ooc. Currently, the Lightbulb Plotline is going to becoming more focal in interactions and narrative on this blog for at least the next few months. Specifically, Bruce currently has a xenoparous pregnancy.
This plot does contain potentially triggering themes and tropes that not everyone wants on their dashboard, such as:
Pregnancy
Dysphoria (body, gender, etc)
Autonomy Issues
Body horror
Xenobiology
Non-graphic medical and surgical concepts
Neonate/infant
Where applicable I'll be using individual tags in the style cw: warning (e.g: cw: pregnancy, cw body horror). You can also blacklist the entire plot line, by filtering for -> 💡 <-
If you need help filtering, please see this guide!
Alternatively, this plot may be your cup of tea!
Since I will not be sending asks, or starting threads in this plot without permission from the other roleplayer, I'll need to know if you're interested. So if you want to get involved - get asks, or even write some threads about this, you can reply to this post letting me know!
Damian and his son apprentice he has legal custody of. (Pose is from this tumblr user!)
I made their symbols myself! Damian's is based off the earlier Nightwing symbols (Hopefully I didn't just copy one, I didn't use a ref for that part.) and Dick's is self-explanatory.
I can't help but feel like Dick's proportions are off??? Please let me know if you think it looks weird too, I can't tell what's wrong with him.
Some lore under the cut, I really go off on a tangent:
The scars on Damian's face and ear are from Deathstroke trying to take out his eye! His bro, Respawn, has similar ones. They quite like the fact that they match; only good thing that came of the situation tbh.
Dick was adopted by Bruce shortly before being presumed dead. The rest of family, put simply, is in shambles.
Cass has her hands full with the Batman mantle, Steph took her search for training off-continent, Tim's distancing himself as always, Jason's convinced he could find a way to bring Bruce back if he just could his hands on the body or the next best thing. That leaves Damian and Alfred as the only possible guardians for Dick, and Damian steps up to take custody.
From Dick's POV, he's learned two things: 1) Bruce was Batman, and everyone here is a vigilante! 2) If everyone's so busy, who's going to avenge his parents now?
Thus Robin becomes a thing. Dick just starts clocking in for patrol like it's normal, and Damian is like 'WHAT.' And Dick demands asks nicely that he help him take down Zucco.
Damian is successfully able to keep Dick from following him onto patrol for nearly a month. But the longer Dick's parents go without justice, the angrier he gets. Dick well and truly hates Damian for keeping him from stopping Zucco. There comes a breaking point where Dick screams at Damian, calling him a bunch of names and cursing him for existing.
For Dick, it's a violent outburst that's been in the making since his parents died. For Damian, though, it's like looking in a mirror.
Damian caves. He'll help Dick, but not before preparing him. Dick is very quick to be portray it as an equal partnership. Damian shuts that down immediately. Specifically, this is an apprenticeship. Damian will train, support and be with Dick every step of the way, but he definitely won't be an equal.
The Bats have had untrained members before. Every single one craved to be trained properly and took their time mastering their skills. Dick is headstrong, driven by revenge. That's a massive risk, and Damian has train him without Bruce's expertise in taming young overeager vigilantes.
On patrol, Damian needs to know Dick will do exactly as he says when he says it. Thus, the apprenticeship takes form as it is. Nightwing and Robin.
I've changed my mind. Breathing is overrated.
I guess I will put a warning here for choking or strangling or whatever, but let's be real: they are both so into this. Also check how Bruce loosens his grip in panel two. That's storytelling, baby! I'm a fuckin weaver of tales.
