TGM — Roleplayer Guild

R O B I N

Name: Richard "Dick" Grayson
Age: 16
Base of Operations: Gotham City
Years of Active Experience: 5

Attributes & Abilities:

Before his training with Batman, Dick Grayson was already exceptionally athletic, having spent his entire childhood training as a circus acrobat, as well as picking up a knack for sleight of hand, escape artistry, acting, and sneaking. Over the past five years, Dick has sharpened his mind and body to a degree he never thought possible. His strength, speed, stamina, and agility have been pushed to rival and surpass Olympic athletes. And he has extensively trained to master hand-to-hand combat, learning an extraordinarily dangerous mix of martial arts originally developed by the League of Shadows (though a decidedly less lethal version taught to him by Batman). While he is far from unbeatable or infallible, Robin's intense training and experience have made him a formidable force.

In addition to his skill and conditioning, Robin's capabilities are greatly enhanced with his gear. His suit, patterned after the Bat-suit, is a weave of Kevlar and Nomex, with a cape made of WayneTech proprietary 'Memory Cloth' that can deploy into a rigid glider or harden into an extra layer of protective armor, and hardened armor plating in the gauntlets and boots that provide added protection and allow for harder impacts in hand-to-hand combat. His boots contain advanced shock absorbers (backed by an internal exoskeleton underneath his main suit) that allow him to jump far higher than humanly possible and survive falls from several stories, so long as he lands on his feet. His mask contains infra-red sensors, telescopic capabilities up to 100x magnification, and an augmented-reality HUD that connects directly to the Bat-Computer, providing him with near-instant access to information and a powerful suite of hacking and cybersecurity tools.

While he has access to Batman's vast arsenal of crime-fighting equipment, his usual loadout consists of a pair of collapsible batons which also carry tasers for extra stopping power, a variety of Batarangs, a grapnel gun, and a copy of the famed Utility Belt. Robin's Belt typically carries smoke and flash bombs, small GPS trackers, flares, flexicuffs, lockpicks, a rebreather, a field first aid kit, and a secure flash drive.

Finally, Robin's vehicle of choice is the Red Bird, a smaller and faster variation of the Bat-Cycle. Built for extreme maneuverability at high speeds, the Red Bird has separate engines built into each of its omni-directional wheels, and a gyroscopic swiveling chassis that together allow for split-second changes of direction and make it nearly impossible to lose balance.

Character Synopsis:

Dick Grayson never had what most would call a "normal" childhood. His early life was spent traveling from city to city as part of Haly's Circus, the darling son of acrobats John and Mary Grayson. The Circus had fallen on hard times, as crowds dwindled in favor of more modern entertainment. To stay afloat, owner and ringmaster C.C. Haly had taken out exorbitant loans from the small-time gangster Tony Zucco, who pressured Haly and threatened his talent relentlessly to get back what he was owed.
 
The Grayson family, having to put their bodies through hellish physical training to perform for audiences that grew more and more apathetic every year, did the only thing they knew how to save the circus and give their son a chance at a better life: they would make him a star.

For a normal child, the regimen they put him through would have been considered cruel, even abusive, but Dick was a prodigy. He took to his exercises and his education like a duck to water, and excelled to a point that bordered on superhuman. He learned to tumble, to walk the tightrope, to swing on the flying trapeze, as well as how to perform classic Vaudevillian memory acts, solving fiendish puzzles and reciting Shakespeare while other children his age were still learning their shapes and colors. Before long the Flying Graysons had a new main attraction: the world’s youngest performing acrobat, the ‘Boy Wonder’ wowing audiences with incredible acrobatic displays by age six.

Within a few years, the novelty of Dick’s young age had worn off, but the Flying Graysons were still a major draw for the circus. So successful were the Graysons, in fact, that Haly’s Circus no longer needed to take out loans from Zucco, and C.C. Haly told the gangster as much when the tour returned to Gotham City. He planned to get out from under Zucco’s thumb and go completely legit, and the Flying Graysons were his ticket to real success. Zucco, then, decided to clip the Flying Graysons’ wings.

The worst night of Dick Grayson’s life was just after his tenth birthday, when Haly’s Circus was performing at a special fundraising event hosted by the eccentric and reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. At the climax of their performance, the Flying Graysons took to the trapeze to perform a series of death-defying aerial stunts without a net. Little did they know, however, that Tony Zucco had paid off and threatened some of the circus’s stagehands to sabotage the Graysons’ equipment. As young Dick looked on in horror, one of the cables holding his parents’ trapeze snapped, and they fell to their deaths in front of him and several thousand horrified onlookers.

That night, Dick’s childhood ended. He had no idea, however, that a whole new life was about to begin.

The very same day Dick was placed in the care of the Sofia Falcone Home for Orphans, he was adopted by the man who had hosted the event that took his parents from him: Bruce Wayne. This was immediately the center of salacious tabloid rumors—a rich powerful man, taking in a vulnerable young boy after his parents just happened to die in a terrible accident, immediately suggested unsavory things—but in truth Bruce felt responsible for what happened, and was determined to make things as right as he could for the boy. Dick was given the absolute height of luxury, allowed to run rampant through the absolute palace that was Wayne Manor, gifted with the latest toys and games and electronics, while private tutors gave him the best formal education money could buy. While Dick thought Mr. Wayne was nice enough, he was no replacement for his parents, and all the comfort and entertainment in the world couldn’t replace the hurt in his heart, or his need to make Tony Zucco pay.

At age eleven, Dick snuck out of Wayne Manor, riding into town on a dirt bike he had gotten for his birthday, and hiding a gun under his shirt. He had spent the past year doing extra homework of his own: reading everything he could find about Zucco and the Gotham City criminal underworld. He’d learned what club Zucco spent most of his nights, and planned to sneak in from the rooftop and shoot the crime boss dead. He fully expected he wouldn’t make it out of the building alive, and he was okay with that. Before he could even enter the building, however, he felt a gloved hand grab him, and everything went black.

When he came to, Dick thought for a moment that the figure looming over him was the devil himself. He quickly realized, however, that he was in even more trouble than that: the figure wasn’t the devil…it was the Batman. The feared vigilante that had brutalized Gotham’s criminals for years had caught him, and Dick was sure he was about to break every bone in his body. When the Batman spoke, however, his tone wasn’t one of a sadistic monster, but one of a concerned parent. He was outraged by the boy’s recklessness, fearful for the boy’s life, and regretful that he had neglected him. To Dick’s amazement, the Batman removed his mask, revealing himself to be none other than Bruce Wayne. While he couldn’t let Dick get himself killed in the name of revenge, he swore to offer Dick Grayson a better path: the path of justice.

The next year was a blur, as Dick was subjected to a punishing regimen that made his childhood training look like little league. He learned to fight, to move without making a sound, to run across rooftops with trivial ease. He learned how to use high-tech gadgets to overcome electronic security, to investigate crime scenes without leaving evidence behind, to tell if a person is lying before they even said a word. Bruce had never intended to let Dick get involved in active crime-fighting until the boy was at least eighteen, but when the Batman found himself captured by Tony Zucco, it was the twelve-year-old Dick Grayson who came to the vigilante’s rescue and finally brought his parents’ killer to justice.

Despite the butler Alfred’s protests, Bruce saw Dick had incredible potential not just as a protégé, but as a partner. Within a month of defeating Zucco, Dick Grayson was equipped with his own suit and arsenal of weapons, and given a new identity. Inspired by the myth of Robin Hood, Dick took the name Robin.

For the next five years, Robin would act as a force multiplier in Batman’s war on crime. Typically either working directly at Batman’s side or going solo to handle ‘light work’ where the chance for real danger was low (relatively speaking, as he still often found himself fighting armed thugs with no qualms about harming a child), Dick continued to hone his skills on the job, often working behind the scenes while Batman drew the attention of their more lethal foes. From the takedown of the Maroni crime family to the hunting and eventual capture of the savage Killer Croc, Robin’s work became instrumental in Batman’s crusade to make Gotham City safe.

When Dick was fifteen, he discovered a weakness that was as potent to him as Kryptonite was to Superman. Rumors had begun to circulate of a third masked vigilante in Gotham, this one a “Bat-Girl” operating out of the Burnside district. He tracked down this elusive and surprisingly capable new player, initially planning to talk her out of this dangerous life, but that plan shattered the instant he saw the eyes under her mask, the long red hair, the freckles on the bridge of her nose. He had met Barbara Gordon two years before at a fundraiser for her father the GCPD Commissioner, and had been smitten for her then. Now that he was a hot-blooded teenager and she was not just a fellow vigilante but a damned good one, Dick was no longer just smitten; he was hopelessly in love. The two began operating together as a duo with or without Bruce’s permission, and the ‘Bat-Family’ soon welcomed its official third member. 

Now at age sixteen, Dick’s life is growing increasingly complicated. His private life is becoming less and less private, as being the teenage heir to a billionaire’s fortune has made him a local celebrity against his will. His love life is beginning to strain, as Barbara Gordon, a year older than him, is preparing to move away for college. And more and more of Gotham City’s crime bosses and costumed super-criminals have begun to see Robin as nearly as much of a threat as the Batman himself. Some, like the enigmatic assassin Deathstroke or the Joker’s psychotic right-hand woman Harley Quinn, have begun targeting him specifically. He’s begun to feel like he’s walking a tightrope again, having to balance so many things, and every one of them threatening a hard fall if he slips.
@AndyC
Looks good, you can move it over.

April 11th, Year 1 — On Route to Volleyball Club

If the shorter girl hadn’t realized what kind of place Utsubyo was by this point, Akari wasn’t sure she would ever “get” it. 

The school wasn’t exactly derelict, but the mood of the town hung over the school like it did every other citizen no matter their age or gender. To be positive in this place… Akari used to be able to, before her father left. It was gloomy, but back then it was pretty easy to not get caught up in it. Something about being a kid with two happy parents and a large imagination. Maybe it was the stability that helped? Or maybe she was just being naive back then. It was hard to say. There was a reason that more people were like Kenzo and not so much like people like Nakano and Shimizu. From Akari's point-of-view, you either succumbed to the rain of Utsubyo or you looked for sunshine somewhere else.

“Utsubyo…” Akari contemplated out loud, “I guess it is what you see. Some people seem to find some joy in it, but we’re not exactly super competitive or worried about anybody else but ourselves. Some of the top students are just fighting for good grades so they can get out of here. I guess that goes for the sports teams, too. Look good for the universities and never look back.”

She looked over to the girl with a glance, “Your mom should've picked somewhere else for you, honestly.”

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