Dick Grayson angst prompt:
I want a Dick Grayson whose bottled up insanity is seeping out.
He has been suppressing things for so long, fooling his family and his therapists that it's fine. That everything. Everything filling his brain isn't overflowing through his persona to the point where he can't control it.
One moment he is listening to Damian about his school and the other he is just staring at the wall, biting his lips so hard his teeth are embedded in the flesh of his lower lips. Damian is panicked and trying to snap him out of it but he is not even moving. Then suddenly he stops and looks at Dami with a ,"and then what? What did mister Beck said?"
Barbara is in his apartment having an argument with him when suddenly he gets silent. "Slade would have understood...he would have understood ." And then the moment she touches his legs slowly approaching him, he drops on his knees and puts his head in her lap asking in a hesitant voice,
"Can you hit me?" Babs goes still . "Dick?" ."....pls?"
Bruce orders nightwing through the comms as batman and he responds with a "yes master". Nightwing moved on cracking a joke like he didn't even noticed.
Alfred checks on him in the bed bay when he gasps in horror at what he finds on his thighs. "My boy.. What is this?" Dick looks at it and pales for a min but then he is suddenly smiling. " Me and Jay were playing tic-tac toe."
Jason and Steph peeps from behind and their expression matches Alfred's because "Dick wtf?" Jason would have swore if he could cuz why are games of tic tac Toe carved on his brother? "Like a rough copy.
"Jay suggested the knife idea...said the legs have more area than the wrist."
Tim and Jason checking on Dick because Cass insisted something is wrong. That "something has been wrong for a while. You go." They entered his apartment after picking the locks cuz no one answered . Only to run towards their brother. Their brother who is completely naked curled up on the floor.
"Wtf were you doing? have you lost your mind!" Tim immediately puts a blanket to cover his body. Cuz he knows his brother is in a catatonic state. He can't move or touch him directly. Jay bends down, bringing his ears close to hear what he is saying.
There elder brother is muttering under his breath, "she did it. I didn't. I am poison so she will punish me. Everyone is laughing at me. Kory hates me. My friends hate me. They will watch and laugh and there are spiders I'm scared."
Jason gently lifts him up with the blanket. "No dicky there are no spiders yeah? Promise no creepy crawling in this room".
"N-nno j jay on my skin there on my leg. See? it's there. They are-between my legs! It f-feels bad its dis-disgusting. Plsgethemouttheyareundermyskingettinginsidesygetemaway"
While Jay holds their shivering and sobbing brother curled up in his arms and Tim is in the kitchen boiling water, calling Bruce, pretending there isn't a lump in his chest thumping with fear. Pretending Jason is blinking away dust not tears, like his other big brother's lips are not shaking with uncertainty.
I want his Trauma to take the worst turn possible and when everyone is looking at each other, they realized they never had any contingency to deal with this because the one thing that felt more implausible than the alien attacks, alternate dimensions and dead loved ones coming back was the idea of Nightwing breaking.
