#Mary and John Grayson

[noisilyscreechingsong]

They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know what to say. They couldn’t accept this, so they ran. They could do nothing more for their son. Their fingers couldn’t squeeze his shoulder or run through his hair. Their voices couldn’t reach him no matter how much they screamed or cried.

The young teenager that tries to talk to them was just too much. Ghosts? Obsessions? They couldn’t process what he was talking about let alone believe him.

The teenager leaves, but he comes back after a while. They don’t know how long but he has grown. He’s a young adult now. He says he goes to the local college.

They were ready now. If they can just tell their son they love him one last time, tell him how sorry they are for leaving him like that, tell him how proud they were of him and to always keep his head up, then maybe they can move on or at least have some peace. Hopefully their words would reach him and give him some closure, if he believes this teenager that is.

They are hopeful as the three approach the Wayne gate.

“You guys ready?” The teen asks, taking a deep breath but not looking overly nervous. Perhaps he’s done this before?

Mary and John look at each other. They hadn’t changed much, just different colors, so their once blue eyes were now a bright toxic green like the teen’s, but they still knew each other. They can still read each other with just a glance.

They look back at the teen.

“Yes.”

The button is pushed and the bell rings.

Danny was there that night the ropes were cut and the Grayson's fell. But while Bruce saw a child who just lost his parents, Danny saw two parents mourning how they left their child too soon.

[oifaaa]

I mean he's not wrong

[caffeinatedvigilantewriter]

After dani left amity to travel the world, she thought the best way would be to join a traveling circus.

Haley’s Circus

So she joins the performers as a trapeze artist (she used her flight to help her)

Very quickly, the Graysons end up taking her under their wings, and help her with her stunts. Dick was 7 when she joined their little family.

Dick was eight when he watched her die.

Dani was a quicker learner, so on that fateful day, she went up in the platform with John and Mary and fell to her death 20 seconds later.

But halfas never truly die, do they?

She wakes up in a body bag and phases out with invisible.

After some light research, she finds out that Dick is being fostered by a Billionaire and decides that Dick would be safer with Wayne than with her, so she leaves, coming back to check in him every birthday and death day of his parents.

In the meantime, Dani took a detour to the Infinite Realms and found John and Mary, explained who she really was and updated them on Dick regularly.

Dick never mentioned her to anyone, and Bruce never brought her up and Dick went the next 15 years without seeing Dani, and eventually, she became a distant memory until he caught a glimpse of her while on a mission with his family.

Dani was now around 28, and the GIW had finally caught up to her. Just when she thought she was about to die, the Agent got body slammed by Nightwing, a confused Red Hood and Red Robin following him.

[eldritchdemonfox]

why does everyone seem obsessed with making the batkid’s bio parents either an afterthought or worse than they actually are?

I mean, in some cases they did actually have bad parents, like Arthur Brown and David Cain

But like…

Duke’s parents are still alive, albeit comatose. He loves them.

Tim’s parents were not as criminally neglectful as fannon makes them out to be, and it really impacted him when they died.

Dick’s parents are the REASON he chose Robin as his name, and he still misses them.

While Willis Todd wasn’t a great father, he did at least want a better life for Jason in some cannons. And Catherine did the best she could. The only person really deserving of hate is Sheila. Fuck her fr.

Babs LITERALLY STILL HAS A DAD. WHO SHE LOVES. Justice for my man Gordon.

I mean CMON

[geneticdriftwood]

persephone's in hell; a rooftop conversation

for @mysterycitrus

persephone's in hell, @mysterycitrus // white winter hymnal, fleet foxes // assorted dc comics

[emo-batboy]

A Wild Battinson (Social Media AU)

Part 25 (Masterlist)

(Part 26)

@bruciemilf he is baby

[were-wolverine]

thinking about dick grayson who used to braid his mom’s hair before their shows

thinking about him growing his hair out, and doing those same braids before going out as nightwing

thinking about him asking anyone with long enough hair if he can braid it, about him doing the same braids his father used to do for his mother on kori and babs

one day he finds steph crying in the batcave and takes her into the manor. he sits her down in front of the couch and sits behind her and tells her to put on a movie. then he starts to brush her hair and braid it

it’s his love language, it’s just unfortunate the rest of his siblings have short hair.

when tim grows his hair out (which definitely didn’t have anything to do with this haha…) dick is so happy and braids his hair any time he sees him

when he was younger and bruce sometimes took him to JL meetings, he’d ask diana if he could braid it (she always said yes ofc) and sometimes he’d ask arthur who was so honored every time

bruce, glaring at arthur as 11 y/o dick braids his hair because he is Jealous and now seriously considering growing his hair out: Hn

[gffa]

I'm fine, yeah, sure, a cute Batman & Scooby Doo comic made me cry, because John and Mary Grayson are still watching over their son even when he can't hear or see them and are incredibly proud of him, but I'm totally fine, I'm not crying about Batman comics or anything.

[morgangalaxy43]

All of the batkids have mommy issues or daddy issues (except Dick, his bio parents were nice but he definitely has great grandfather issues)

[farshootergotme]

Dick going back to his parents graves after every traumatizing event because they're the only ones that can listen without getting hurt.

[bluegarners]

there tends to be a kind of under estimation in regards to dick’s attitude towards his parents. they’re more often used as The Reason for his path of heroism, and that’s true enough, but it’s a very focused Reason that often fails to include the actual Loving Parents. i would argue that thomas and martha wayne get more attention in regards to their loving on bruce, and in certain time traveling corners on dick as well, but it’s rare to see that kind of respect paid to john and mary grayson. the parallels we can draw between bruce and dick pretty much end after dick is taken in. we can count: loving parents; stable family structure; only child; bright future; horrific murder of parents; witness to said murder; and plot for vengeance as the core parallels between dick and bruce. where they begin to diverge is the point in which bruce becomes the guiding mentor for dick in how to channel that sense of grief and rage (though bruce had alfred, alfred played no part in diverting bruce from his self destructive path and encouraged it)

to that end, there’s a lot of talk about martha wayne’s pearls and mary grayson’s robin, but even then talk seems to only center around dick’s hero name and never what about the history the name implies. “robin stands for hope”, okay what else? martha’s pearls symbolize the catalyst for bruce’s transformation into batman, but does mary’s robin do the same? i think not, bc going back to the divergence between bruce’s and dick’s origins, though bruce remains the defining fork in the road for dick, if dick were raised in extremely similar circumstances as bruce, bruce would have more or less fulfilled the role that alfred did for bruce- which was mainly distant but caring adult figure that served to simply agree rather than direct. a reasonable conclusion, should bruce have fulfilled such a role for dick, would have been that dick should’ve become bruce #2. obviously, dick didn’t and the reason for that lies in john and mary grayson

this may ruffle some feathers, but there is a point to be made in the difference between the wayne parents and the grayson parents. let’s do some quick if thens: if alfred was left in charge of bruce, then alfred holds some responsibility in how bruce turned out. if bruce grew up to be someone emotionally closed off, then bruce is an emotionally distant, closed off adult. if bruce is an emotionally distant, closed off adult, then it stands to reason alfred reflects the same. so, if bruce and alfred are both emotionally distant, closed off adults, then when they take in dick grayson, dick will grow up to be an emotionally distant, closed off adult. right?

well, we all know that’s not how it turned out, and all reason for such a conclusion reside solely in the short time john and mary grayson raised their son. “but bruce had about the same time with his own parents. why did he and dick turn out so different?” and again i point directly at the implied differences in the wayne’s and grayson’s child rearing! the waynes represented a very nuclear family, one that is generationally upper class and in very prominent leadership positions. tracking the assumed and typical rearing patterns for that kind of family, though it may be a foundationally loving one, it’s also one that is radically different from the type the graysons represented. power and job structure rested solely with thomas and martha; bruce had very very little to worry about or any responsibilities other than making good grades and being a generally good son. comparing such a dynamic to the graysons, the power lines begin to blur a little. john and mary are employees, not leaders or heads of anything. however, they work in an extremely team oriented and cooperative environment- their earnings depend on everyone and themselves. though a prominent act in haly’s circus, they are not a completely solo one, and even then, it is a team, FAMILY act. since his birth, dick has been raised in an environment that focuses heavily on teamwork and perseverance. he took on enormous responsibility in being a part of the flying graysons, which likely wasn’t something he was being forced to do, young as he was. taking on a JOB as young as 9 years old, one that tests his physical, mental, and emotional strength sets him drastically apart from bruce when he was the same age. but let’s go back to john and mary again

no parent on earth would ever want to put their child in such a dangerous position as performing on the trapeze. and yet, john and mary did. why? dick’s initiative and his parents’ trust and strength. if john and mary believed that they lacked in some way that could put dick in harms way, i find it impossible to believe they would have ever let dick join them. dick did not learn his strength and endurance from bruce. dick already possessed those qualities before meeting him, otherwise dick would have never become robin and joined batman so quickly. the graysons set an ENORMOUS example for dick, one that set the tone for the rest of his life. taking into account the “it takes a village” familial structure that dick was raised in while with haly, dick would have learned that the strength of individuals COMBINED is what makes a person strong. even the formation of the flying graysons relies on trust in each other, that they will be caught in the next leap and that they can do these amazing stunts without fear of failure BECAUSE of the Faith they have in each others abilities. in addition to that, an environment that encourages strength and teamwork must also encourage FAILURE. one cannot learn from perfection- only through mistakes does one grow, and dick grew EXPONENTIALLY. dick grew, at the age of 9, to PRODIGY levels of talent and acrobatics. john and mary set an example so strong and so steadfast that it fostered dick’s stone-solid character for the rest of his life, even after they were gone from it

dick would have not survived his parents’ deaths were it not for the way they had raised him. it is why dick can move on and grow from it, whereas, as we’ve seen a dozen dozen times, bruce has failed to ever move on. coddled and adored as he was, bruce never had to face a challenge that his parents wouldn’t have gladly taken care of for him. the waynes did everything for their son because they loved him enormously, and what parent in the world would force their child to do difficult things- especially at 10 years old? of course bruce never had to confront things like failure or hardship before, his circumstances in life simply wouldn’t have allowed for it, and that is why bruce was so incapable of handling his parents’ deaths. thomas and martha did not prepare bruce for difficulties in any department, whereas john and mary introduced problems AND solutions to dick very early on. the SOLUTIONS bit is what set up dick for so much success- that’s the key difference between the two. dick had both parents AND guides, while bruce just had parents

dick would not have become a light in the world while with bruce were it not for john and mary grayson and their love and dedication towards their son. the credit for dick’s achievements as a hero may fall to bruce most of the time, but even bruce recognizes that he had zero part in the formation of dick’s strength of character. dick’s continued success and perseverance has EVERYTHING to do with those first 9 years he was with john and mary, and not a single one of the innumerable tragedies dick has endured has ever been able to disavow that

[liliegrayson]

nightwing (2016) #115

[allovesthings]

You know, the joke that everyone was at the circus when Dick's parents died is hilarious but.... Also I would love a recap of who actually was there.. So far: I've got:

Tim and his parents

Raptor

Bruce

(was Deadman here ?)

Zucco (duh)

Do we have some time-travel shenanigans with the Graysons ?

Some Court of Owl people, I assume ?

Edit: I forgot Heartless!!! My bad.

[thesulkycroissant]

I know Dick was young when Bruce took him in, but there is something so aching and vulnerable about Dick a) referring to his parents as "The Graysons" and b) listing these very basic things as things he hoped to learn about them. Of course I know from a logical perspective that Dick wouldn't retain much memory of his parents, but in the larger frame of this conversation with Bruce, and how Dick thinks about family in this entire arc, it really drives home that Bruce was the primary parent he had and remembers.

[hood-ex]

I just remembered that when Dick was in the circus and shared a bunk bed with a performer named Tombo, he was so bothered by Tombo's snoring that he decided he was going to go sleep in a tree.

Nightwing (Vol. 4) #8

[magnoliasandarson]

Dazzling

The Flying Grayson! A prodigy in the air, and only eight! Watch him perform, marvel at the soaring boy!

The Boy Wonder, Robin! A hero in the night, and just a boy! See him fight, gaze in awe as he flips from rooftops!

The Titan, Nightwing! A legend across galaxies, and merely a man! Witness the myth, gawk at the man that stands with gods!

Dick Grayson couldn't stand the sight of himself. The consummate showman, rendered nauseous by glimpses of his own face in windows.

His face wasn't his own. His bone structure- the high cheekbones and jawline- was his father's. (He saw the same face half caved in every night in his dreams). It was almost a blessing when some criminal got a lucky shot in and bruised his face. At least then Dick could look in there mirror.

His stress lines weren't his own. They were Bruce’s- born from agony and sacrifice. He used to trace the creases on the older man's face, admonishing him for stressing too much. It's one of life's great ironies that the smiling acrobat had deep frown lines before reaching 25.

The Last Flying Grayson!

He saw it- he did. He could see his mother's eyes in his own, his father's smile on his lips. He couldn't bear to see either.

The First Boy Wonder, Robin!

The colors he'd been so proud to wear, he couldn't see the suit without thinking of the children that had died carrying his name.

The Leader of the Titans, Nightwing!

The name he'd chosen for himself, taken from a myth from a distant planet. Anything to escape what he'd become- a warped reflection of the people he'd loved and failed.

Everyone look at the mighty hero! Because he can't look at himself!