#haly's circus

[batsandbirdbrains]

Oh no I had another idea that’s gonna make some of u sad. Well, it made me sad. So if I’m sad you all have to be sad with me.

Anyways, season one yj when Dick brings the others undercover with him to Haly’s Circus. The only one who might know who he is behind the mask is Roy, he’d be the only one who would really understand why Robin was so insistent that they help the circus.

But also, everyone in the troupe who knew Dick before his parents were killed recognizes him immediately. They can tell he’s trying to disguise himself for whatever reason, they know he’s given everyone a different name, and they assume he must have run away from that Gotham billionaire and he’s found a group of runaways to travel with. They let him pretend to go by another name, but they treat him just the same as they always had before he was forced to stay behind in Gotham. They adore him.

And he missed them all so much. He loves them, they’re his family. He doesn’t quite realize how familiar he’s acting with them, how odd it is for all his teammates to see. But he doesn’t really care. Because he didn’t realize how much he missed his circus family, and he’s going to soak it all in as long as he can, as much as he can.

But while he’s there, it’s his birthday. And even though he doesn’t say anything, the other members of the circus know. They remember.

Suddenly he’s sitting in his auntie’s trailer, surrounded by family he’s missed so so much, and there’s a birthday cake in front of him. They’re singing to him and he’s blowing out candles and then he’s taking a bite and now he can’t stop crying. Because it’s a cake his mother always made him for his birthday, every year. A cake that Alfred has tried so many times to recreate, but Dick didn’t know what it was called, didn’t know the whole recipe, and no matter how many times he tried to help Alfred, they could never get it right. He didn’t think he would ever get to have it again.

And now it’s in front of him. With a single bite taken out. And he can’t stop panicking and crying and his auntie is hugging him so tight and smoothing back his hair and whispering sweetly to him until he calms down.

He doesn’t want to move away from her though. He doesn’t want her to let go. So she keeps holding him, keeping whispering to him, and when he looks up at her and tells her that he hasn’t had this cake since his parents died, he sees the heartbreak as her face falls.

The others in the trailer are telling him stories to make him smile, make him laugh. They’re pushing gifts towards him and promising him they’ll teach him all sorts of new performance tricks and skills. His auntie is still holding him, but she pushes the cake closer to him, and he still has tears in his eyes, but he can eat it without fully crying.

Then a few days later when the team is getting ready to leave, his auntie gives him a homemade cookbook, with recipes written in her handwriting and that of several others in the troupe. And she presses it into his hands and tells him that if he ever thinks of a recipe his parents made that isn’t in the book, he need only find and ask her, and she’ll do everything she can to find it for him.

It’s the best birthday present he’s ever been given.

[vultureshand]

Dickbin and Zitka

[lonelyplace0fdying]

Thinking abt the time in the comics pre crisis where Dick almost adopted Jason and it just… somehow never got brought up again. And this isn’t the Jason we all know, this was kinda deliberate Grayson clone (in some ways) Jason. Flying Todds Jason.

But like I got down this mental rabbit hole, and can you imagine Dick, after so many years away from the circus, either adopting or having kids of his own in Blüdhaven, and one day they tell him they want to try circus? Like the rush of emotions Dick would probably go through within a matter of seconds.

All of a sudden he’s mentally taken back to his youngest childhood years at Haly’s Circus, watching his parents flying in awe that that’s what his family gets to do every day, and wanting more than anything to get up there with them. His first lessons. Learning and mastering tricks, how to fly, and of course, how to fall.

And then he’s reminded of how much time has passed since then. His parents’ death. Zucco. Bruce Wayne. Dark Victory. Dynamic Duo. The Titans. Blüdhaven. All of it. And he wonders how truly connected he still is to that little boy on the trapeze. Even the Robin mantle, the name his mother gave him, isn’t his anymore. It’s off giving Gothamites hope.

All this to say… I think Dick would be a little teary eyed meeting young kids who want to try circus. Especially if they’re his own. And I feel like one day if he ever gets more time on his hands he’d be such a wonderful teacher. A bit concerned with equipment issues for… reasons. But… wonderful nonetheless. Very caring, kind, wanting to give the next generation the sense of wonder he grew up with.

(P.S. if he ever started a trapeze school you can BET that Zitka the elephant (the plushie) will be there in her place of honor if anyone needs her for comfort.)

(P.P.S. PLEASE let post crisis Jaybin try trapeze I want to see that so badly, we know Tim can do a lot of Dick’s tricks but I would love to see Dick take Jay to go flying.)

[queeniewithabeanie]

Godmother from the Circus

Dpxdc Prompt #56

It was hardly a surprise to anyone that knew her that Ellie Fenton joined the circus.

After all, her obsession was freedom and being a ghost lent itself to certain acrobatic capabilities. Haly's circus had stopped in Amity Park on her 14th—or 2nd depending on how you counted it—birthday, and Ellie fell in love with their death defying tricks.

As soon as the show was over, Ellie marched right up to Pop Haly and demanded to be added to the show. Despite her "lack of tact" as Jazz would describe it, Haly liked her spunk and asked his performers if any of them would be willing to house her in their trailer until she got a place of her own.

John and Mary Grayson volunteered and it was only 4 years later when Ellie was holding her newborn godson, Dick, that she realized she had never moved out.

——————————————————————————————————

When Ellie witnessed the death of the Flying Graysons she was horrified. When she was denied guardianship of her godson, even more so.

"Circus freak," they called her, "no legal documentation," they threw in her face.

So there was nothing she could do when little Dickie was unjustly thrown into a detention center, and even less when he was adopted by some rich, white man in the 0.1% that reminded Ellie of Vlad in all the worst ways.

She was the one that had to clear out their shared trailer, but she wasn't allowed to give them directly to Dickie, in fact she hadn't been allowed to see him since the night of the accident

Ellie did the only thing she could think of, which was write her phone number on the back of a photo of her and the Graysons, one she knew Dick would fight to keep, and hope that sometime soon he would take it out of the frame and see her last ditch effort.

She didn't change her phone number for years, holding onto the hope that he would call. Ellie kept it the same through headlines upon headlines of scandals about "Richie Wayne" needing him to be able to contact her, even if he wasn't the same 9 year old circus boy she left him as.

She became glad she did when 8 years after the fact she received a call from an unknown number, and answered it to a voice that sounded like a carbon-copy of John Grayson's laced with disbelief and desperation whispering, "Auntie Ellie is it really you?"

[aroace-boyfriend]

“dick grayson is a rich kid” “dick grayson is a cop”

you mean the dick grayson who spent the first 9ish years of his life in a traveling circus? who probably lived in a trailer? who was put in juvie for weeks after being orphaned? who was likely taught not to trust cops?

you mean the dick grayson who refused to use bruce’s money once he left the manor? who lived in a shitty apartment in Blüdhaven and worked a job to afford it? who is very independent from bruce?

you mean the dick grayson who saw firsthand the corruption in both gotham and blüdhaven’s police department? who became a vigilante to do what the cops couldn’t/wouldn’t do?

you mean the dick grayson who, after becoming a millionaire (from alfred’s inheritance), gave all of that money to charity? that dick grayson?

[abrakuxas]

Dick Grayson - King of Clubs

The Flying Grayson's poster:

[shyjusticewarrior]

Sharing some Nightwing suit lore I think about a lot.

The Nightwing suit is was inspired by John Grayson's old circus attire.

The first version of the Nightwing suit was made by a member of Haly's Circus.

When that suit was destroyed, the second (aka "discowing") was made by Alfred.

[jinjeriffic]

DCxDP - Joining Haly's

What if the Everlasting Trio joined Haly's Circus as a magic act? Sam is the Mistress of Mysteries. Danny is the Lovely Assistant who gets vanished, sawed in half, levitated etc. (genderfluid Danny in fishnets, helloooo?). Tucker is in charge of lights, pyrotechnics and other special effects. He also helps promote the Circus on social media (maybe giving promos a little "push" behind the scenes lol).

Maybe they're on the run from the GIW, or using traveling with the circus as a cover for investigating ghostly activity? Maybe "retrieving" ghostly artifacts (it's totally not stealing, nooo, that stuff belongs to the dead!) or something.

When the owner of the circus, Dick Grayson shows up to visit and check out the new acts they inadvertently end up on the Bats' radar...