everywhere) and not only does he like his coffee Turkish

Him and Talia have the exact same preferences, down to the fact they both prefer walnut baklawa to dates with coffee (superior choice argue with the wall)

They sip it the same way, prepare it the same way

Skim the top the same way

Same thickness

And ofc neither has any clue bc they hate each other and they’re absolutely never sitting down for coffee together ever

But Damian meets Dick Grayson who drinks and prepares coffee the exact same way his mom does and just one sip and he’s less homesick

And it’s adorable but also hilarious but ofc Dick and Talia have the exact same preferences

And if he ever brings up the way Dick likes his coffee Talia looks grudgingly agreeable and is like “ah so the boy can occasionally have sense, shame he doesn’t use it for anything worthwhile”

And when he tells Dick that his coffee reminds him of Talia’s Dick looks vaguely ill and tries to switch to plain black for a month bc he absolutely refuses to have anything in common with his biggest op

Jason finds it hilarious but the only person Jason is allowed to sit and have coffee with is Dick and Steph. Him and Tim together? In a casual setting with caffeine.. esp Arabic coffee cuz we don’t play with out caffeine yeah no too much chaos

All the Batkids switch to languages or dialects Bruce doesn’t fully understand when they’re shit talking him

Alfred struggles like hell with the coffee tradition bc it’s violently against every thing he’s trained for as a butler so Damian gets annoyed bc Alfred keeps politely refusing him when he tries to pour him a cup.

So he enlists his siblings to use the most extra SFX, and optical illusions to trick Alfred into having the first cup

In my Arab region (I can't speak for the others, but I'm pretty sure they have similar things. Add your stuff if you do!) Coffee time is kind of sacred and is tightly regulated with heavy traditional rules. Especially so for the male populace.

Coffee makes the man! (Literally, I can't stress this enough)

Men and women alike are trained from a very young age on how to make and serve their coffee. A coffee with a good colour is a bright sign for your guests, and the way you serve is very telling of you.

Doors are ALWAYS open for guests, and HUGE halls are prepared to accommodate them (they can reach hundreds, depending on your dad's popularity). A household's head is a very blessed man when he has children/grandchildren because he can brag about them by showing their serving skills off. Those children will be scrutinised and judged according to their coffee serving manners. It's a very integral part of a charming character's traits for us. So, parents, especially fathers, are very strict about this.

Aside from guests, families have daily coffee time for themselves, too! It's very respectful to serve your mom and dad coffee. So it's expected from you.

Considering Ra's personality, serving him coffee as a grandson would be a nightmare.

Imagine Damian refilling the finjaan again and again in front of an elegantly sitting Ra's until he gets it right? Imagine him waiting (while standing, maybe for an hour or so) for Ra's to finish his finjaan so he can refill it again? Imagine how LIVID Ra's would be when Damian accidentally fills the finjaan to the top (a message that says, are you satisfied, yet? Get out! In my region) imagine Ra's asking Damian to serve coffee for his villain allies?!! Arabs and non?? And imagine people getting to know and hear about him from his coffee serving, like a good Arab son, before they know him from his sword?

Also, when he finally lives in the manor and sunset arrives and Batman is sitting by the batcomputer, deeply focused, and then is surprised by a finjaan presented to him because it's coffee time?

Damian would be very confident and proud of his coffee making and serving skills he would expect from Bruce nothing but sipping and asking for a refill, because his father should know his manners.

Bruce would know nothing about this but would, of course, sip (not drink! Drinking bad!!!) without question, and will continue to accept and sip every. Single. Day before patrol without knowing what is happening but going along with it because he's pretty sure this is Damian's way of bonding.

Which is not really true because Damian is only performing his duty as a son. He never really understood the core meaning behind this tradition because for a long time now, the art of Arabian Coffee was only a skill that was expected from him and a part of showing good grace. But as days pass and the number of people being served coffee increases and coffee time becomes a routine before each patrol for the whole family, when dates and snacks and small talk and occasional laughter join in, the very meaning behind this tradition clicks with him, and he serves it with a smile.

Ahhh I love when I see the DC fandom literally everywhere

Kon: If I was gay, it'd be for Tim or Bart. Tim: If I was gay, it'd be for Bart or Kon. Bart: If I was gay, it'd be for Kon or Tim. Cassie: OH MY FUCKING GOD I HATE YOU ALL

Being trans and working in an office is funny sometimes

The funniest aspect of a child crime fighter is that sometimes they’re going to run into something that makes no sense because they don’t have the life experience. Because they’re nine.

Like Robin runs into a guy who works for The Penguin and the guy just throws his hands up like, “Don’t hit! I’m not an enforcer. I’m an accountant.”

Robin:

Robin, squaring up: I don’t know what that is.

Listen do I believe that Dick Grayson is borderline demisexual and needs a close personal connection to feel any kind of sexual or romantic feelings for someone. Yes 100%.

Do I also believe that Dick Grayson uses the “I will fuck your mom so she can finally have a son that she can love” threat

or the

“yeah keep talking shit and I’ll fuck you wife” threat while 100% meaning them…

Yeah 1000%

This is a very spiteful man

He thrives off of being a petty motherfucker

How else is he supposed to get his kicks? He has like 5 billion things to do this week.

Tim ruins them financially

Dick sleeps with their wives or mothers okay

This was 100% derived from that one fic I read where Dick got with Tim’s step mom and has almost no canon correlation.

Do I still think this deeply fits with the canon characterization of 17-23yr old Dick Grayson

Yeah

So now it’s canon

Well it’s less direct comic panel and more a lot of implicit stuff but I have a few saved and a few that I remember things vaguely happening

But Jason Todd canonically resents Nightwing for being the perfect son

And for following Bruce’s teachings which he deems frankly ineffective and useless.

As well as feeling that he will never be able to live up to Nightwings legacy

(Feat Jason’s hallucinations)

But Dick Grayson is another story

Because Nightwing is Batman’s pride and Joy. Proof the the concept of the child hero and one of the first second gen hero’s who got justice league level respect without taking over a mentors titles

Meanwhile

Dick Grayson is his brother

And sometimes these two come into conflict like in under the redhood

You can see in the image here that when bludhaven got destroyed

Initially Jason wasn’t happy, his face was shadowed and he was genuinely upset and then Bruce screamed Dicks name and Jason immediately remembers himself and returns to taunting Bruce

Jason’s relationship is bad with nightwing bc he sees nightwing as another hand in Batman’s crusade

Dick has been Jason’s hero since long before he put on the uniform

And here is where I struggled to find more images

But Jason Todd and Dick Grayson have a completely separate relationship

Despite dick and nightwing being the same guy it’s very obvious when Jason is talking to Dick his Big Brother and Nightwing Batman’s lil perfect solider

They can insult each other and joke around and be supportive with one another

And Dick Grayson will always have Jason Todd’s back if not the red hood

There was a panel in I think the Nightwing 2021 annual where Jason was accused of murder and Dick goes to talk to him and Jason immediately goes “I didn’t do it” and Dick replies I believe you “just like that?” “Just like that”

And of course there was the iconic Nightwing and Batman fight during Gotham war with my boy did so well in he should’ve won

Anyway Dick and Jason are friends and brothers

Nightwing and red hood despise each other

Thank u for coming to my ted talk

I love how severely Jason refuses to differentiate between Bruce and Batman while also refusing to acknowledge that Nightwing and Dick Grayson are the same dude

Question?

We talk about how Tim, Jason and Damian’s parents raised them pre Bruce but why don’t we talk about Dick Graysons.

Bc even before all of the court of the owls shit the way that man was raised was wild.

So remember Dick was a member and active participant of a circus as a child. A trapeze act without a net who was expected to pull his weight since he could walk.

That means that despite what everyone thinks John and Mary Grayson absolutely could not afford to gentle parent their child.

At all.

Dick had to know how dangerous his life was forever. He has to be perfect because if he fails him or his parents die. They die with a mistake. Don’t stretch your hand out far enough and someone falls.

And despite the fact that the Romani aspect of his character was born out of a writers need for fetish content. I still find it interesting to explore.

And since I am European! Halys circus truther

It gets more interesting because the anti-Romani sentiment in Europe is vile, obvious and violent. (And I say this as a poc who grew up outside of Europe and moved here for college. Like you’d never imagine the type of shit they say about a group of people with no shame before turning around and commenting about how crazy it is that poc are treated poorly in the rest of the world.) Now imagine your child is working a dangerous gig while being part of a hated minority and you have to go and advertise your whole families location because you are the centerpiece of a show.

Yall think Mary and John Grayson didn’t teach their kid to lie? To fit in with any group humanly possible.

You think Mary and John didn’t teach dick to switch from, mama to mom to Daj. To switch accents and tones and languages since before he could walk on his hands?

You think that this kid who grew up traveling everywhere wouldn’t know how to integrate himself so fully into the society he’s in that he’s invisible as an outsider?

When Dick talks to Bruce in Juvie right before hes taken in as a ward he has an American accent. A Gotham accent and not the ones the other kids has no Dick has a Bristol accent. When he first meets Alfred he has a charming softly British accent, the kind that isn’t immediately noticeable unless you share the accent. The softening of the vowels and heavy central consonants. Think kids who went to British schools abroad and learned English from people with British accents.

Bruce notices this but doesn’t think much of it I mean kids can adapt to their environments startlingly quick maybe the kid just kinda picks up accents.

But then Dick becomes robin and he’s horrifically good at it from the get go.

Which sends alarm bells in Alfred’s head because he raised Bruce at that age. He taught Bruce to defend himself at that age. Bruce wouldn’t be about to do 1/10 of what this kid can do.

No eight year old should be able to throw items with that sort of precision even a child as good at gymnastics as dick. No child should be that comfortable with a knife in his hand.

And of course dick always had an excuse, he grew up around fire breathers and knife throwers of course he’s good.

And Bruce notices when Dick goes out as Robin and begins to help people because for the first few months, he never speaks first.

He’ll save someone and when they thank him, he’ll reply in their exact accent.

The crime alley rougher tones

The high class smarmy Bristol accent

The open vowel Jersey accent

When he meets Superman there’s the barest edges of midwestern twang in his every word.

And it’s just unnerving

He flickers between cultures like their clothes in his wardrobe, accents like they’re a new set of perfectly fit shoes.

He’s just good at it.

And it’s a game to him.

He sees how close he can get to your accent without coming off as suspicious.

By the time he’s being doing the Robin shtick for a while and knows the areas he just immediately switches to the most common accent there even if there aren’t any people around.

His facial expressions and hand gestures change as well.

It adds to the myth of the Batman because the gcpd for a long while believes any Robin reportings to be a myth because one minute someone is reporting a Jersey accent the next genial Californian, or a tv safe reporter tone, one minute the kid is conversing in perfect Russian the next he’s speaking Spanish like he grew up in Mexico.

When he wants to get away with a mistake his voice switches to one indistinguishable from a scared child, with a mild stutter, overgramarization and the scared world slurring children do that makes your heart soft

When he wants people to listen to him his he’s eloquent and enunciating perfectly. He sounds far older than his years.

And everyone thinks they’re hearing the real Dick Grayson speak and it makes their hearts happy because look at how he puts on a show for everyone but trusts me enough to talk without lying.

Without ever realizing that they’re one of the people watching the show.

"I have depression." - character who has been through extensive therapy.

"I feel dead inside all the time and nothing helps!" - character who does like, regular introspective thinking and is aware of the concept of mental health.

"Leave me the fuck alone I'll be fine once I get over my stupid shit." - repressed character.

"It's fine I'm just having an Empty Time. What? Yeah, empty times, you know, when everything is like bzzzzzz in your brain and you don't shower for two weeks. Why, what do you call it?" - ooooughhh now we're talkin