#spyral

[cowboysorceror]

birdwatcher + the hanged man

[batsandbirdbrains]

Okay but I want a post-Spyral fic like

The one where Nightwing flinches whenever Batman raises a hand

Dick is just always convinced that Bruce is going to hit him. That if Dick does something he doesn’t agree with, he’ll hit him to get him back in line. He gets nervous when Bruce raises his voice, in and out of costume. He rarely visits the manor, because his brothers are all mad at him anyway and think that Dick willingly faked death. They don’t even know that he actually died. They don’t understand why Dick can hardly eat solid food and why he can’t swallow pills at all anymore without having a panic attack.

The only one who wants to be around him anymore is Damian. Damian is the only one who doesn’t call him a liar, who isn’t mad at him. Damian misses him, visits him in Blüdhaven all the time, tells the others off whenever they start complaining or saying mean things about Dick.

And Dick takes Damian out for ice cream mostly when he visits, because he can let the ice cream melt on his tongue, he doesn’t have to swallow it while it’s still hard. Dick practically lives off of soup and smoothies and cereal that’s soaked in milk so long it becomes a soggy slop. Whenever he attends dinner at the manor (and it rarely happens these days, only when Damian really begs), he picks at his food and pushes it around his plate. Damian is the only one who realizes he’s not actually eating. And Alfred, of course, but Alfred knows the truth, and he just doesn’t know how to help, but he doesn’t want to draw attention to it if it will make Dick upset.

Dick relies heavily on the OG Titans, who all rally around him, because they’re the only ones Dick tells the whole story too. And none of them ever really liked Bruce all that much, they all saw the bruises Dick used to show up to the tower with after spending time with the Bat.

When Jason asks in a snarky voice why Roy is still hanging around with Dick after everything he did, Roy shuts it down quick.

“He’s my friend,” Roy says defensively. “And I know how shitty of a dad Bruce is, so I won’t buy into whatever story he told the rest of you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jason demands.

“Why don’t you ask Dick yourself?”

Jason forgot that Roy was Dick’s friend first, that they have a whole history Jason will never know the entirety of. But calling Bruce a shitty dad? He knew the OG Titans didn’t like Batman, but he never knew the full reason why. He’d never really asked. Maybe it was time to.

And maybe he and Tim show up to Dick’s apartment unannounced one day, but Dick is having a bad day. He’s been having a few bad days, and Donna has been staying with him because the others are all worried about him. And they find their brother practically catatonic on the floor of his apartment living room being held tightly by Donna, who’s rocking him and whispering stories in his ear from when they were young and reckless and ridiculous. Garth is in the kitchen making soup, because they all know Dick won’t eat anything else right now, if he’ll be able to keep anything down at all. Roy and Wally aren’t there, the boys all take turns staying with Donna in shifts. They try to get Donna in on the rotation, but she refuses to leave Dick’s side until he’s better.

“Get out,” she hisses at them quietly, glaring at them as they stand in the doorway. “He’s in no mood to see you right now.”

“What right do you have-”

“We’re the Wonder Twins, remember?” she asks, her voice full of snark. “I have every right.”

Garth turns the stove down and covers the pot, then goes to escort them out of the building.

“He’s having an episode,” he tells them gently. “He wouldn’t want you to see him like that.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Tim asks.

“That’s for him to decide if he wants to tell you, not me. Just go home. Please.” But before they leave, Garth gives them a hard look. “But you’ve given him nothing but grief since he came back. Don’t expect him to open up right away.”

“He lied to us!”

“Did he?” Garth asks them, and it makes them both falter. “Or did someone else lie about him to you?”

The two look at each other before turning back to Garth, who rolls his eyes.

“There’s a reason the original Titans could never stand Batman,” Garth tells them, letting out a huff of a laugh. “Maybe start there.”

What happens after that? No idea! I just like the angst of it all.

[faikazahaya]

DP x DC Prompt: Dick and Damian adopted by the Fentons

TW: blood

Dp x dc is filled to the brim of fics about Danny needing to flee Amity Park, going to Gotham and gets integrated into the Batfam in the process.

How about we do the opposite?

Similar to Maddie and Jack Fenton, Bruce Wayne is constantly an abusive a--hole in canon.

Case in point: the Spyral era.

For those of you not familiar with Spyral, it essentially was an organization that used hypnotism and hallucinations in a criminal organization. Dick Grayson went "undercover" to figure them out etc etc.

Now note the quotation marks. Because "undercover" only applied to the people in Spyral themselves. Everyone else---Dick's friends and family (sans Batman, because ofc)? They thought Dick was DEAD.

You see, Dick was tortured and died for a short while. When he was revived it was only him and Bruce in the Batcave. And Bruce was like: this is the perfect opportunity for you to go undercover to check out this shady org.

Dick was, understandably, NOT about that life. Everyone but Bruce thought he was dead! He wasn't about to do that to his family!

Then Bruce. Beats Dick into the ground until he agreed to go undercover.

Just literally. Beat his son bloody. For a mission.

Dick was finally "convinced" to go undercover and goes through all of the Spyral nonsense. But he tells B before he leaves, quite clearly, that things will never be the same between him and Bruce bc of this. Understandably.

So. Long rant later, Dick Grayson is recovering from the trauma that was all of that BS. His family and friends are distant, because they're convinced it was HIS fault that he didn't tell them he was alive and went AWOL. And of course he doesn't tell them the real reason why, just shoulders the blame (as always, my poor traumatized baby).

And Dick learns when he returns (in fanon, not canon btw) that Bruce brought Damian back to life using an Apokolips shard! And didn't tell Dick! (Bc Dick 100% would have dropped everything to see his brother (*cough* son *cough*).

Now Damian, he's a smart cookie. He knows his brother (*cough* Baba *cough*). After his initial feelings of betrayal, he thinks on it again. Something about the whole thing isn't adding up. Dick would never put himself through all of that without backup (bc Bruce LOST HIS MEMORIES while Dick was undercover, meaning Dick was basically stranded) unless something made him. So Damian, he goes digging.

And boy, when he finally finds the footage (bc Bruce doesn't delete anything, ever. It was hidden behind several layers of encryption), he is ANGRY. More than angry, HOMICIDAL.

He wants nothing more than to tear his father a new one. Gut him, string him up by his ankles, name him feel even a fraction of the pain he put Dick through. But before he can put his plan into action, he gets a notification on his phone. It's his twin brother, Danyal al Ghul, now known as Daniel (call me Danny!) Fenton (you thought I forgot that this was dp x dc, didn't you?)

Now, some background for this idea: Danny reached out to Damian shortly after learning Damian joined the Wayne household. They had been seperated at age 8 when Danny "died", so Damian had not known that Danny was alive and moved to the states by Talia.

But Danny wasn't looking to join the Wayne's. He was happy with the Fenton family.  And so he asked Damian to remain a secret from the Wayne's. Which Damian agreed to on the condition that Danny keep in contact with his brother. And like that, years passed. (In this AU, we can make Danny and Damian 14/15 or have the portal accident happen sooner.)

The text Danny had sent was itself inconsequential. A meme of a cat that he thought Damian would like. But it forced Damian to pause long enough to think.

Batman could be scolded to hell and back, but it would ultimately change nothing. His father was too stubborn to see beyond what benefitted the Mission. It was what made him such a great hero...but it was also what made him a terrible father.

The truth was, Dick had been hurt and betrayed. Badly. Irreparably. And instead of supporting him, his friends and family had all but abandoned him because of incorrect notions about what had happened.

It was no wonder Dick had moved back to Bludhaven so quickly.

Damian needed to fix this.

So after making some arrangements (and sending the footage to Oracle), Damian let's himself into Dick's apartment in Bludhaven.

Essentially he's like: I saw what Father did, you do not deserve this, we are going to Illinois to live with my twin and his family.

And while Dick is all ????twin???? Damian drags him by the ear to Damian's hijacked car and and they go on a road trip to Illinois.

For all the Fenton parents' faults, they love their adopted son Danny. And his clone Ellie. And his other clone Dan. So when Danny mentions a twin and his older brother coming to live with them? Maddie and Jack are ecstatic.

Less so when Danny mentions making signal jammers bc they'll likely be tracked down by their billionaire fruitloop father who hit the eldest.

They go on a frenzy repurposing retired ghost weapons into Anti-Bat tech. So by the time Dick and Damian set foot in the OSHA violation that is FentonWorks, they're stunned by the immediate tour they get off all of the safeties the Fentons were working on to make things as "safe" as possible for them.

That's the extent of my idea so far! But I don't imagine the Batfam learning about what B did plus Damian running them away will go over well for Batman in particular.

Not to mention how Dick's friends will react to the news. I imagine some new familiar faces will be joining them in Amity fairly shortly, at least to visit and cause some chaos and hug Dick tight like he deserves!

Also, Dick really just needs guardian figures in his life that are emotionally available and gives out hugs and affection like candy (Damian would benefit too, tbh, though he be all scowly about it.)

[three-semicolons]

Okay the Grayson run has officially made Damian my second favorite Bat Family member and I’m not even sorry.

I knew the gist of the Spyral reunion from fandom stuff, but reading the pages and seeing the illustrations really homed in what a G Damian was.

Like, compare the reunions:

1.) Jason and Tim

The whole third page is some Eldest Daughter shit. And I can’t get too mad at either brother for their reaction (unlike #2) since Dick frames his entry into Spyral as a mutual decision, but their deflections at his attempts to explain really are rough. At the very beginning, it seems like he’s trying to elaborate, but they just fucking shut him down.

Again, not mad at them, because it’s a fucked situation all around and their actions aren’t too extreme given what they know, but the Bats of all people should know how rare it is for a story to be simple. They probably should have been able to try to understand what was going on a little better instead of defaulting to “you’re supposed to be better than Batman” and refusing to budge further. Like, YES DUDE. YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK. THIS IS SOMETHING ONLY BRUCE WOULD DO, NOT DICK. MAYBE QUESTION THAT A BIT? MAYBE SEE THAT DICK IS TRYING TO TELL YOU THAT BRUCE DID DO IT????

2.) Barbara

Okay, I am actually pissed about this one. Because unlike when Dick approached his brothers and framed the decision between him and Bruce as mutual, he explicitly tells Barbara here that he didn’t want to go. And she still has the gall to call him an endless disappointment. Fuck that.

I’ve read too much of Taylor and Dixon to hate her solely for this, but it’s a bad character moment to be sure.

3.) Damian

What is there to say? They both see each other unexpectedly alive, and the first instinct isn’t to fight or to get angry. It’s to hug. I damn near cried reaching this, especially after making it through the first two groups’ reactions.

Damian was right. They really are the best.

[celaenaeiln]

Dick Grayson's talent for manipulation literally brings the world to its knees.

Part 1 post

My absolute favorite trait about Dick aside from his craziness is his ability to control every single person in existence. The best part is, he's so clever in the way that he does it that people almost never notice.

Bart Allen

"Oh! Ahh..you're trying to get my DNA sample. You need my spit! Ha! That's such a Dick Grayson thing to do."

Bart knows!! Dick's brilliantly sly okay. Honey catches more flies that vinegar? He takes it so far that breaks he the ceiling with it because by the time he's done, people don't even know they've been manipulated. And if they do, then what can they do about it? He always wins.

With friends and family he does it to make them feel better without being so overt and discomforting them.

Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis

Jon came to him when he was feeling lost and upset and Dick set up the perfect conditions to encourage him and pick him up. He's just so good at doing what he's doing but he does it for all the right reasons.

But the extent Dick can go trick and manipulate someone is off the charts. A virtuoso.

In a Titans comic, Dick literally spent MONTHS acting depressed and weak after Donna, Wally, and Garth were kidnapped to another dimension by a villain just so he could trick the villain into thinking that his career was over and bring him into the same dimension so Dick could take him down.

He fooled everyone.

Teen Titans: The Silver Age TBP 2 Part #1

"Batman taught me how to be a totally convincing actor! So if the only way you could send me here with your ring was if I filled my brain with evil thoughts, I just faked it! My facial expression was pure evil-but my mind remained pure good." MONTHS.

He planned, pretended, and calculated every single fiber of his own mind and body until the whole world was fooled by his acting. He tricked an interdimensional being who had psychic access. That means he was so extraordinarily manipulative, he can control his own thoughts inside his head to trick someone else. Voldemort's legilimens has nothing on Dick's talent.

Like Bart, sometimes his allies are aware of this like with Selina-

Gotham City Sirens Issue #23

Selina's literally having a mental breakdown trying not to fall for Dick's manipulation and tricks.

But even if they know he's manipulating them, they still are forced to fall for it anyway.

Gotham City Sirens Issue #23

"Damn it."

Like a goldilocks mad scientist - he does it just right.

His acting is just so on point that he outschemes the schemer.

When the Crime Syndicate (Superwoman, Ultraman, Owlman, Power ring, etc) arrive on Earth to take it over when Dick is Batman, Dick needs to do something fast. But to make things worse, there's a being that's so powerful, that both the Crime Syndicate and Justice League combined have a snowball's chance in hell of defeating him.

So what does Dick do? He runs the game.

Justice League of America (2006) Issue #52

Justice League of America (2006) Issue #52

"Of course he had a plan the whole time. He's Batman. He always has a plan."

Justice League of America (2006) Issue #52

He tricks everyone.

Justice League of America (2006) Issue #52

And in the end, the Justice League wins and Dick saves the world.

Justice League of America (2006) Issue #52

I love how they characterized Owlman as a snake because that would make Dick a mongoose since mongoose eats snakes. And do you know what Mongoose represent in folklore? Action, adventure, boldness, fearlessness, impulsiveness, independence, optimism, rebellion, resistance, resourcefulness, speed, adaptation, agility, quickness, intelligence and wit. All characteristics that define him.

He plays the world like a chessboard, always five steps ahead.

He always has an ace hidden up his sleeve.

His thoughts are always masked behind a disarming smile.

He has mastered the art of manipulation.

And that's while he's outright fighting. His subtlety is just so seductive.

Take a look at the way he smoothly evades answering in this panel -

Grayson Issue #9

He's so smooth. She's constantly on the watch but she instantly fell head over heels for his charms in a half a heartbeat, that's just how good he is.

Grayson Issue #10

He's a master manipulator who knows exactly what to say and how to act to always end up winning.

It's seriously such a shame that one of his greatest skills and talents isn't talked about more because this man?! Flawless.

He's the spy everyone on TV wishes they could be. He's the type of spy people read about in history books and marvel at the ease, grace, and legendary story he leaves behind. He's the spy that everyone knows and dreams of in their fantasies.

Nightwing (2016)

And oh how they so are.

He can just get people to do whatever he wants.

There's a reason why Batman's only contingency plan against Nightwing is "Let's hope he fucks up." Because with his intelligence, skill, power, charisma, and raw talent - he's goddamn unstoppable.

[dickgraysonweek]

Welcome to Dick Grayson Anniversary Week 2026! From April 6th to 12th, we’ll be celebrating 86 YEARS OF DICK GRAYSON 🐦 with the following amazing prompts you voted for:

💙 DICK GRAYSON ANNIVERSARY WEEK 2026 PROMPTS 💙

Day 1: Identity Porn | Batfam vs Spyral Crew vs Titans | Court of Owls Day 2: Royalty AU | Dick Adopts Damian | The Heart of the DCU Day 3: Circus | Dick & Damian & Stephanie as Dynamic Trio | Wings Day 4: Touch-Starved | Haley as a Service Dog | First Responder AU Day 5: Underestimated | Reverse Robins!Dick | “I like being tied up!” Day 6: Earth-Two/Earth 2 | Unplanned Baby Acquisition | Undercover Day 7: Canon Divergence | A Celebration of 86 Years | Hallucinations

‘A Celebration of 86 Years’ is the free prompt. You have 3 months to create your works. 🥁

🤺OPTIONAL EXTRA CHALLENGE🤺

Eldest Daughter Syndrome

A few words from the bingo blackout winner: While Dick is a decidedly male character despite some feminine or androgenous traits in canon, fandom has been treating him as the eldest daughter since at least Battle for the Cowl by putting him under emotional pressure, high expectations, and making him responsibile for any bad actions perpetuated by other male characters. If Dick does not meet impossible standards, he is infantilized and vilified. I'm challenging my fellow participants to instead showcase the resilience and strength Dick has in common with the eldest daughters of the DC Universe.

The optional extra challenge can be used throughout the 2026 event.

18+ and interested in discussing Dick Grayson? Join the Green Booty Shorts Discord Server.

[hornithology]

I think Grayson would make an incredibly good 10 ep TV series but only if they leaned into making it extremely trippy. use Spyral's hypnos technology to mess with the viewer and create a 'who is who' mystery. it's only revealed that Agent 37 is Dick Grayson episode 3 and all of a sudden you're like "why is 37 talking to Bruce Wayne? is Batman in this universe?" 50/50 campy spy action and psychological thriller, culminating in a narrative arc about how Dick is using his funny persona to cope with extreme trauma. themes of perception and persona. aesthetically, it would draw on 70s/80s spy chic, flamboyant colors, music videos. lots of eye candy objectification of Grayson but then make it about his sexual trauma in the finale. strong first person narration where Grayson tells you he's everyone, he's no one, he's whoever you want him to be.

[mysticblizzardkitty-phm]

Combining my two main fandoms here ^^