always always thinking about superhero legacy, especially on civilians, because the idea of superheroes is absolutely fantastical for us but in universe? it’s reality. and just imagine how these types of stories linger in the shadowed nooks and crannies of a culture, of a people.
wars will rage, and injustice is a sickly, undying thing. but for every cruel boot smashing a face into the ground, for every act of senseless violence, there is someone ready to fight back. on one of these far-future days (yet, not really that far at all) a dictator is taken down by a team of vigilantes. corruption still reigns, and power is fleeting, but for the first time in years, the people feel a sort of flinty-eyed, clench-jawed hope. the next night, a group of kids with bruised knuckles and crooked smiles and kind eyes run over to their city’s courthouse to utterly deface it. one of the children, the artist among them, spray-paints a mural over the doors of the building, pouring their soul into every line and every stroke. for the following months, people in that city flock to the mural, take pictures and redraw likenesses and covet what soon becomes the freedom mural. a man stands on the edge of a building, arms outstretched, the ghost of a pair of wings stretching out behind him and a determined, relentless, compassionate smirk on his face. (the artist used a reference from an old photograph of a group of teenage vigilantes, drawn to the boy in the corner, dressed up in blue and gold, sheer life in his eyes. they thought he had a cool costume.)
no matter the shifts in the wind and the change in the tides, people will always have music in their veins, in their very blood. there is a ramshackle little pub in the heart of a midwestern city, with lights strung across the ceiling and food that makes you feel the good kind of warm and a beat-up old piano in the corner. it is at this piano that a downtrodden little musician likes to play, as often as they can. sure, they’ve got awards lining their mantle and invitations to play in the finest theatres known to man, but with that comes knee-shaking pressure and the cruelty of the rich and loneliness. no, they much prefer this pub, where they can laugh with the locals and bask in the atmosphere and gladly give away a part of their soul with every piece they play. once, a girl comes up to the musician during a furiously fast piece and asks, what’s it about? the musician grins and tells the tale of a man who could run faster than light itself, who left lightning in the traces of his footsteps, who protected his city from the horrors of the world with nothing but his wits and his power. the girl then asks, what happened to him? the musician sighs, tells the girl that nobody knows, then turns and keeps playing, a touch more somber than before.
small town legends are a curious thing, because more often than not they’re true. this one, though—this legend that’s blistering red in a children’s campfire tale or midnight blue in a student’s personal essay or even bountiful green in a farmer’s prayer—this one is fantastical enough, no one is foolish enough to believe it. the story goes like this: there once was a boy who fell from the sky. upon finding out he was trapped and could never returned to the world up in the clouds, he sighed, then turned right around and walked into town. he could not help himself, so he helped others with the powers he kept from the land he was from: lifted tractors and stopped muggers and fixed power lines (back when they still had power lines). and when that boy grew into a man, he bid goodbye to the town and left to help more and more people, until he gave every part of himself away, until he was gone. ridiculous, no? but despite it’s end, it’s light and cheerful and a good tale to tell. after all, no matter what the world has come to, stories of heroes carry on.
Ok! I love this question about Dick Grayson and the circus from @mynamespeppermint
‘What kinda skills (not counting acrobatics) could he have learned in the circus? And maybe even how they could have helped him fight crime?’
So in Circus there is a lot of basic skills that apply to everything in circus. There’s physical strength. (Especially in trapeze or arielist performers!) Balance and grace would also have really helped him.
In terms of specifics. Dick grayson is shown to use wing-dings and birdarangs quite a bit in crime fighting. In the circus he probably would have learned how to throw knives at a pretty young age, and that would’ve really helped him when he started fighting crime. He may even have corrected Bruce in terms of his throwing stance with the batarangs when he was starting out as Robin.
He also uses Escrima Sticks a LOT. They’re his main weapon afterall. My bet is their weighted pretty simmilarily to juggling clubs or batons since he certainly would’ve learned juggling so young that the action would be as natural as breathing. That would mean he would have a natural grace and elegance when fighting with the ecrisma sticks especially when grabbing them, fijiting with them and especially when shifting his grip on them. He would also probably flip them around a lot when fighting, which could make him slightly unpredictable.
Balance and whole body stregth is immperative for any of the acts that are in the air, like tightrope and flying trapeze. He would’ve already had the strength and saftey tools needed to use a grappling gun and the balance required to stick the landings as well as to run around on the Gotham rooftops.
He’s also a performer by nature, so he would probably be the best with the press and cops after a case and he probably would also get along pretty well with a lot of the rouges when he was younger and he would’ve DESPISED the Joker. For a lot of reasons.
He would also be really good at connecting with victim’s, cause the whole thing with circus is to have people connect with what you do or say.
There’s a lot more as well so I might make another post dedicated to stuff he learned at the circus that would’ve helped him as a hero.
Ok, replying to a question Asked by @shieldmaiden19 “Tell us about the family within the circus - all of Dick’s Tantes, Tia, Nonnos - and how he grew up learning from them.”
And@privateolives who asked ’‘How would his parents have helped train him in the early years? When did he start?’
The circus is a giant mix of cultures, and most people in circus absolutely love the kids who are born at or who live at the circus. Plus circus is a family, so Dick would have a bunch of aunts, uncles, tantes, oncles, tia’s, ect.
He’d have hung out in the tent since ge was a baby, possibly even done some training via being in the baby carrier while his parents trained.
When his parents couldn’t train with him he would’ve stayed with either a side act who they trusted or he would’ve stayed in the tent but been watched by a fellow circus performer who was on break.
He would probably have started learning tricks as young as a year old, and been on training equipment with the other circus performers.
He would’ve spent a lot of time running around the circus and probably knew everybody by name, especially the new guys cause they’re new and interesting.
He probably would spend time training and learning from everyone at the circus and he probably had special things to do when spending time with them and even specific bonding activities with all of them.
What sort of stuff do you guys wanna know about Dick grayson and the circus?
Cause Tbh I’m super excited for my performance coming up. It’ll be my first under the big top show in a while because of an injury that made my cronic pain way worse, so in the spirit of not overdoing myself two weeks before the dress rehearsal for the premiere of a new show I want to do more Dick Grayson Circus Headcannons, but I wanna know what sort of stuff y'all wanna know about.
