IMPORTANT DICK GRAYSON HEADCANON / PORTRAYAL NOTES
was adopted by bruce, his full name is technically richard grayson-wayne but he often shortens it to richard grayson bc otherwise his name feels a million years long
trans man who funnily enough has top surgery scars that look kind of like the bat symbol (even funnier is the fact that bruce's top surgery scars also look like the bat symbol)
in my batfam's official canon/story bruce doesn't let kids younger than middle school age go in the field with him. he does teach them self defense skills earlier than that however
that being said dick was never good at following rules and he made his own robin costume and snuck out multiple times stressing bruce the fuck out
bruce didn't adopt him immediately -- dick was put in an orphanage but didn't do well because the shock of his parents and a few other members of the circus getting murdered before his eyes left him anxious, prone to not sleeping and non-verbal. no one at the orphanage knew how to care for such a scared and traumatized kid so he was essentially neglected at the orphanage
unable to forget dick, especially since he was looking into his parents' murders, bruce ended up checking on dick and was horrified to find what conditions the boy was living in and took him home
dick quickly grew attached to alfred and bruce and they grew attached to him in turn. they helped him go to therapy, learn sign language and encouraged him to take his time in regards to finding his voice once again
the first time dick speaks again is when he has a nightmare that the same person who killed his bio parents kills alfred -- so his first words are a scream from waking up from said nightmare, calling for his dad to help him. bruce rushes into the room thinking there's an intruder and there isn't. the hug he gives dick is INCREDIBLE and dick melts into it
despite bruce's assurances dick continues to have nightmares and high anxiety unil bruce assures him batman is going after zucco
a sleep deprived bruce accidentally leaves a case file out regarding zucco, resulting in dick making his own diy costume and sneaking out to help batman catch zucco
they catch zucco but dick gets a pretty bad knife blade cut from zucco in the process on his left arm -- a scar he still has today
dick trains hard to join his own hero team at age 13 (this is where a lot of the young justice show influences come in for me)
dick is 16 when bruce takes in jason. jason is like a rough and tumble alley cat which somehow only makes him more lovable in dick's eyes
due to trauma jason is very hesitant with unfamiliar adults but bonds insanely fast with both dick and batman