Uhhh...

things I am intrigued by in Batman/Batfamily fic: all the signs/things you can't hide from someone even with good acting. or, the limits of even the most air tight secret identity game in town. scars and injuries fall into this, sure, there are some you can't fully conceal or explain away. but I'm thinking more behavioral or instinctual. not flinching when there's a sudden explosion. jumping in front of an innocent civilian at the last second. knowing things a normal civilian shouldn't. etc etc.

OP I'm so sorry for derailing this, because it's such a fascinating aspect to explore, but it reminded me of this:

He's not very good this <3

just watched a tiktok about how the discowing suit is meant to be blue & black and not blue & dark blue

for everyone disagree with me

his hair, mask, and suit are the same color. black with dark blue shading

black with dark blue shading

black with dark blue shading

you guys are acting like i’m crazy but this is exactly same thing that happened with spider-man. his costume was meant to be red and black but they used dark blue shading so everyone thought it was dark blue.

are you telling me he has blue hair? it’s literally the same color

John and Mary Grayson watching from heaven:

Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940)

Given various iterations of John and Mary have had them as being quietly heroic in their own right; sheltering battered women (John), and helping steal back illegally hoarded medication for the disadvantaged in the middle of an epidemic (Mary), looked at long term, the kid has a point.

WAIT WHEN AND WHERE? WHAT ISSUES WHAT COMICS?

Nightwing #82 for them hiding a woman from her abuser

And Mary's "Robin Hood" style adventure

@iconuk01 @meara-eldestofthemall @confusedhummingbird @farshootergotme @gretahayes

It’s stories for them like these the reason why I believe had one of them survived the ‘accident’ and found out about foul play at the circus, they might’ve became self taught crime fighters themselves

!!!! John and Mary from an alternate universe where it was Dick who died instead of them (which almost happened in main continuity universe according to a recent Nightwing issue), who through Circumstances™ became vigilante crimefighters, meeting main continuity Nightwing like:

Biblically accurate Nightwing (Nightwing Vol.2 # 126)

dick grayson & tim drake: siblings

Shout-out to my favorite Tim Drake design I love it I want it in my blood

WAIT WAIT WAIT I NEVER NOTICED THE FINGERSTRIPES

Red Robin #19

"Maybe we're seeing ourselves the way we think we are" SIR

The way he's basically like "one of the main influences on who I am now is Dick Grayson"

So I've been thinking about Dick's canonical skydiving hobby and also about his many flying friends, and now I can't get this image out of my head:

Whenever Dick is in a workaholic funk or particularly stressed, one of the Titans with the ability to fly yoinks him and flies him to the sky and then just lets him go. It's for enrichment. It's like air jail so he'll take a break he can't opt out of, but actually fun for him. (They catch him at the end because they're usually too spontaneous to grab him a parachute)

This must look so bad from the outside. I imagine the whole "grabbing someone, flying them real high and then letting go, catching and repeating" would be a somewhat common intimidation/interrogation tactic for the flying folks. A bit extreme or cruel one at that.

So whenever the Titans would do this, people on the outside would be like: "What horrible thing has Nightwing done now to deserve this D:"

Meanwhile Dick is having the time of his life

continuing my thoughts about the Bats all being in high-stress physical and mental states so whenever they get captured and injected with truth serum/something to make them compliant, it reacts horribly with the nuclear levels of cortisol/stress hormones in their bodies and they just conk out. hard.

and, obviously, fully-unconscious Bats can’t answer questions, which is a big L for Black Mask to take after paying off Scarecrow to develop a truth serum no one can resist (not even the Bat himself)

Asfskjh now I'm picturing the Titans all captured and bound, drugged with the serum. The villain is getting ready to interrogate their leader, Nightwing. He's gloating, taking time to monologue at the heroes -

He's interrupted by the biggest snore.

"Friggin' finally!" exclaims the Flash. He turns to the villain, "THANK YOU! Finally someone did something about this idiot! It was his what, third day without any sleep?"

"Fourth," chimed in Wonder Girl.

"Fourth day without any sleep!" continues the Flash. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to make him just like. Stop and take a break?" He's answered with several sage nods from the other Titans, with varying degrees of loopiness. The Flash continues in a mocking tone, while making fingerquotes with his bound hands, ""I'll sleep when I'm dead, Flash! I can't take a break or the world will stop spinning, Flash!" Seriously, you'd think a normal guy on a team of superhumans would know his limits, but noooooo, he's gotta carry every little problem on his own shoulders."

(Between Nightwing being asleep and the others distracted by the fact that he's finally asleep, the villain never manages to get anything from the Titans.)

No, see, because Dick is the funniest result of being raised by Bruce and Alfred in that he can cook (like Alfred can) but he chooses to eat weird fast food and takeout on purpose (like Bruce does only because he can’t cook).

Thus, we get comics where Dick will cook an actual, quality meal for a hungry sibling but then his apartment is full of pizza boxes in weird flavors and he once ate abandoned popcorn from an empty sports stadium.

I’m also 98% sure that it’s Dick’s fault that Tim’s favorite type of pizza is Canadian bacon and artichoke hearts. But if Tim wants then Dick will hand him a thermos of warm home made soup. Older brother who can meet any of your food needs!

Here’s a selection of the panels I was thinking of here…what fits in the mobile image limit anyway. I couldn’t even fit a fraction of the pizza panels. Dick’s bonding through weird food is precious.

On one hand the soggy popcorn is disgusting, but on the other hand I remembered this classic:

and I realized that it's also on brand.

No, see, because Dick is the funniest result of being raised by Bruce and Alfred in that he can cook (like Alfred can) but he chooses to eat weird fast food and takeout on purpose (like Bruce does only because he can’t cook).

Thus, we get comics where Dick will cook an actual, quality meal for a hungry sibling but then his apartment is full of pizza boxes in weird flavors and he once ate abandoned popcorn from an empty sports stadium.

I’m also 98% sure that it’s Dick’s fault that Tim’s favorite type of pizza is Canadian bacon and artichoke hearts. But if Tim wants then Dick will hand him a thermos of warm home made soup. Older brother who can meet any of your food needs!

Also! With the amount of responsibilities he usually takes on it's probably very very low on his list of priotities. That man is a workaholic, he barely takes time to sleep whenever stuff is going down (which is often), and cooking takes quite a lot of time.

Same with cleaning - his apartment is often portrayed as quite messy (or barely lived in). It's not that he can't, it's just not that important.

Au where somehow dick ends up becoming the apartment complex’s community jar opener

The first time it happens his neighbor is supposed to be hosting dinner for her boss but just can’t get the damn lid off of the maraschino cherries. It’s supposed to be on the cake because they’re her bosses favorite and she really needs this promotion. So she desperately knocks on doors looking for help and dick (half asleep from working three jobs) is the only one that answers. Then he takes one look at this near tears woman holding a jar of candy cherries like a lifeline, notes the red marks on her hands and the knife marks on the lid, then silently gestures for her to give it to him. It’s literally open in seconds and he jokes about her loosening it up for him. If she wasn’t so grateful she’d be infuriated at how easy it was for him.

Still she tells her gardening friend about what happened (an elderly man on the floor above hers who has the least green thumb she has ever seen) and a week later dick has him at his door holding up two pints of Talenti ice cream. Apparently he usually just saws through the plastic containers with a knife since he can never get the lids off and figured he might as well ask first this time. Bemused, dick pops the lids off effortlessly and gets a pint as payment. Dick agrees but only if they eat it together. That day he learns some truly fascinating things about plants that may or may not help him during a case.

After that it just keeps happening? A kid shows up at his door holding up a pickle jar and he find out that the kids mom is pregnant and has been having all kinds of cravings. When he walks the kid back home, the mom just tugs him inside and tells him to loosen all the jar. He’s honestly too surprised not to do it

Then an old woman that’s keeps trying to set dick up with her grandchildren. Then two teenagers sheepishly holding up a flint stone gummies vitamin bottle (how were we supposed to know you had to press down on the tab while twisting the top!). Then a little girl with a mason jar who tells him she’s going to catch a carpenter ant and make it the ruler of Barbie land.

Just dick accidentally becoming a very beloved members of every community he’s a part of

And so Dick Grayson became a local superhero: the Jar Man.

(Because of course that workaholic would manage to become a superhero twice at the same time. Even if by complete accident.)

Since I still can't stop thinking about this:

You know that popular trope in the comics, where a superhero with a secret identity is approached by someone and they say something like: "I know your secret / I know who you really are!" This is usually used as a cliffhanger ending to an issue, and is continued with a reveal that has nothing to do with the superhero identity. I remember Dick being on the receiving end of that at least a couple times.

So imagine Dick in that situation again. Someone says: "I know who you really are!" Dick's keeping completely cool, these sort of things are never about people finding out he's Nightwing. He wonders what it's gonna be this time.

"You're that local superhero!"

Oh no.

He miscalculated.

It's real this time.

"You're the Jar Man!"

And yup! Dick definitely didn't take way too long to process that sentence! It did not turn into an awkward silence! No, he responded appropriately, and not with a stilted "Yup! That's me! The Jar Man!" complete with finger guns. He's a professional after all!